A small magazine about things that claim to work
7 pieces
Instruments and the software that pretends to be one. If a thing produces a number, we want to know who checked it.
Seven apps, one question
Every app in this category publishes an accuracy figure. Almost all of them measured it themselves. We ranked seven by a single criterion — whether anybody outside the company has verified the number — and one app clears it twice.
Two logs, one timeline
Putting meals and glucose readings on the same timeline is genuinely useful. Everything past that sentence is where consumer apps start saying things they should not.
The cheapest accuracy upgrade
A scale is the only instrument in this magazine we could actually calibrate ourselves, so we did — and the results argue against spending money.
Photograph, estimate, hope
Every camera in this category fails the same way, for the same reason, and it is physics rather than software. What separates them is what happens next.
Protein, carbohydrate, fat
If you are tracking macros seriously you are asking two separate questions — what should my targets be, and what did I actually eat. Different apps answer them.
Underneath the interface
Interfaces are what you notice and databases are what you get. Three models are in use, they produce measurably different results, and almost nobody names which one they are on.
The accuracy question
Eleven apps advertise an accuracy figure. Nine of those figures were produced by the company selling the app. Here is what happens when you sort the category by who did the measuring.