epicurious

I like to shop for groceries.  I know that's weird, but I enjoy picking out healthy foods that are tasty, and trying to get a good deal as well.  Maybe its the challenge.  In any case, sometimes I get excited and buy food without any clear idea of how I am going to prepare it.  In this example it was Bluefish.  As you can see Wikipedia left me hanging.

Epicurious is a free application to help you find recipes using things you may already have at home.  The recipes are mostly taken from Gourmet magazines and websites including Gourmet magazine, Bon Appetit, and more.  They are all tested out and most of them are reviewed by your peers.

When you first launch the application you'll get some seasonal recipe suggestions, my recommendation is to click the big find a recipe button below these.  This will bring up epicurious' powerful search engine.  You can search for meals by Main Ingredient.  You can search for meals by course which is shown in the picture to the right.  Options include Appetizer, Breakfast, Brunch, Buffet, Dessert, Dinner, First Course, Hors D'Oeuvres, Lunch, Main Course, Side, and Snack.  You can choose by cuisine which will allow you to select every type of food you've heard of, and a few I'm sure you haven't.  The Dietary Considerations can be amazing if you are having guests over that can't eat certain foods.  It lets you filter the recipes gluten free, low sugar, low sodium, kosher, Vegetarian, Vegan, Low Cal, and several others.  Dish type lets you select from Sauce or Soups, Stuffings or Vegetables.  If you are looking for special Valentine's Day or Halloween recipes, Season or Occasion can help.

At the very bottom is a search box, which you can combine with any of the above categories.  I type in Bluefish, with Dinner selected, and peruse the three entries  I find one with a good picture that was rated 96% would make again based on 25 reviews.

Looks Good to me!

Next I click on recipe to look at what ingredients I need to make it as well as how long it takes to make.  I can also read the reviews by clicking reviews (shocking).

Since I like this recipe, I click the plus button and add it to my shopping list.  This gives me a checklist of everything I need to make this recipe.  You can put more than recipe in there at once.  Once you have the information on the list, you can check off the things you already have to prevent double-buying confusion.  You can also email the shopping list to someone if you can manage to get someone else to do the running around for you.  I have never gotten to use that feature myself.

I don't think I need to do Pros and Cons for this one.  Basically its a free application that is really useful.  On the negative side, I've heard some stories of random crashes, but my wife and I have not seen any yet.

Final Thoughts:
Epicurious has a very simple to use interface that connects you with over 25,000 delicious recipes, most of them with pictures and reviews.  Everything that I have made off of this thing has been delicious, and it is very easy to organize shopping trips with the shopping list feature.  Yes, there are ads, but they allow you to get all the above for free.  If you never knew how to prepare a certain ingredient, want to impress guests, or are bored of eating the same old thing, check this application out, because it is great.

iPhone Apps: Dragon Dictation

I like the iPhone, but trying to type long emails, texts, or novels on it is amazingly irritating.  Between the screen not registering your finger, having to hold down a letter to put an accent mark over it, or auto-correct flavoring your text it can be a major pain to use.  Is Dragon Dictation the app that will end having to go back and edit what you are trying to say before you click send?

In a word, No.  

In a short sentence that may seem like an insult: You talk funny.  

In a paragraph:  Dragon Dictation works well once you train yourself to use it.  Everyone says different words differently, and the software is not smart enough to discover your pronunciation oddities.  You must speak slowly and carefully for it to understand you, and even then it will most likely pick up some words incorrectly.  When we first started using the software, it was entertaining to see just how badly it would mangle what you are saying.

Once you get used to talking to it, it is much faster to record lengthy messages using it then by pecking at the touchscreen and hoping for doesn't get auto-corrected to fir again.  (I guess that's useful if you work with certain species of evergreen conifers in the family Pinaceae.  Most of us probably use the word "for" more often.  Anyways)  

The software launches to a large red button which you tap to start recording.  In the screenshot to the right, the app recognized me saying record and printed it.  From here I can click the red button on the bottom to record more, the keyboard button to edit the recording with the keyboard, or the far right button to open up the paste to menu shown.  Clicking one of the destination buttons will open up the associated application, where you can double tap to get the paste dialog.  Pretty simple and easy to use.

One more feature that is not initially obvious is that you can click on words that it recorded to select other words that sound the same.  So if it hears "load" but you said "little", you might be able to swap the word without typing on the keyboard.

Pros:

• This application is free!
• Eventually it can be a big time saver

Cons:

• Most people will have to learn to speak to it differently to get it to work.
• It cannot recognize every word yet.
• It clears anything you record if you exit the application.

Final Thoughts:

This application is free and has a simple and effective interface.  The app saves you time, so according to that time equals money formula, this is free money.  Its actually nowhere near as good as free money, but it is worth trying for free.

iPhone Apps: MotionX GPS

I used to do a lot of hiking, and I still like getting out there when I can.  Although the main goal is having fun, exercise, and whatnot, we seem to like gathering data.  It can be very entertaining to see how far you went at what speed, and how much elevation you gained.  Also not getting lost is usually a plus as well.

Motion X GPS currently costs $2.99 in the app store.  I think it initially was almost ten dollars.  Despite the price it quickly became the most downloaded GPS app on the iTunes store.  There are rumors that this will be published as an android application as well.  Like most paid apps, you get free updates once you buy it.

MotionX can let you know a variety of information very quickly, as well as provide graphs.  Below is the stopwatch screen, which you use to start and stop the recording of data.  If you scroll down from the main screen pictured on the left, you are given a few graphs, as shown on the right picture.

Looks Like a lake to me, but that's why I need a GPS app

At any time during your path or once you've finished, you can overlay where you walked onto a google map of the area as shown to the right. Once you have completed your walk you can save these tracks and send them to your friends via twitter, email, or facebook.  You can even set it up to automatically send out updates on your last current position. This could be used to avoid panicking when one of your friends or family vanishes into the woods in another state.  (Not that that's ever happened in my life repeatedly).

It includes a feature to have a voice randomly tell you how you are doing as far as pacing and other stats without taking it out of your pocket.  It also will let you access your built in iPod through the program.  You can also import GPX formatted locations.

In fact there are a ton of features, so many that it might take some heavy use for you to find out the ones you will use.

Pros:

• Easy to use GPS.
• Three ways to acquire your position. (Manually, GPS, or through a wireless network).
• Many good features.

Cons:

• It can take a minute or longer to get a GPS signal if you are under trees.
• It can take some reading to figure out all of the different features.

Final Thoughts:
This is a great application if you like hiking, geo-caching, running, or walking.  It is very powerful for the $2.99 price tag.  (Again, much more use per cost then EpicWin.)  I try to use it every time I hike or walk an area for the first time, so I get the statistics.  I'm not sure why it interests me, but there you have it.  There is a free version if you want to try it out.  If you are going to be outside and moving, try it.

iPhone Apps: EpicWin

This might be the only app that I have wanted before it was even released.  Now that I have it on my phone, I have to admit that I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I did not get it.

The EpicWin app costs $2.99 at the app store, and allows you to level up and gain stats for doing things you would rather not do.  This is a great concept, and has been ever since XKCD came up with it.  When you download it you are asked to choose an avatar and a name.  If you are like me and close the app before getting past this screen, well done you've unlocked the indecisive achievement, and are rewarded with being forced to reinstall the application.

Once past this initial test, and into the app itself, we find a basic to-do list.  Click the pencil to create a task, then type in the details, and assign it an XP value.  Once you complete a task hold down the task to complete it, and gain the XP, loot, and/or levels.  Then swipe your finger across the task to delete it.  Pretty simple.  There is a screen to show your current status and another to show all the loot you found.  You can also set up tweeting to tell people what item you found for doing what.

Pros:

• Entertaining concept
• A to-do list can be a powerful organizing force and help you complete your daily tasks.

Cons:

• Some glaring bugs are present in the current version(1.0), some of which require re-installation of the app to fix.
• No ability to compare your avatars with your friends.
• There are many cheaper and easier to use alternatives.

Final Thoughts

After creating a few tasks and completing them, I did not feel a huge urge to continue using the application.  It takes a little to long to write down tasks for my tastes.  Writing my to-do list on paper, or typing it using a real keyboard into Gmail tasks is much more efficient.  It would be better if they had a method to enter tasks into their website which would push them to your phone.  Another feature that would make this better would be to allow you to share a code with friends and family, allowing them to drop tasks onto your queue.  I know a few people who would love to help their significant other level up.

Ultimately, the app does not have that much to it.  I would have like to have seen a way to compare my progress against my friends.  In order to do this though, the experience system might need to be changed, as the honor system it currently uses would be very open to abuse in a competitive atmosphere.

To make a long review short (too late) there are much better ways to spend $2.99.