Categories
Cooking Tablet Accessories

Go from culinary chump to champion chef with Drop

The Premise. Ask any college student or bachelor and most of them will agree: cooking is nowhere as easy as mom made it out to be. Whether there isn’t room in the budget to botch a meal or if anything more advanced than sandwiches and microwave pizza is too difficult, making delicious, fresh meals requires help.

The Product. In terms of actual physical product, Drop is merely a kitchen scale that connects to the iPad in order to display its results. However, the iPad app is more than a glorified scale readout. Drop can walk users through recipes, make suggestions for successful improvisation, and send alerts when it’s time to get back into the kitchen for the next step. Drop functions essentially as a powerful digital kitchen instructor that just so happens to also be a scale, supporting iPad Air, Mini, 3rd gen, and 4th gen.

The Pitch. The promotional video for Drop really captures the essence of how exhilarating it can be to correctly prepare a complex meal, whether sharing it or not. In a brief 90-second presentation, viewers get a full clear picture of almost everything Drop can do, meaning there’s no lull or dragging in the clip. The website for Drop is bright, engaging, and features a strong balance of information with images. It’s similar in many ways to other pre-order websites, but the Drop color scheme and product identity make it stand out a bit.

The Perks. Drop is expected to drop this fall, and can be pre-ordered for $80. The first 2,000 orders also don’t pay any shipping costs.

The Potential. Frankly as far as Drop is concerned, the product itself is fairly underwhelming. Smart kitchen scales have been done before, and any serious kitchen maestro probably already has one in their arsenal. Where Drop really separates itself from the competition, and does so by a very wide margin, is in the iPad app that Drop works with. Covering everything from substitute ingredients to recipe scaling based on number of diners or amount of ingredients remaining, Drop makes sure that nothing in the kitchen comes as a surprise. The presentation is great, the device looks friendly and easy to use, and the end results promise to be both attractive and tasty. Seasoned experts may not find much use for Drop, but for the less confident cooks or those just starting out, this tool promises to do more than its weight in the kitchen.

Categories
Connected Objects Cooking Sensors/IoT

Range Oven Intelligence delivers the goods on your grill to your iPhone

rangeoiAccident-prone or otherwise disasterous chefs take note: the smart kitchen may be a savior when it comes to getting a meal prepared just right. Products like iGrill are designed to keep users informed of temperatures so no food comes out black and burned, and no kitchens burn down. Now comes Range Oven Intelligence, from the makers of TWINE. Range OI is a complete kitchen monitoring tool that can keep an eye on almost all kinds of cooking heat, give detailed reports, and send alerts to smartphones, smart TVs, and smartwatches. Range Oven Intelligence is available for $98, but backers will have to be patient: this product will be slow-cooked to quality with a release date of March 2015.

Categories
Cooking

Scutum caps upright paper towel rolls to keep them muck-free

ScutumThe challenge of trying to rip one or two paper towels off of a roll when both hands are dirty or wet means one of two things: either the top of the roll gets soiled, or there is going to be waste because of getting too many towels. Scutum is a device that works with vertical dispensers to hold the roll in place so the user can more easily rip off one towel at a time. It works with either a dispenser that has an ornament on top or one that does not. For $12, backers get one product with an expected delivery of January 2015.

Categories
Cooking

OneBowl creates pasta meals with less noodling around

OneBowlFor those crazy days (or nights) when even microwaving pasta is too much of a hassle, OneBowl offers the solution of cooking, straining and even eating all in one bowl. The dishwasher-safe kitchen helper has a built in strainer, so when the nuking process is done, all that’s necessary is to twist, let it drain, top with one’s choice of seasonings, and eat. Although, a built-in cooling mechanism might be nice so that tongues don’t get burned. And perhaps also some type of built in auto-feed so that utensils and self-feeding aren’t necessary. For $16, early bird backers get one product, with an expected delivery of August 2014.

Categories
Camping Cooking

Campfire in a Can bypasses the hunt for wood while camping

Campfire in a CanSometimes the best but hardest part about camping is using a fire to cook food. Dry wood can be difficult to find and cooking over an uneven spit is dangerous. Campfire in a Can solves these problems. It is a compact kit that comes with a vertical burn chamber as well as a grill top to use for cooking. This product burns both coal and wood and evenly distributes heat upward and to the surrounding area to cook food and warm campers at the same time. One Campfire in a Can costs backers $59 at an early price or $68 regularly for delivery in October 2014. Reaching a goal of $80,000 in a two-month campaign on Kickstarter will spell success for this product.

Categories
Connected Objects Cooking Safety

Beacon lets you dial in the color of bicycle safety light from your smartphone

BeaconNevermore will pedestrians and cyclists who must venture out into the dark have to be concerned about being visible to drivers. Beacon offers a Bluetooth-controlled, wearable, LED safety light that is Android and i)S compatible, and can be worn around the waist or like a sash. Beacon wearers can choose a color or even pattern of colors to increase visibility when walking or biking at night. For those who are more concerned about visibility than fashion, we’ve seen other, less-configurable options to help with night apparel. Beacon is available to backers for at least $69, with an expected delivery of October 2014.

Categories
Cooking

Armadillo Colander collapses flat to take the pain out of the strain

Armadillo ColanderFinding storage space for a bulky colander (or strainer) is a common kitchen challenge, especially if a person likes to enjoy the option of having boiled foods on the road via a camper or RV. The RMDLO (Armadillo) Colander (or strainer) is a unique solution made of stainless steel sheets that fold up to 1.6cm for easy storage, and can be easily squeezed together for pouring food onto a plate. Prefer steamed veggies to boiled? It can also act as a steamer. While there are other folding colanders out there, the Armadillo’s stainless steel and steamer capability will make it more versatile, and it also seems to fold up smaller. For £20, backers get one product with an expected delivery of October 2014.

Categories
Arts Cooking Food and Beverage

Cinnibird lets you draw faces in your froth

CinnibirdFor those who never really listened when told to quit playing with their food, CinniBird will appeal to that inner child, or maybe artist, or better yet, prankster although some practice is likely needed to create the fine art . When this kitchen gadget is filled with cinnamon (and AA batteries), food and beverages become a small canvas for creativity, provided the user has a steady hand and a sense of a smattering of talent and creativity. For $10, backers get one Cinnibird pen with an expected delivery of June 2014. If backers live outside of Hungary, an extra $10 will be needed for international shipping costs.

Categories
Cooking Sensors/IoT

SCiO spectrometer sniffs out the composition of food and fauna

SCiOIn science fiction, the idea of a handheld analyzer that can report on details of an environment, creature, or substance have been around for decades. SCiO, a pocket spectrometer and molecular sensor that works with the cloud, is bringing those ideas to life. With a flexible development environment, SCiO ships with apps for scanning food, medicine, and plants, but more functions may arise over time. In terms of food scanning, the SCiO is reminiscent of what was promised by the TellSpec, though hopefully this project is more on the level, without the tricky editing and the production backpedaling. SCiO is available for $179 and will ship out by the end of the year.

Categories
Cooking Organization

Rolly Bowl eases storage of your dome-estic leftovers

Rolly BowlKitchen convenience just hit a new level. Rolly Bowl allows for meals to go from stove, to table to fridge, and from microwave to table again. The unique roll top lid means that there is always a lid available that covers food for storage, as well as preventing it from sticking to the top and acting as a splash guard when it’s time to microwave. The roll over lid easily removes for either hand washing or the dishwasher, and always holds its shape for a perfect fit. Alas, the domed configuration makes the bowl difficult to stack when closed. While the idea certainly seems clever, backers may find it a bit pricy at $50. Expected delivery is September 2014.