Smokers are twice as likely to succeed in quitting if they receive supportive text messages, British researchers have found. The study, published June 30 online in the British medical journal The Lancet, followed 5,800 smokers as they attempted to quit.

Only 10.7% of smokers receiving messages were still abstaining at six months, but that rate is still double the quit rate of those who didn’t receive the motivational messages.

One group in the study was sent motivational text messages, while another group received “placebo texts” thanking them for participating in the study.

Six months after trying to quit smoking, the participants underwent testing for cotinine, a substance found in nicotine. Those who had received the motivational texts were twice as likely to still be smoke-free.

Smokers received five texts a day for the first five weeks and three a week for 26 weeks after that. “TXT2STOP: think you’ll put on weight when you quit? We’re here to help – We’ll TXT weight control and exercise tips, recipes and motivation tips,” one of the messages reads.

Smokers also could text for help during cravings or relapses and would receive tips for dealing with cravings or motivation to keep going despite a relapse.

Caroline Free, lead researcher on the study from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, says smokers reported that the text messages helped them through the difficulty of stopping smoking. “It made them feel less isolated while they tried to quit,” she says.

For a small group of smokers, the texts became unhelpful after awhile, Free says, because the messages reminded them of smoking.

“There’s no one form of support that will work for everyone,” Free says.

Smokers were encouraged to get all the support they could during the study and were allowed to use any other quitting service they wanted. About 40% of smokers used other services in addition to receiving texts, Free says.

Free says increased personalization and interactivity could make the text-message program even more effective. In the USA, about one in five adults still smoke.

Quick tips from ex-smoker Patrick Reynolds of Foundation for a Smokefree America:

•Seek support. Smokers should connect with quitters or seek expert advice.

•Try tools. Engaging in programs and using other cessation tools triples success rate.

•Think individually. Many free resources can be accessed online. At 1-800-QUIT NOW, coaches will custom-craft a program for each caller.

Via usatoday.com

Stop smoking with the I Can Quit! application!

Quitting smoking is hard. Nobody says it’s easy. Get as much support as you can with I Can Quit! Scheduled motivational text messages will help you focus on why you’re quitting and promote healthy willpower within you!

According to a British study highlighted in USAToday, smokers are twice as likely to succeed in quitting when they had scheduled motivational text messages sent to them. After six months, 10.7% of smokers were still smoke-free, which is double the amount of those who did not receive motivational text messages during that period.

Smokers don’t have to be alone anymore. I Can Quit! will be the support they need to stop smoking for their health and for their family.

Features:

• Encouraging messages of support, sent to your phone, at the times you need them (send one or randomly)

• Customize Messages, unlimited number (what is it that you want to be told? ( ex: You can do it! I’m proud of you!)

• Host the App on your phone, send the messages to your spouse or other supported loved-one

According to the CDC, among current U.S. smokers, reports indicate 70% want to quit completely. In 2008, an estimated 48 billion adults were former smokers. Quitting smoking decreases the risk for stroke, coronary heart diseases, and cancers in the lungs,and mouth.

The first step towards a healthier life without nicotine is to download this mobile application.

Download: 

Doctors often tell us we need to cut back on foods that are high is sugar, cholesterol, and sodium. Then we need to figure out what foods we can eat, that are low in those areas. NutriHiLo lists all the foods you can eat, with not just one criteria of nutrient, but several, narrowing down your choices as you add more nutrients you’re looking for.

The app is also educational. Tap on the nutrients button and you are given a glossary of nutrients and details on how they affect your body.

We found the app easy to use, and a good app to keep on your phone to take out while you’re at a restaurant or grocery shopping. It is also good for helping friends and family figure out what foods they should eat or stay away from. We would like to see a way to save foods we’ve searched into a list of good foods to eat and foods to stay away from. That way, we won’t have to search through the criterias everytime we use it.

The app currently for sale on iTunes at 0.99 which is well worth the ease of access to a healthy diet.

Download: iTunes

With Ford’s expertise being on making vehicles, it is tapping the resources of medical device maker Medtronic, mobile health vendor WellDoc, and health analytics provider SDI Health, according to a featureon ComputerWorld. Ford is using its factory-installed, in-car communications and entertainment system SYNC technology. The Bluetooth connectivity, voice control and cloud-based services of the Ford SYNC system was developed with Microsoft.

According to Paul Mascarenas, chief technology officer at Ford’s Research and Innovation division, “Ford SYNC is well known in the industry and with consumers as a successful in-car infotainment system, but we want to broaden the paradigm, transforming SYNC into a tool that can also help improve people’s lives as well as the driving experience.”

In the early stages, Ford is focusing on two health concerns — diabetes and asthma or allergies. According to data from the American Diabetes Association, almost 26 million adults and children in the U.S. have diabetes. According to data from the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, about 60 million Americans have asthma or allergies.

Ford is looking into developing other health and wellness technologies related to heart rate, relaxation and stress reduction.

Via mobitary.com

FEATURES

BabyBump is a comprehensive pregnancy app that keeps soon-to-be parents informed about their pregnancy progress and enables tracking and sharing the experience with family and friends.

PREGNANCY FORUMS
✔ Meet other parents from around the world
✔ Fast and customizable forums

COUNTDOWN
✔ Countdown widget
✔ Enter due date or calculate from Last Menstrual Period (LMP)
✔ Beautiful progress bar showing time remaining until delivery
✔ Weeks and days remaining and trimester information
✔ Personalize your countdown screen with a profile photo

DAILY AND WEEKLY INFO & IMAGES
✔ Schematic embryo picture of your baby each week
✔ Weekly details about your baby’s size and weight and development
✔ Common symptoms, cravings, and bodily changes you can expect to experience each week

JOURNAL / WEIGHT TRACKING
✔ Track daily weight/waist measurements
✔ International: use lb/kg or in/cm or a mix
✔ Daily tracking of mood, energy, appetite, cravings, morning sickness, and other notes
✔ Calendar view with icons

GRAPHICAL CHARTS
✔ Multi-colored charts of weight/waist by week
✔ Automatically calculates estimated weight gain for each week based on your pre-pregnancy BMI
✔ Graph of low/high estimated weight against your actual weight for each week

CONTRACTION TRACKER
✔ Track contractions with a large Start/Stop button
✔ Records start time, end time, duration, and interval/frequency
✔ Can delete individual contractions
✔ Averages contraction duration and interval/frequency and calculates your Stage of Labor
✔ Remembers your active contraction session if the app is exited
✔ Enter Notes about each contraction
✔ Email complete details of your contractions

KICK COUNTER
✔ Large buttons to start kick counting and record kicks
✔ Automatically stops kick session when time runs out or after 10 kicks
✔ Remembers your kick session if the app is exited
✔ Email kick sessions to your doula or doc

PHOTOS
✔ Add photos of your pregnancy from your camera or library
✔ View your photos in a swipe-able slideshow format
✔ Email photos or save them to your library

BABY NAMER
✔ Searchable database of over 24,000 BABY NAMES with gender, origin, and meaning
✔ Browse by by origin, popularity, meaning, and beginning and ending sounds
✔ Keep a favorite list of boy and girl names
✔ Email your list of favorites to friends or family members

BIRTH
✔ Watch a birth video
✔ Create a birth plan for the big day
✔ Keep a checklist of Newborn Essentials

Download: Android, iTunes

Track your sport in real time and challenge your friends using the built-in GPS.

Your trainer for running, cycling, walking etc:
This is the PRO version of the free Endomondo Sports Tracker – your personal coach when doing sports.

PRO features
•Beat yourself: Set a previous workout as your target and the audio coach will help you perform better this time
•Time goal: Set a time goal and let the audio coach help you reach it
•Low Power Mode: Increases battery standby time

Free features
•Real time GPS tracking of time, distance, speed, & calories
•Audio feedback for every mile or km
•Real time peptalks from friends following you live
•Workout route on a map
•History with lap times & music
•Works with Polar Wearlink® + transmitter with Bluetooth® and Zephyr heart rate monitor
•Support for ANT+ Bike Speed&Cadence and heart rate monitor sensors
•Beat a friend: Go against a friend’s personal best
•Compete on a route: Download a route and beat the Champion
•Friend list (NEW)
•Share on Facebook (NEW)
•Manual entry: Enter a workout manually
•Auto pause
•Customizable workout screen
•Headset control: Use the headset media button to get audio feedback and pause/resume a workout (wired headset & Android 2.2+)
•Sign up with facebook.

NOTE; we are asking for permissions to access your personal information and read contacts. We ask for this to make you able to connect with your friends, challenge them and follow them directly on your phone. We will read names and email addresses from your contacts ONLY if you actively choose to do so within the app.

Optional profile at Endomondo.com for analysis, statistics, challenges and social sharing.

Download: Android, iTunes

★ Highest Rated Diet Planner app in the Android Market! ★

Get healthy diet plans, advanced weight tracker and progress charts all in one app!

Personal Diets is a successful dieting tool for people who want to improve their eating habits and carry out a healthy lifestyle.

Features:
• Healthy choices of diet food with the right combination
• Personalized diet plans to suit your needs, taste and preferences
• Shopping / Grocery list (Press Menu -> Shopping List on “My Diet”)
• Works as your personal dietitian / nutritionist
• Nutrition facts
• Weight-loss manager & tracker (kilograms, pounds or stones)
• Built-in BMI (Body Mass Index) calculator
• Profile – set goals using your age, gender and activity level
• Personal pocket-size weight-loss manager
• Sleek, intuitive and simple to use user interface
• Weight Chart / Graph
• Home screen widget
• Customizable alerts
• Diet and weight-loss tips / tricks
• Excellent dieting tool on the go
• Database backup & restore
• Suitable for the whole family
• Much more!

Diet categories include:
• Vegetarian
• Pescetarian
• Low GI
• High protein
• Food combining
• Healthy & rich in food varieties

** Over Half a Million satisfied users on more than 180 countries! **

USER REVIEWS:
• “Absolutely amazing!! This app is so well done. I have been looking for an app that wasn’t just about weight loss but about getting healthy. Found it!!”
• “Excellent app! I use it to manage my diet & weight and pair the app with myfitnesspal to count the daily calories. Works nicely”
• “Best dieting tool out there. Love it!”
• “Helps me stay in control of my weight as well as providing diet choices and recipes”
• “This app makes dieting very easy. One thing I truly love is that you can go in, check your next meal and log a new weigh in less than a minute!”
• “Lot of nice diet plans to choose from. I’m combining this app with adidas miCoach for better results!”
• “Fantastic app! Great diets to choose from, clean interface and weight tracking.”
• “The shopping list is so useful! Liked the improvements”
• “Great app for dieters, very easy to use and well organized. Worth getting the ad-free version”
• “Excellent dieting app, even the tips are great. Use every day…”
• “This actually works! Not only I lost weight but I even feel better. Thank you so much!!”

Accessing the app’s settings:
- Press “Menu” from its main screen
- Select “Preferences”

How to use the widget:
- Press the “Home” key on your android device
- Press “Menu” -> “Add” and select “Widget”
- Browse through the alphabetical list and choose “Personal Diets”

The widget is available “as a trial” for free for 7 days after you add it to your homescreen. After that you will have to upgrade to the Pro version to continue using it.

The recipes displayed on the app are to be used as a guidance only.

Dieting is best achieve if combined with a daily workout and any kind of exercises, even just walking or yoga.

Food logging is coming soon!

Download: Android

Make your mood! Find sleep and relaxation easier with Lightning Bug, a simple but powerful ambience and white noise mixer for Android powered devices. Lightning Bug contains a growing library of sound loops and samples ranging from the natural peace of rain storms and ocean waves, to pure white noise, city trains, meditation bells, acoustic and electronic instruments, and down-tempo break beats.

Lightning Bug doesn’t just play simple, repetitious audio loops. Lightning Bug uses a customizable engine to play harmonized sound samples in random patterns. You never have to hear the same thing twice!

Lightning Bug also includes many soothing backgrounds and sound visualizations. It even has a stylish, customizable digital clock with alarm, a great replacement for your bedside alarm clock!

Features

- Growing library of sound samples and loops engineered exclusive for Lightning Bug
- Growing library of soothing backgrounds and sound visualizations
- Control each sound’s volume (long press the sound’s icon)
- New Plugin-Mode for adding lot’s of high quality new content (look for the puzzle piece!)
- Control each sample sound’s playback frequency (plugin-mode only)
- Customize each scene with whatever sounds you want (plugin-mode only)
- Digital Clock, customize font, color, screen size, and date\time format
- Alarm Clock with customizable Snooze
- Sleep Timer w\ App Shutdown
- Screen Dimmer
- Screen Timeout
- Supports All Screen Orientations (except upside down)
- Disable Device Button Lights
- GREAT USER SUPPORT!

Download: Android

Have you been on a hike and were curious how far you gone, or have been curious how far you went on that jog? With Runtracker wondering will be a thing of the past.

Know your exact mileage with Runtracker by clicking an easy-to-use button. Store your mileage and directions to save that awesome route you went on, or try to increase your mileage when running.

Watch your improvement on Runtracker when you store your mileage by being sent an email from your phone.

Runtracker makes it easy for you to share your running routes, mileage and improvement to all of your friends by a simple push of a button.

** To receive the free updated version please register. The updated version will include timestamps when starting a run, and also calculate mileage to the 10th decimal.

Download: Android