Like many people in America, I’m trying to get in shape.  I’ve been a member for a while at one of those big gym chains.  One of the problems I have is that I don’t know exactly which exercises to do to accomplish my goals.  I would love to hire a personal trainer, but the cost is simply out of my budget.

With that in mind, I checked if the App Store had any solutions to my problems.  Actually, it offered several, but I was drawn to the iPump family of applications from Pump One.  They have several versions of their application depending on the sort of workout you’d prefer and, as far as I can tell, they each have the same learning structure.  For my objectives I chose the Fat Burn and the Total Body.  Each is sold at the price of $2.99.

The iPump applications have three parts to them: 

WORKOUT, which gives demonstrations of various levels of workout through picture and video.  This is the main part of the application.

LOG, which tracks your workouts through the number of times you scroll through their exercise regimes (some require a manual input).  Of course, the system relies on user honesty, but there is only so much a PDA can do.

INSPIRE, which composes e-mails to supposedly send to your friends hocking iPump’s merchandise.   I’m not that keen on this feature because using it knocks you out of the iPump application and into e-mail, but it only occurs when you click it so I’ll just leave it with a warning that says “can be ignored”.

One of the nice features of the iPump applications is that they assume you’ll be listening to music while exercising and allow for that, provided you don’t run the video examples of each exercise, which stops the music.  There is no clear instruction on switching the music back on without stopping the program.

While the instruction for the exercises within the iPump applications is clear and straightforward, I found the exercises themselves to be somewhat generic.  A possible improvement that could be made in future generations of the program could be the modification of exercise regimes depending on goals.

The program also allows you to either work out at the gym or at home (most of the exercises don’t require much in the way of gym equipment).   A problem with this could be the need for a Wi-Fi or cellular connection in order to see the videos.  While I realize that pre-loading the videos onto the unit would be an enormous resource hog, it seems unlikely that one’s gym is going to provide a Wi-Fi connection (obviously, this is not an issue if you’re using an iPhone data plan).  Nor is it likely you’ll want to interrupt your exercises in order to watch the video.  The videos are best used for exercising at home.

The iPump applications are good for those without knowledge of basic exercise techniques and require the structure of pre-determined workouts without the cost of an instructor.  If used alongside a program for a balanced diet (there are a myriad of free ones available on iTunes such as Calorie Tracker and Meal Diary), then you may have a winning combination towards a health lifestyle.
 

If you use the powerful web-based task management system Toodledo you have two iPhone/iPod Touch app otions.

There is Appigo’s ToDo (it works with Remember The Milk also) and there is the Toodledo app directly from the good folks at Toodledo.com.

Toodledo is the newer (just released a few weeks ago) and the less expensive ($3.99 vs $9.99) of the two. It is also the less mature and (less) fully-featured of the two. Toodledo’s rapid update cycle thus-far suggests it will catch up pretty quickly, however.

I happen to like Toodledo a lot and think that, at $3.99 it is a pretty good deal. (Although Remember The Milk isn’t charging a thing for THEIR app.) This update makes it even better.

Included in this update…

Its been a while since we showed Pandora any love but finally there is an update to one of my favorite iPhone apps!

This it isn’t a major release but, hey, the fact that there is any release at all is nice since it means Pandora is still alive and kicking and, for now, moving forward (even if it is a small step this time).

This update brings some improved phone call handling and station synchronization. (It is always nice to see apps that already work well find ways to improve speed and stability.)

The update does add one welcome feature- genre stations.  You can now create a station based on genre and add it  to your station list. It is a nice way to get back to a more random musical offering instead of your self-created (and often narrow) stations.

Pandora is available HERE in the App store for free!

The video of Google’s upcoming voice-search app grabbed my attention yesterday.

Think about it- being able to initiate a Google search by simply saying "search iPhone application review sites" and having Google return… "www.whatsoniphone.com" is nothing short of amazing!

Think about it- being able to say "Starbucks Coffee near me" and having Google show Starbucks coffee shops in the area and then map your way to them.

Think about it… then keep thinking because that may be all we get to do- at least for now. I noticed that the app, which was supposed to show up in the App Store yesterday, still hasn’t. (Beleive me… I’ve checked… a lot.) Now 9to5mac has a post reporting that the demonstration video, which we linked on the site, is down. 

What does it mean?

I love seeing new apps appear in the App Store. Sure, I only have an interest in a small percentage of the ones that appear daily, but every now and then there is a new app that makes me go "Wow!"

As much fun at that is, though, what is even more fun these days is seeing my favorite apps get incremental updates that add new features, increase speed and stability and, little by little, make my iPhone an even more powerful device.

Things had been quiet on both fronts lately but in the last day or so a number of my favorites received updates yet again. While none of them are earth shattering, it is nice to see good apps getting even better.

Among the recent updates…