iPhone Apps that help you keep New Year's resolutions. Photo: Jack Guez, Getty Images
In keeping with the age-old tradition, software developers have apparently made a New year's resolution of their own -- to sell you apps that cater to some of the most common New Year's resolutions.
Whether you want to lose weight, stop smoking or get your finances in order in 2010 -- there's an app for that (and it probably costs between $.99 and $9.99). While that's a small price to pay for keeping a New Year's resolution, can a phone app really make us do what no amount of gym memberships, guilt and self-help books can?
Maybe. And if you're serious about keeping your new resolution, it might be worth a try.
Here are a few of the favorites among the resolution-keeping downloads in the App Store:
- Quitter - Smoking is one area in which quitters do prosper. Just enter the price of your favorite smokes, how many cigarettes you smoked per day, and then (most importantly) the number of days you've been smoke-free and Quitter keeps a running total of the money you've saved. Appropriately, you can download Quitter for free.
- Lose It! - This calorie-counting app helps you set goals and build a menu that's going to get you there. For example, if you wanna lose 10 pounds by spring break, Lose It! will calculate the necessary daily calorie intake. You also get access to a database containing the caloric values of many common food items, even from restaurant menus.
- Pzizz - Did you resolve to get more sleep in 2010. Pzizz is an app designed to eradicate the world's insomnia by playing relaxing soundtracks designed to help you pass out. Sleep ain't cheap, however. Pzizz costs $9.99.
- Mint - For those of us struggling to balance our check books and keep an overall view of what's going on with our money, Mint helps consolidate your bank accounts and give you alerts when your funds are running low.
Sure, everyone marches to the beat of their own iPod ... and maybe these apps really will empower iPhone-junkies to be more successful in realizing their aspirations in 2010. Still, one has to wonder if these apps are just the latest in a long line of products that are designed to help us keep our resolutions -- most of which go almost completely unused.
On the positive side, unlike their predecessors, these apps can hold your interest with sweet sound effects and graphics ... something I personally find to be highly addictive.
What do you think: Are iPhone users going to keep more resolutions than the rest of us? Or is there some other key to resolution success?
