Fri, 12 Feb 2010 KosmicQuitter review

How are those New Year’s resolutions doing? Did you – like 80 per cent of people who promise to give things up as the year ended – lapse before the closing days of January?

It’s not too late. The year is still young and now you know about KosmicQuitter – the application that turns your Mac into nothing short of a computerised abstinence engine.

Yes, whether you’re chucking away the cigs or binning the booze, KosmicQuitter has got the tools to track your filthy addiction to its demise.

Here’s how it works: you start by creating a category for the item you’d like to give up using the Settings section. The dialog pops up automatically the first time you use the software. You simply enter the name of the foul substance or disgusting practice you wish to pack in and enter how much it costs you per unit. This is so you can track how much money you’ve saved.

The main program takes the form of a simple journal with two columns; Bad Things on the left, Good Things on the right. You record your intake of noxious items on the left, tracking your intake of drink, cancer sticks and cream-cakes like a digital Bridget Jones.

The program automatically tots up your total expenditure – telling you how much money you’ve saved (or lost) on your vices and giving you a score for each entry.

In the Good Things column you can drag images of inspiring things, such as the goodies you’ll buy yourself with all the money you’ve saved. There’s no facility to do the same in the Bad Things column though – which is rather a missed opportunity, we think, as some images of flabby bellies or full ashtrays could be just as motivating.