The iPhone Mom

I purchased this last month for my kids’ bathtub. Our bath toys are a sorry collection and I finally went through and purged some of the sadder toys. We’ve been storing them in a plastic ice cream bucket for years and I was finally ready for a storage upgrade. Can you do anything but upgrade when you’ve been using an ice cream bucket? I found this Super Scooper Turtle online and thought it would work well for us. I ended up buying ours from Walmart because I got impatient and didn’t want to wait for shipping.

There is a mount that you attach to your bathtub with adhesive that comes with the turtle. I made sure to wait the total amount of time the instructions recommended before I hooked the turtle to the wall.  My kids use the turtle to scoop up their toys and then they hang him back up. The water all drains out and the toys stay in one place. So far there’s been no problem with the turtle falling off the wall. The toys are getting picked up, they’re drying off and I  don’t miss that bucket at all.

*Update 5/23/10 – About six weeks ago our turtle fell off the shower wall. I keep meaning to pick up new adhesives to try but I haven’t yet. I’m disappointed because the bath toys are once again all over the tub.

The Moms with Apps Group has begun sponsoring “App Friday” over at their website. It’s a link exchange that features family friendly apps and could be a great way to get some ideas for your iPhone/iPod Touch. They’d like to get as many contributors as possible so they’re asking visitors to tweet the weekly link (#appfriday) or share using Facebook.

FoodEssentials Scanner is the best app that I’ve seen for those suffering from food allergies and intolerances. It allows you to scan the barcode of a food product and it will then display all sorts of information about the food. You get your nutrient information (calories, fats, sodium, etc.) but you also get information about allergens and additives. The app will pull up the possible allergens and flag them as not listed, possible and listed. You can tap on the allergen and find out exactly what ingredient is the culprit. The same is true for the additive list. There’s no need to scan the label on your food and then search for the five syllable ingredient or additive on your own. The app does it for you. If you’d rather not use the barcode you can also search by product name. The same label information will be displayed.

When FoodEssentials finds your food it also pulls up products in the same category. I asked the developer how they choose these products and as of right now they’re pulled up in no particular order. They’re working on enabling sorting of these screens so you can see the most popular products first. That will be a nice improvement. You can flick between these screens to compare what’s in each one and this will be very useful when you can narrow the screens down to foods that are really similar. You can also scan in similar products and then shake your phone. Now all the similar products that you’ve scanned will show up on screens that you can access with that sideways swipe. This is a great way to compare what’s in different breads, cereals, ice creams, you get the idea. The app also saves everything you’ve scanned or searched for in a list.

Now here’s the part that I thought was pretty darn fantastic about this app. You have the ability to customize what you see on the labels it pulls up. You can go through each section – nutrients, allergens, additives – and turn on/off what you’d like to see. For example in my house we’ve got some dairy issues and I’d absolutely make sure that was turned on to show up. But we never eat fish and I don’t need to see that allergy so I turned it off. I think it’s terrific that you can expand (or condense) the list of what you see.

According to the FoodEssentials website a big update is coming around March 29th. They’ll be doubling the list of products and will soon be adding additional allergies.  The update should also give you the ability to select an ingredient (from more than 30,000) and make it a custom ingredient that will show up on your labels. I’ve been told that the success rate (accuracy) of the scanning is going to jump with the next update which will be fantastic.

I have a few reasons that this app is going to be a big help for me. First for my baby. I’ve mentioned before that we’ve been dealing with acid reflux and food intolerances pretty much since the day she was born. We’ve got the acid issues handled but the reflux is still out of control some days.  We’ve begun venturing into the world of baby foods but it’s slow going and we’re still on elemental formula and cereal plus a limited number of other foods. We try a new food and then cross our fingers that it’s not going to end up on the intolerant list. She usually lets us know it’s a no go when she has a big reflux flair up the next day. I’m hoping (really hoping!) that the day is coming where we can begin to try regular baby cereal and some other things. But realistically I know we’ll be dealing with her food issues for some time to come. FoodEssentials is going to be a huge help when I get the G.I’s green light to start introducing “normal” food. Especially when the new allergies and ingredients are added to the app. I’ll be able to find out (while I’m in the store) if something is safe for her or not. My second reason is personal. I’m one of those lucky (oh so lucky!) people who get migraines. It seems like I’m constantly learning about my triggers but I know with certainty that several additives/ingredients are guaranteed to make my head explode. I would love to see some sort of migraine trigger list incorporated into the app. At the very least I am hoping that MSG and aspartame make the 30,000+ ingredient list.

Sorry for the lengthy diatribe, I probably just shared much more than you’d want to know about my family’s issues. Especially all that talk about baby spit up. Right now FoodEssentials costs $4.99 and that covers a one year subscription to the app. Personally, I think the ease of use and the straightforward way the information is presented would make the price worth it for me. The updates that I’m hearing about are really going to set this app apart and I’m excited to see where it goes next.

*I really only touched on the allergy prevention potential of the app. If you’re concerned about cholesterol, saturated fat, etc. then there’s plenty of information here for you too.

*Another note – I’ve received word that the developers monitor the searches that return no results and then work on including those foods. For me those empty searches were for some store brand products. It’s good to know that these empty searches are monitored.

Price when Reviewed: $4.99

Seller: Food Essentials

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

I’ve mentioned in the past (a few times) about the need for an iPhone wrist strap. Here’s another app that makes me hope my kids never use it when they’ve got sweaty palms. Goodbye phone. Jump Jump is aptly named because that’s what you’re going to be doing. You play the game by listening to music and jumping in time to the beat. On your screen you will see a line with blue dots moving down towards the bottom of the screen. There is a white circle near the middle of the line. Your job is to jump (holding your iPhone – tightly!) right as a blue dot lands in the circle. You’ll earn points depending on how well you land it. The app is designed to be played by several people so you can compete against each other. There are three levels of difficulty, the higher the difficulty the faster the blue dots stream down the screen. You can choose to jump to a single song or a longer sequence of three songs. That would be about ten minutes of jumping. Jump Jump lets you enter in your weight and tracks the daily, weekly and monthly time you spend playing. It will also track your calories although we haven’t been consistent enough players to judge that feature.

I’m not sure how long this app would last in my house. I think after my kids use it a few times they’ll probably  be done with it. Not because it’s a bad app but because they’re not the kind of kids who’ll jump over and over. We’re more curl up in a corner with a good book people. But this seems like a great app for wearing out children before bed time. Has anyone tried Jump Jump out with their kids and if so, how’d they like it?

Price when Reviewed: $2.99

Seller: Amon

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

Jack and the Box is a storybook app that’s done in comic book style. It really appealed to my son because he is very much into Calvin & Hobbes at the moment. The story revolves around Jack and a box that his parents give him. I’m not going to give away the story but it’s quirky and a bit kooky. Which is probably exactly why my guy likes it. He’s 5 1/2 and into silly jokes and slapstick humor.  I have an unnamed relative that I’m not so sure would enjoy this story. He’s got some clown issues and might not like what’s in Jack’s box. So if you’ve got clown issues too, check out the screen shot and make sure you’re going to be able to handle this one!

Price when Reviewed: $2.99

Seller: FrogDogMedia, LLC

The BabyCounting app has eight different games that teach counting skills. When you play the games you’ll work on identifying numbers, putting them in the correct order, counting up and counting down. The games are simple. Tap numbers on a number line in order going smallest to biggest and vice versa. Listen for a number and then tap on the one you heard. Put a missing number in the correct spot on a number line. Count a group of objects and then tap the number that shows how many. Play a guessing game where you tap on numbers and work with the clues “greater than” or “less than” until you find the secret number. Make a helicopter fly by tapping on numbers.

The games all deal with the number 0-9 and the skills they teach are basic, but important. A couple of the games seem very similar but you do get eight games for your money. My only real issue with BabyCounting is the narration. During the games a dog and cat will pop on and off the screen to give you instructions. They are cute characters but some of the words and phrases they use sound a bit stilted. The English used in the app doesn’t always flow smoothly.  If you’re going to work with your child until they’re used to the app and know how to play this might not be a big deal. Finally, I think BabyCounting is better for young preschoolers than babies. But if you have a baby who knows her numbers please send me whatever brain food you’re feeding her.  I’ll feed some of it to my little gal and then eat the leftovers.

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

Seller: TeamFourStudio

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

Name Shake is a baby-name-finding app. It has over 19,000 different names and gives you plenty of ways to search for the perfect one. The app features a wheel with three parts – gender, ethnicity and alphabet letter. If you’re looking for some random inspiration then shake your iPhone and see what pops up. Or you can spin the wheel yourself and select the gender, ethnicity and letter. You’ll be given a single name or you can tap “list” and see an alphabetical list beginning with the same letter. Names are shown with their pronunciation and meaning. If you find one that you like you can save it to a favorites list. The app also features an advice screen that can give you some help on picking just the right name. You can add in your last name and it will be displayed with the names that come up during your search. This way you can look at them together and see how they fit. Or don’t fit.

I like the look of Name Shake and it’s got great usability. Everything is easily accessed and the app moves quickly. I think it beats a big dusty baby name book any day.

Price when Reviewed: $2.99

Seller: NameSakeLLC

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

Nursing Notes is a very straightforward app for tracking your baby’s feedings.  You begin by entering baby’s name (you can track more than one if you’ve got twins, triplets…). Then it’s just a matter of tapping the plus sign to add a feeding, spinning a time wheel to set the time and then tapping left or right. It’s really just a matter of a few taps and swipes to record the feeding. If you like you can add in the minutes that it takes for your baby to eat.  The feedings show up in a list as you add them in. You can’t enter in bottle feedings and amounts, the app only tracks breastfeeding.  My favorite feature from the app is the push notification system. You can set them up and receive a notice when it’s time for your next feeding.

There are no extra bells and whistles to Nursing Notes, it’s meant to only keep track of breastfeeding. Personally, I’m okay with that. I don’t need to analyze and track everything else my baby does. But I’ve got four kids and my attitude became more lax with each one. If you’re looking for an app to track every baby detail this isn’t the one for you. But if you only need to track your breastfeeding then it does a fine job.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: J.D. Was Here

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

I’ve got four promo codes to give away for the How To Train Your Dragon storybook app I reviewed today. First four comments will get one. Also, the app’s price has been dropped to $.99 to celebrate the movie’s release.

*Promo codes will only work in the US App Store.

How To Train Your Dragon is the storybook app version of the upcoming DreamWorks movie of the same name. The app features screenshots from the movie as illustrations and they’re beautifully done. From what I saw in the app the movie’s animation is going to be great. To be honest I’ve not been that interested in this movie but after trying out the app I’m intrigued. It seems like the movie will have a good message and the dragons look fierce. So do the Vikings. The narration for the app is well done and the text will highlight as the story is read. You can’t record yourself reading this story but you can turn off the auto page turn, the narration and the text highlighting. This is not a short story and I’ll warn you, after you’ve finished it you’re going to know how the movie ends.

Sometimes apps that are tied into movies can be, well, lame. There is a dragon game available in the App Store but I haven’t tried it out. I was very glad to see an alternative to a game and iStorytime has done a great job creating a storybook app from How To Train Your Dragon.

Price when Reviewed: $2.99 $.99 through the weekend

Seller: Frog Dog Media

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.