This won’t appeal to many folks but just in case you’ve ever been excited by the NHS Code to Grouper spreadsheet and would like to squeeze that and the PbR tariff information spreadsheet onto your iPhone, I’ve written up a review of the NHS Reference or NHSRef iPhone app over on my NHS Excel blog. Give it a go, it might make you very happy.

I think I’ve arrived late to the party but I’ve just stumbled upon a brilliant piece of software that can actually give Sporttracks a run for it’s money. TrailRunner is a superb piece of kit that acts as a standard GPS enabled training log but with added mapping and routing wizardry. I haven’t had enough time with it yet to provide a comprehensive review of all its features but I do still want to alert you to its routing functionality.

I’ve been looking ahead to the 16 and 20 mile long runs that form part of my marathon schedule and wondering how to find an inspiring route, possibly with some remote off roading and still ensure that I can get safely home at the end of it. The London Loop offers up some fairly secluded long distance trails but although it is signposted in parts, I know I would still get horrendously lost and throw my teddy out of the pram at mile 19.

I’ve therefore been looking for some way to carry the route with me. I’d just started looking round for yet another GPS gadget when I discovered that my trusty Garmin Forerunner 310XT will do the job for me (as would the 305). For some reason I had got it into my head that the 310XT didn’t support routes. In actual fact it doesn’t support routes but does support courses – I don’t know the difference but I do know that courses are just what I need.

This is where TrailRunner comes into the picture. TrailRunner is a 3 in 1 application: an activity journal, a mapping application and a route planning app.

Trailrunner stores all my routes, whether imported from GPS or created using it’s routing functionality, into my own personal network of tracks. I can also access the GPSies community to import nearby tracks and thereby beef up my own personal network.

I get the impression that network building could become quite a techy task. I’ve been reading the instructions and you have to get to grips with a glossary of GPS and mapping terms and occasionally help the program out by splitting and merging tracks.

Having done this though, the program unleashes functionality number 3 – the route planning function. Trailrunner can create a workout of a set distance based on my network, and if I rate the tracks in advance it will do it’s best to choose a loop taking in my favourite segments. Wizardry!

I’m importing my old workouts as we speak and mapping out the London Loop into 10 mile segments.

I can export any route held with TrailRunner to a number of different formats. If I choose TCX I can import the file to Garmin Training Centre and then send the course to my device. From here I can access it through the training menu. I can’t tell you how happy this makes me.

This isn’t a feature restricted to TrailRunner by any means. MapMyRun enables you to create routes and then export as a TCX file as does Google (I think), but TrailRunner is such an accomplished piece of kit that I can’t resist investing some time and effort into it.

DCRainmaker has prepared a useful illustrated walkthrough of how to create courses for the Forerunner 310XT (or 305/500/705) using MapMyRun as the route maker and Garmin Training Centre to upload to the device.

You don’t even need to have a Garmin sports watch to take advantage of these features either. RaceBunny is an iPhone app also by Berbie software that works seamlessly with TrailRunner. You can record GPS trails from the phone and import to the desktop software as well as downloading pre-recorded routes into the iPhone.

I’ve got quite a lot of dabbling and learning to do before I become adept at using TrailRunner, as you can see from my mapping example above I’ve got it riddled with waypoints. This isn’t necessary at all as you can link your trails to the map background. So in this case I am using the OpenStreetMap background which has all the legal trails already mapped, all I need to do is click to start my trail and the software miraculously follows the twists and turns to spit out a track.

When I’ve got a little more familiar with TrailRunner I’ll be back to give it a full review but if you love maps and gadgets and have a mac I’d really recommend you give this a go – it’s free and fantastic!

Originally published on my warriorwomen blog.

I’ve been running with my iPhone for a couple of years and I think I have now got a fairly stable armory of running or health related apps that I would be prepared to recommend. I’ll split them into 4 sections and go from there.

The Running Logs

The iPhone is my ever present mobile computer. It bothers me that my training logs are locked away on the laptop at home, or worse, spread across a few online logs like Garmin Connect, Adidas miCoach and Fetcheveryone. Surely when someone asks me how my training has been going for GNR or VLM, I ought to be able to pull out my phone and demonstrate with a pretty chart or a weekly distance log. It’s taken a bit of effort but I can now do that. Of course no one has asked how my training has been going for a while.

Athlete Diary (web link)
Running logs abound but a lot are fairly naff and are never going to pull me away from a desktop version, however I have been extremely impressed by Athlete Diary.

It is shockingly expensive, at £11.99 it’s the most expensive app I’ve ever bought, in fact I still can’t believe I did it. It is very good though.

It looks very much like a standard paper journal but it has whistles and a few bells. On the face of it the program is simple enough, the first screen opens with the log in list form showing the standard: date, time, distance, pace, sport along with notes on the route. The second screen shows each day in journal format and you have the option to add images and web links. The third screen shows the totals in both tabular and graph format. The fourth screen is the search facility and is the key to uncovering the amazing functionality of the application. From here I can search on any number of variables and keywords that you can set up and customise.

So for example I have set up a few keywords such as wt, Avg HR, Shoe 1 etc. Each keyword can be defined as total, avg or non-numeric which determines how it is shown on the charts and summaries. As far as I know there aren’t any limits to the number of keywords you can have but it does pay to think about it at the start so you can build up a consistent data set as you go along.

Having set up the keywords I can head back to the search facility and select the date period covering the last year, select running as my sport and perhaps select the training type as race. If I now look at the log it will show me all the running races in the last year. Moving to the summary sheets the same applies – running races in the last year. If I now choose the chart option I can select the keyword of interest so for example max HR to show the variation across the selected events. If I selected a specific keyword in the search facility such as Shoe 1 my log and summaries would show all the runs where I wore shoe 1.

It is such a customisable application that is very nearly worth £11.99

The feature that makes me so particularly happy about my purchase is the import/export functionality. The designers have gone to huge effort to enable you to get all your data into the log. It’s a bit of a faff and I had to wipe the database clean and start afresh a few times before I got the hang of it but I do now have every single run from the last 4 years loaded up. I pulled data out of Sporttracks, Garmin connect, Fetch and others, faffed around with it in excel to get the right format, converted to a text file, emailed it to my phone and the copy and pasted it directly into the import screen of Athlete Diary – Genius!

It’s hard to believe how happy that makes me. All my data inside my little phone.

HRM Log FM (web link)
Before I came across the Athlete Diary I was convinced that the answer to my problems was an app that synced with Garmin Connect. Admittedly I don’t have all my runs on there, I had a life pre-GPS and sometimes I run on the treadmill but in recent times it is fair to say that most have been uploaded to Garmin Connect. Garmin Connect is a terrible website though and it doesn’t help me get the stats and data on my phone.

After a lot of searching I came across HRM Log FM. As an app it doesn’t do a lot, you can’t add runs or modify data in any way but it is a perfect way to view data stored on Garmin Connect. The sync is fairly painless and new runs are added to a calendar view, clicking through enables you to view the details – summary, lap details and a pace and heart rate chart. The route map isn’t shown unfortunately but it’s still very useful.

The GPS Apps

I am not a big fan of the GPS apps but then I have a Garmin Forerunner so why would I bother?

The GPS reception is not as good as the purpose built watches and the effort drains the battery far too quickly for my liking. The last time I used it I nearly found myself stranded at the end of the Wandle Trail with no juice left to call for my pick up vehicle.

Having said that I have tried a good few and have been impressed with two: Adidas miCoach and Nike+ GPS. I’ve previously reviewed the Adidas mobile miCoach app and you can read that here.

Technical Running Stuff

PaceCalc (web link)

A very simple little app. There are many websites around that will perform the same function but it’s handy to have it wrapped up in a stand alone program.

You enter your time for a race or a custom distance and it returns a screen with pace and speed conversions in metric and imperial and then on another screen it displays projected race times on the basis of your entry. It also provides a series of recommended training paces.

Cadence (web link)

This is perhaps a bit gimmicky but I’ve got a bee in my bonnet about efficient running styles at the moment. I don’t have one but would like one and apparently one of the ways to get there is to shorten your stride length and increase your step rate or cadence. 180 steps per minute is the holy grail apparently. Seems unattainable to me but I’m happy to give it go.

This app is just a running styled metronome, I set the rate to 180 (or some other number) and the little feet beat out the pace for me to follow.

That’s all there is to it.

Diet and Weight

Some runners and particularly this one, need to keep on top of their weight, or more accurately chase after it like a hurtling runaway train.

I’ve got two favourites weight logs, True Weight and FatWatch.

True Weight (web link)
I’ve used True weight for a long time, it’s very simple and uses the Hackers Diet principles to show the “true weight” after all the fluctuations have been smoothed. The display is clear and you can view the actual weight recorded as well as the trend line.

I have to admit that unfortunately, these figures are not mine.

FatWatch (web link)
I recently moved over to FatWatch as I wanted to record both my weight and my fat %.

It uses a very similar method for plotting the trend and allows you to set a goal and show your progression (or lack of) against it.

Both applications enable you to export your data via email so you need never lose data to a locked in app again.

As you can see I have an unfavourable divergence between the green (target) and red (trend) line so it’s time to take remedial action and start the calorie controlled approach for a while. This is where the last app comes into it’s own.

Tap&Track (web link)

This app gets reviewed all over and has proved to be incredibly popular because its so intuitive and smooth to use.

You start by entering your height and weight details and after setting your weight loss goals it determines your daily calorie allowance. By the grace of god or perhaps metabolism, you can increase your daily allowance by logging some exercise. I’ve just this minute bagged 30 mins on the treadmill so that I can polish off half a bottle of bubbly without having scale anxiety tomorrow morning.

It’s a typical food, exercise and weight log and works on the principal that if you diligently record everything that you eat, you might just think twice about putting it in your mouth. I find it quite effective but you have to be strict and record everything.

Like most of these logs it has the American bias but it does still seem to have a lot of foods available locally (including Sainsburys and Pret a Manger) and besides its an absolute doddle to enter your own items which you can then save to your favourites list. I don’t mind doing this, when I go on a diet I tend to eat a rotation of very similar foods so after a fortnight I’ll have just about all the options covered.

I read reviews where people doubt the accuracy of some of the nutritional entries, I’ve found a few problems as well so its advisable to sense check new items or enter them yourself from the label.

It doesn’t seem to handle alcohol particularly well. I’ve entered the details for Stella manually but it doesn’t have a section for alcohol content and so the nutrition chart doesn’t include a piece of pie for the proportion of calories that comes from alcohol. That’s a bit of a shame for me but maybe something they could easily add as an update.

Despite a few niggles, this app is a joy to use, very well designed and so far it seems to be helping me towards my goal.

So there you have it, 9 top iPhone apps for runners, have I missed any must have apps? Let me know.

Originally published on my warriorwomen blog.

I’ve been devouring word games over the last few weeks and found myself dreaming obsessively about 4-letter word combinations. Now it’s time to relax and to bring you my review of the Top 5 iPhone word games of all time.

In my quest I’ve come across some awful games and some that just didn’t quite make if into my list of all time faves. I’ve made some notes on these towards the bottom of the blog post.

1. Word Warp

This isn’t the most attractive looking game and I’m sure the simple graphics on this screen shot won’t make you want to rush out to the iTunes store clutching your 99p. Nevertheless, it hits my Number 1 spot by virtue of the game play. Word Warp has the right balance tension and challenge and you get to feel as though it is testing your mental nous rather than just your nerves of steel.

In order to progress to the next level you have to uncover at least one 6 letter word and after that its down to revealing as many of the remaining words as possible. I like the fact you can see exactly how many words are available, it spurs you on for the final few seconds.

If you find the 6 letter word you get to move on to the next level and build on your score. Fortunately you can leave the game at any point and return in the middle of a challenge without having to start from scratch again.

2. Moxie

Moxie gives Word Warp a run for its money and very nearly came in first. It’s Lynn’s favourite by far and she hasn’t even touched Bejewelled 2 since this appeared on my iPhone.

I think it’s quite an unusual game, I’ve certainly not seen anything similar yet.

It’s rather like a game of patience. A random letter appears in the top right and you have to place it or pass it. The idea is to build words horizontally, changing a letter at a time. Having created a word you have to be careful not to break the chain and create a “twaddle” which will result in lost points. Additional points are available for “Moxie” words which can be animal, vegetable or mineral, depending on your game choice.

It’s an excellent game, intellectually stimulating and without time constraints. They offer a free Moxie lite version but I bought the main app after my first trial. Go for it.

3. Lexic

Now Lexic is a very stylish game. The screen graphics are beautiful and it is one of the few games that I want to play with the sound on. The tiles make a wonderful ivory clatter as they shuffle, giving the whole game a quality vintage feel.

There are loads of games of this style around, sliding across the screen to make ever longer and ever more words. Lexic offers the most accomplished version I’ve tested though. The selection (and rejection) of letters is effortless and with 4 quite different game options available it is an extremely good value game.

This screen shot comes from the Quest option. The idea beyond scoring as many points as you can from the selection of words is to collect all the gold tiles. In this level I have to collect 3 before I can move on but this increases as you step up the levels.

To add complexity there are a number of tile types. The “I” with the red dots will explode after 5 moves if I don’t get rid of it and the game will end. The steel plated “O” remains in-situ while those around it will cascade down and the red “A” will spin to reveal another letter after each go.

There are quite a few more tile types as well. I’ve come across one which spreads itself like the plague. Try getting rid of an exploding “Q” while it is surrounded by an infectious “F”. Quite a challenge.

Another of Lexic’s game option is Blackout which challenges you to clear an entire screen before you can reach the next level. Selected word tiles disappear so you have to think carefully about the few tiles that remain towards the end. You start the game with 10 explosives to clear stubborn letters but they soon run out if you don’t play strategically.

The Stasis option is your standard timed, find as many words as you can, type game.

Lexic is an extraordinarily stylish game.

4. Wurdle

Wurdle offers a 5*5 grid and lets you loose finding words and that is pretty much it, no whizzes and bangs, just a good solid well presented game.

It’s simplicity is attractive and it does the job very well. Slide to select, release to enter or reject, its easy. I’ve knocked a number of games out of my top 5 because they can’t get this part of the game play right.

I like the list of entries that appears at the top and at the end of the game you can see the list of all possible words along with the location on the grid.

If this is your style of word game I don’t think you will be disappointed with Wurdle.

5. Word Jong

Word Jong is another unusual game, this time built in the style of Mahjong.

Unlike Mahjong, where you have to match pairs, Word Jong requires you to spell words. The similarity in the game styles is that you can only select edge tiles and that the goal is to end the game with all the tiles matched and removed.

There are a few aids along the way, such as the occasional wild card and a bomb to remove annoying tiles but even so its a tricky game.

It’s another game without a time restriction so you can ponder to your hearts content and relax over it.

Word Jong is styled as a daily challenge and the menu screen is laid out as a calendar where you can select the days puzzle. I personally find this a bit tiresome but I suppose it does mean you can go back to a particular puzzle or challenge a friend with the same layout. You can go back to any date so you aren’t limited to one puzzle a day.

The Also Rans

Here’s a brief mention of some of the other word games that didn’t make it into my Top 5 list of apps.

Scrabble – you will already know if you are going to like this one. It is a fabulous and faithful conversion of the board game, if you like scrabble then go for it. Controlling the counters and the screen is a breeze and the game play is effortless. I haven’t ranked this one because I see it as a game deserving of its own category, it’s not your 5 or 10 minute filler game like most of the other word game apps I’ve reviewed here.

Codeword – I play this game regularly and it lulls me off to sleep nicely. I used to buy the Times just for the codeword but I am currently boycotting Mr Murdoch so am grateful for the electronic version that will churn out as many new puzzles as I can handle. Although it is one of my stalwart games I haven’t put it in my Top 5 iPhone word games list as I don’t think it translates so well to the small screen. Ideally with codeword you should be able to see the whole grid at once but at that resolution I can’t make out the numbers. You can zoom in of course but then you miss out on the essential overview. If you like codeword I think you’ll be happy but you do have to be a little forgiving of the navigation.

Bookworm – I’ve read some outstandingly good reviews of this game but I can’t understand their enthusiasm, I personally feel robbed. It’s a Pop Cap game and is touted as a match for Bejewelled 2.

It is not. Lexic comes a lot closer to the Bejewelled style of play and carries it off with more finesse.

I can’t say it’s a terrible game but it doesn’t flow well and as I left play school quite some years ago I don’t feel the need for a talking worm on my screen. Word selection is tiresome as I have to tap to enter and unslide to reject and really there are much better word game options available for less cash.

Scramble – This is fun and offers itself up for a good two player challenge game, either by pass and play or live hook up over wifi with others online. This adds the competitive challenge that the other games miss out on.

I haven’t given it a top rating because it seems to accept so many weird words. I had considered it a flaw with its dictionary but maybe the problem is mine and I just need to expand my small word vocabulary.

Word Fu + – This game promised a lot but I just find it too embarrassing to play. It’s your standard make as many words as you can out of an assortment of letters game with the addition of playing along to the accompanying sounds of karate chops and martial art grunts. You have to slap your iPhone down in a Kung Fu styling to accept your word choice – not something I want to do in public and I don’t really want to risk slamming my phone into something solid. I can’t complain too much, this was a free game application but I’ll be deleting it very soon.

Boggle – This is one of the original word games but try as I might I just cannot like this iPhone version. My first complaint is that I have to shake my phone to start and then it throws the die up in the air to jumble. I don’t like shaking my phone around and would prefer a subtle tap option. The second and more sever complaint is the annoying selection method. Where I have to tap dice individually and then tap the end to select or the beginning to reject. It is just not smooth and I can’t be bothered to finish a game when I have so many better examples on my phone.

I thought I’d share my recommendations for what to fill your new iPhones and iPod touch machines with, starting with my take on the top 5 iPhone game applications available from the iTunes store.

My games screen tends to change fairly regularly as I drop the duff purchases and curse the reviews that led me to part with my hard earned pennies.

The 5 top games I’ve selected today have lingered for quite some months, and be warned, they have wasted a good chunk of my life in that period.

Here’s a shot of my current games screen.

Mahjong Solitaire

This is the most played game on my iPhone. I’ve tried out quite a few mahjong apps but so many of them are truly shocking. It must be a difficult challenge to get so many detailed little tiles on the screen but I’ve found this version to have the clearest representation without the fuss of changing inclination or rotation. You can zoom in of course but the standard display works very well.

There is a free Mahjong Solitaire Lite version so try that out first and move up to the fully fledged app when you feel the need for more layouts.

My only gripe with application is that it is timed (see the green bar) and I prefer to play mahjong when I need to chill out and relax. A freestyling option would be a good enhancement I think.

Bejewelled 2

Bejewelled is an all time favourite of mine from my days in the lab. I would spend hours on my laptop matching the coloured jewels while my experiments performed their own little miracles in the background.

This iPhone app is superb, a very faithful representation.

I’ve found myself standing out in the street at night, huddled under a street lamp trying to beat a previous high score as I come home from work. This is high stakes, high stress stuff and extremely addictive – handle with care.

Fieldrunners

The idea with this game is to lay out your weapons or towers in the right places to destroy the ant like invaders who try to get from one side of the screen to the other.

It’s a very simple concept but amazingly engaging. The sound effects help a lot as bombs explode, helicopters whir and soldiers croak it so I recommend playing this with your headphones on. Beware not to miss your tube stop though.

Airport Mania

I must have spent hours playing this game when I first installed it and now feel fully prepared for a role as Flight Traffic Controller at Heathrow.

The general idea is to land the planes, unload your passengers and get the plane back in the skies as soon as possible. At times you may have to refuel and send the planes to the workshop, all while dealing with multiple runways, inclement weather conditions and too many planes. They have a tendency to get agitated if you make them wait too long at any stage.

The levels get pretty intense and here I’ve started to let things get a little out of control with planes backing and sitting needlessly idle.

For a while I heard a lot of hype about Flight Control but it is just not as accomplished as Airport Mania, don’t let the child friendly graphics fool you, this is a very adept game.

Galcon Labs

I’m at a loss how to explain this arcade game.

You are basically directing your ships to colonise other planets, produce more spaceships and ultimately take over the world.

The graphics are very simple but then the best games often are simple. It is a fast pace gamed which is remarkably strategic in its outlook. I haven’t done it justice with this rambling but I don’t think you’d be disappointed if you gave it a go.

So, there we have my top 5 iPhone game app recommendations, what do you think, have I missed any brilliant games? Do I need to reassess my game screen real estate?

I’ve been a little disappointed with the latest update to the WordPress 2 iPhone app for blogging on the fly.

Time to try Blogpress which promises some useful functionality such as support for picassa and Flickr web albums, image upload to your blog server, support for landscape mode and posting to multiple blogs and blog platforms. It also supports drafts which is why I’m here in my local caff, tapping away at a review of sorts.

You’ll be able to make your own aesthetic judgements when the post is published. I am able to position the photos in amongst my text (so not just at the end as with WP2) but I don’t think I can control allignment or output size and I haven’t yet found a preview option.

Scrolling is fine in portrait mode though and I’m typing away quite happily.

Tags and categories are easily accessible and I think I can create new ones from the edit screen. iPhone is a new tag so I’ll check for it after publishing.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Balham High Rd,Wandsworth,United Kingdom