Cardio Buddy app review

Cardio Buddy

Price: $1.99 (as of 2/25/13, marked down to Free)

Cardio Buddy by Azumio Inc. is a cool heart rate monitor app for your iOS device. The app is free for a limited time, so recognize February as Heart Awareness Month and show your heart you care.

The app works by using a complex algorithm that analyzes miniscule variants in temperatures on your face to determine your heart rate. It does this using the camera on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. This algorithm was developed by researchers from Stanford and Berkeley and is as accurate as the apps that require you to place your finger over the device’s camera sensor.

You can check your own heart rate or someone else’s, depending on if you use the front- or rear-facing camera. You can track your heart rate over time because the app stores the data for you.

You’ll learn interesting facts about your heart, you can plot your data over time, and you can export your charts in text or csv format, which is great for sending to your doctor.

The user interface is well-designed and the app is straightforward and easy to use.

You can check out your lows, highs, and averages, compare your heart rate to other people’s around the world, and see your heart rate compared to different animals.

If you feel so inclined, you can share your heart rate with friends through Twitter or Facebook.

Cardio Buddy was updated to Version 1.1 on October 24, 2012. The update added the world heart map in real time visualized on FB and Twitter postings, and made performance improvements. The app has a total of 90 ratings with an average of 4.5 out of five stars. Feedback comments are positive.

I downloaded this for review and have decided to keep it. It’s great having an accurate heart rate monitor, particularly for someone like me who works out regularly.

For: iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation), iPad 2 Wi-Fi, iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G, iPad (3rd generation), iPad Wi-Fi + 4G, iPad (4th generation), iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular (4th generation), iPad mini and iPad mini Wi-Fi + Cellular with iOS 5.0 or later