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Code Red iPhone app a guy's best monthly friend

Review for CODE RED - A SURVIVAL GUIDE TO HER MONTHLY CYCLE. PERIOD!

Posted May 20, 2010 7:20am by Dan Kricke Tags: lifestyle

APPOLICIOUS ADVISOR RATING:

5 of 5 bars
  • PRICE: $0.99
  • TASTY: Allows for customization of your cycle and length of period time. Surprisingly deep app.
  • BUMMER: Very odd you’d need to register to use the app, and the alert feature isn’t really explained at all despite an alarm setting on the app.
  • COOL: The descriptions on the calendar are actually pretty funny.
SIMILAR APPS:

There are a surprising number of menstrual cycle-related apps in the iTunes App Store, but none that I’ve seen handle the issue with as clever an approach as the Code Red – A survival guide to her monthly cycle. Period! iPhone app ($2.99) does. Code Red, developed in part by a husband and wife team, has a light-heartedness that should appeal to any couple with a sense of humor about that time of the month.

After a brief sign-up process that seems unnecessary, to be honest, the app will ask you to put in a few details about the last time the woman you’re tracking started her period. From there, a calendar will open up with a color code for each day.

The codes are all fairly tongue in cheek, beginning with the titular Code Red, which advises users to “Ask her about her day, and then listen to her answer. To prove you are listening, ask a follow up question. Listen to that answer too.”

From there, there is the “Smooth Sailing Alert,” where you are told it’s “a perfect time to tell her you’re not a fan of her signature pasta,” followed by the always popular “Horny Alert” where you’re advised that, “Her hormones are doing most of the work for you. Your only job is to not screw things up.” And then the ominous “Ovulation Alert”, where you can enjoy the fantastic double entendre “Cancel blackjack night with the boys. It’s poker time.”

Clearly, this app is more for a guy than the girl whose period he’s tracking, but when I surveyed a handful of female friends and showed them the app, they did get a kick out of it, leading me to the very unscientific conclusion that Code Red manages to excellently toe the line between sexist and silly.

Code Red offers a decent amount of customization when it comes to period length as well, allowing you to change the cycle length, period length and ovulation date of your trackee.

There is also some sort of alert system, but it’s unclear how it works. There are options to sound an alert by sound and pop-up at a specific time, but it doesn’t say exactly to what event it will be alerting you. The app does a good job of explaining each of the codes, but unfortunately, not the alert.

Other than the confusing alert system and unbecoming sign-up (are they keeping track of all iPhone users' menstrual cycles somewhere? Weird.), this is a pretty amusing, yet informative, iPhone app for couples who want to be on the same page when it comes to a lady's business. I've never seen a more admirable app.

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