The kitchen is a good place for a computer.
For starters, cooks want timers, clocks, recipes, directions and much more — and even computers are ideal for these tasks. Additionally, kitchens have become hubs of family info, with calendars, notes and other info on the refrigerator. And computers are great for those that stuff, also.
It is not a new idea. In reality, the kitchen-computer notion has been in existence since the 1960s.
In 1969 it was really possible to purchase a futuristic-looking kitchen computer in the Neiman Marcus Christmas catalogue.
Called the Honeywell Kitchen Computer, the device was impossibly hard to use (it came with a two-week computer programming class ). You had to enter data in the form of numbers, and it gave you answers in the form of flashing lights, which you had to understand how to”read”
It cost $10,000. Nobody purchased one.
Nowadays our phones and tablets have vastly greater computing power, hugely greater user interfaces and easy-to-use applications custom designed for kitchen use. However, the one thing kitchen computing tasks have in common is that none of these needs the latest and best devices. All of them function on the low end of high tech. Which is very good news.
The cell revolution has us purchasing new phones and tablets every couple of years or so forth. We update not because the old gadget is broken, but because the gadget is wonderful. So rather than recycling, why not turn that old phone or tablet into a kitchen computer? Although it’s an old device to you, it is going to be thousands of times more powerful and infinitely more useful than the Honeywell Kitchen Computer of the late’60s.
Bluelounge
MiniDock – $19.95
The great thing about smart phones and touch tablets is that thousands of apps, or small software applications, are available free or at low cost. It is these apps that can turn an old phone or tablet into a new kitchen info appliance.
The best phones and tablets for kitchen duty are those made by Apple, and also devices that operate Google’s Android operating system. The main reason is these two gadget kinds have undoubtedly the largest selection of kitchen-friendly apps.
Therefore, by way of example, if you’re upgrading to the new iPhone or iPad, you can place your old one to operate by permanently installing it in the kitchen near a electrical socket, so you don’t need to think about recharging it all the time. Similarly with the Hottest Samsung or ATC Android telephone or tablet.
One phone-mounting alternative, if you’ve kitchen outlets in the ideal place, is to purchase one of many socket docks which are readily available. These place the telephone directly in front of the socket, so they are always charged and also displayed in full view.
Belkin
A wide variety of alternatives for attaching tablets and phones to tile or refrigerators also exists. Some mounts utilize adhesives; others utilize magnets.
One of the best and easiest-to-install choices for any tablet is your Belkin Kitchen Cabinet Mount, which places your own iPad or Android tablet off the counter and out of the way.
BBC GoodFood
BBC Good Food Program
Finding apps on either the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store (in which the Android apps can be found) is quite simple. Simply search for”kitchen” or”cooking” or”recipes”
One of the best recipe databases stems from the BBC, of all places. The BBC Good Food program is an adjunct to the website of the identical name and is available for both Apple and Android devices.
Google Voice Search
Ultimately, tablets and phones have been computers, and computers are nothing more than machines which do calculations. In the kitchen, you will find several calculations to be made. Cooks frequently find themselves wanting to convert cup dimensions to tablespoons, Celsius to Fahrenheit and fat to volume, for example.
A new generation of voice-command providers from both Apple and Google will perform these calculations for you. You merely say something like,”Just how many tablespoons in a quarter cup?” And the two Apple’s Siri and also Google’s Voice Search will speak the answer back to you, in addition to show you the answer onscreen.
Apple’s Siri attribute includes the latest Apple phones and tablets, and Google’s Voice Search has become a standard feature of Android devices for a while. The latest news, however, is that now Google Voice Search (which is significantly quicker than Siri at these kitchen calculations) is currently available for Apple devices, also.
You should also notice that both Siri and Google Voice Search are extremely helpful for those arbitrary kitchen talks with someone else. Answers to any question you can think of — by the titles of actresses to the population of Iceland to which films are playing at the neighborhood theater — are available immediately from these two services for your asking.
Only download the Google Search program from the App Store.
Android QTimer
Serious cooks need timers. If you’re creating that complicated holiday meal, you might have a lot of things going at the same time. A fantastic timer program can literally save your bacon.
There are two things to look for in a fantastic kitchen-timer program. First is the ability to time several things at the same time, name each of them and save those titles. For example, if you like your soft-boiled eggs done just so, add the perfect time in the program and then tag it”soft-boiled eggs” In the future you can just select that option and then tap to start the timer.
Another significant feature is ease of usage — you don’t want options and features buried in the port.
Most timers for both Apple and Android devices are free, so that you can download a bunch of these, try them all and select the one you like best. One of the best Android timers is named QTimer. It does all a fantastic timer does, plus it retains a record of recently used timers (similar to how a smart phone keeps a record of telephone calls).
More: Why Your Kitchen Wants Its Own iPad