For many people, cooking is more of an aspirational hobby than a way of life. Too often, most of us – burdened by busy schedules or a lack of culinary prowess – find ourselves falling back on prepared food emblazoned with phrases like “five-minute meal” and “microwave-ready.” The roadblocks can be many for those with more desire than will: you need to find the right recipes and figure out what to buy before you can even get down to the art and science of cooking.
Though it can't help you with that last bit, the Epicurious iPhone and iPod Touch app is pretty much exactly what you'd want out of a portable cooking assistant. You can scan through a group of categories for suitable recipes–neophytes will appreciate the “I Can Barely Cook” section while seasoned pros can take on “Dinner Party Ideas.” Epicurious also comes equipped with a robust search interface that can filter by main ingredient, dietary considerations like gluten-free or vegan requirements, and seasonal occasions like Thanksgiving.
Once you've chosen a group of recipes, Epicurious can build a shopping list so you know exactly what you need when you're at the grocery store. iPod Touch users will be happy to know that the shopping list still works without an internet connection, making it a very handy feature indeed. The one major downside to the Epicurious app is the relatively heavy advertising presence–though rarely intrusive, the full-screen ads are more imposing than in most iPhone apps. Considering the utility packed into the free app, though, you may find Epicurious an essential download nonetheless.
Even as publications fold across the continent and pundits declare the death of print, the realm of paper and ink still has much to teach the digital world. Though it's caught up substantially over the past few years, a well-designed magazine can still trump a well-designed magazine website for visual punch. E-book readers struggle to provide the graphical fidelity of the real thing, and no one has ever claimed reading off a screen to be easier on the eyes than a book.
One of the toughest challenges has been to create visually pleasing layouts automatically from mixed content. RSS readers like Google Reader, which have to deal with a wide variety of content, work well but look very utilitarian. Not so with Feedly, a Firefox add-on that hopes to become your next homepage. The aggregator's big selling feature is its ability to create elegant, easy-to-read layouts out of the articles in your Google Reader feeds. Unlike most automated layouts, Feedly's cover and digest pages feel like they were constructed with care and attention to detail.
Feedly also adds in some surprisingly useful social media touches. Each post shows how many other people have recommended the story, as well as the number of people who've read the article via Twitter, giving you an idea of how popular a post is. Feedly can also hook up to your Twitter account, showing you how popular the links you post to Twitter are. News junkies and power users may prefer the vanilla Google Reader, but for those with too much to read and not enough time, Feedly offers an eye-catching way to keep on top of your feeds.
Gadget nerds have long harboured a fascination with remote controls. Did you ever buy a remote control watch that could control your television or stereo? Have you bought one of the many all-in-one remotes out there, only to pine for something even more customizable? Do you now own a remote control for your computer? If you're at all obsessed with remotes and you happen to own an iPhone, you've probably thought about the potential locked inside the slim touchscreen tablet.
Air Mouse Pro allows you to take control of any computer on your local wireless network with your iPhone or iPod Touch. Once you've installed the server software on the target computer, Air Mouse Pro hands you control via one of several on-screen keyboards and touchpad controls that look like something you'd find on a laptop. Hit the shuffle icon in the top right, and your iPhone turns into an air mouse–you tilt the device back and forth and to the sides to move the screen cursor.
The air mouse feature is useful in a pinch but is otherwise little more than a curiosity; the touchpad is more intuitive and precise, though it lacks the dramatic flair of waving your arms around. You can type normally using the QWERTY keyboard or switch to special controls for web browsers or iTunes as well as a function key set; sadly, the iTunes keyboard doesn't work very well with other media players. Air Mouse Pro is a bit of a niche product, but if you can see the appeal in controlling your computer from your phone, the utility is easily worth the three bucks.
