The iPhone is the ultimate distraction machine, which certainly comes in handy in the bathroom, but it can also serve several meaningful purposes in regards to personal health and presentation. Here’s a sampling of useful bathroom apps!
If you and your bathroom scale are no longer on speaking terms, Lose It! can help you change your unhealthy habits and perhaps motivate you back toward a happier weight. Lose It! takes your current weight, height, and age, as well as your goal weight, and tells you how many calories you can consume on a daily basis in order to lose up to two pounds per week. The helpful food log lets you add your daily meals and snacks as you consume them, and you can even track your fitness activities and see how they affect your caloric count. But the best part of Lose It! is that you can connect with other users to link up with friends and challenge each other towards reaching your goals.
Lose It! 3.5.0
FitNow
loseit.com
Free
Sometimes you desire a little extra discretion when using the restroom, but not every bathroom comes equipped with a loud fan or sink tap within reach to muffle the unmentionables. Luckily, the free BathroomFan app can to pump out a steady stream of white noise, which may come in handy in a pinch. BathroomFan doesn’t arrive with a lot of flair—it’s just a picture of a public bathroom stall with on, off, and volume switches—but it performs its task admirably enough to keep it around in a discreetly named folder on the off-chance that you’ll need it. We just hope it adds multitasking soon so users can rock the fan while catching up on email!
BathroomFan
MEF Solutions
bathroomfanapp.com
Free
The App Store is loaded with half-hearted attempts to make money off makeup and personal-care tips, but one option that seems particularly helpful is the free Beauty Tips from DailyGlow.com app, which includes hundreds of daily tidbits, plus other tutorials for skin, hair, makeup, and more. Every day, the app offers something new—whether it’s mastering lipstick application or discovering your ideal blush—and you can read back through several weeks’ worth of daily tips in addition to the ever-present care techniques. And if you sign up for an account, you can access the message boards and swap your own tips with other DailyGlow users.
Beauty Tips from DailyGlow.com 2.0.1
Everyday Health
dailyglow.com
Free
The bathroom is where most folks get a good look at their unadorned selves, but if you notice something odd or simply have questions about any potential ailments, WebMD Mobile is a great resource for locating answers and suggestions. As with the WebMD website, the free app includes a Symptom Checker, which lets you click on a part of the body, add your symptoms, and discover potential conditions that may be triggering those signs. WebMD Mobile also includes a comprehensive listing of drugs and treatments, as well as a glossary of first-aid treatments. It should not replace a doctor’s visit, when needed, but WebMD can help point you in the right direction and even ease your mind.
WebMD Mobile 2.2
WebMD
webmd.com
Free
If you’re trying to go green (or simply cut back on your water bill), the iShowerTimer app serves the very specific purpose of keeping you on point with quick, waste-free showers. Upon setting your shower time and estimating the water flow of your showerhead, iShowerTimer gives you a brief moment to start the shower before triggering a visible countdown on the screen. As the time ticks away, the screen will turn from green to red, before eventually emitting an optional alarm to alert you that time has expired. Not only does iShowerTimer serve that noble purpose, but it can also track your previous showers with estimated water use, providing a heads-up on your eventual water bill.
iShowerTimer 1.0.0
Andreas Schmidt
schmidt-software.com
$0.99
And really, who doesn’t? Well, most parents, we’d imagine—but I Love Potty Training aims to help kids adapt to the strange new world of using a toilet through an animated, storybook-like approach in English or Spanish. I Love Potty Training includes separate segments for boys and girls, each of which details the importance of proper bathroom usage and etiquette, and the app also features a mini-game in which falling pieces of toilet paper must be caught in the basin below. Kids can interact with the app in a more important manner, however, by tracking their daily progress in transitioning from diapers to the grown-ups’ toilet, with badge icons available for positive reinforcement.
I Love Potty Training 1.0
Joy Berry
joyberrybooks.com
$2.99
Keeping track of your myriad medicines while on a prescription regimen can be a hassle, but the free RxmindMe Prescription / Medicine Reminder app is a huge help. It lets you catalog your meds and set varying alerts so you don’t forget to take them. RxmindMe includes the entirety of the vast FDA Drug Database, so searching for medications is a breeze, and adding them to the app is a painless process. Once added, you can set and customize alerts for separate meds or groups, and pick between hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly notifications, or even choose specific dates and other options. Never again will you neglect your meds—assuming you don’t turn off push notifications!
RxmindMe Prescription / Medicine Reminder and Pill Tracker 02.06.02
RxmindMe
rxmind.me
Free
Newspaper apps offer a great way to catch up on world events while you’re occupied in the bathroom, especially on the iPad, where the large text and stunning photos nearly re-create the sensation of reading a real paper. We’re particularly fond of The New York Times app, which offers complete access to every section with free registration, though it may turn to a subscription model in the near future. The app initially started as a limited access, Editor’s Choice option, but has since become a fully featured, ad-supported format that’s worth firing up each and every day.
Other free iPad papers include USA Today, which was recently expanded with travel and tech sections, as well as the UK’s excellent Guardian and the Wall Street Journal, which requires a paid subscription to access much of the content. But even if the iPad isn’t an option, all four of those apps also have free iPhone iterations, which condense the content into a more palatable format for the small screen. Whatever your preference, it’s easy to bust out the phone and get caught up and current in a heartbeat.
