Nice!

Great grilling images there. But I could see some advantage on an alarm that food was done. You didn't include the image of good conversation, or the likely addition of beer and some more beer and the Sweedish bikini team...and buzzing flies.. and what were we talking about,....Oh yeah, cooking and not burning stuff to a crisp.

Re the bacon, there is an app that gives you info about sales and coupons at major grocery stores...

Re grilling, it depends. When we were small, my father built a barbecue at the top of a rise in the corner of the yard. He was proud of his brickwork (it's pretty awesome), and of his barbecuing. He did a lot of that communing while tending the fire (and reading novels from the library). All these years later, it's just about cooking the food. If he grills, on the gas grill, near the door, he can have a steak and my mother can have a steak scented piece of chicken (which is what she wants). Or they'll make a turkey breast, which will become sandwich meat after dinner. Etc. It's a cooking appliance like any in the kitchen, which gives a different flavor and gives my mother a bit of a break. He uses a timer (his generation's version of an app) and pops out to check, but he gets to sit in his comfy chair and be with my mother while it's cooking. They're very happy communing with each other instead of with the dinner. :)

I have an app for that too....it's called a timer. I set it for 5 minutes and it beeps/rings when it's done. It's one of the older apps, developed pre-Apple. Some may recall the silent version, you know....the one filled with sand that only timed a certain period? You had to keep your eye on that one so the improved one with the bell was a great help.

There's an app for everything now-a-days. I too have a flip phone. I want my calls (as few as they are) to be heard. I don't text or anything; my phone is for calls only.

I also have a flip phone, and I do not turn it on unless I want to make a call. I'm not even sure what the number is, and so I cannot give that to anyone. It does not have text capability, and I have no intention of sending texts ever, as I do not like receiving them. I use email a lot less now than I used to (at least at home) and feel no need to have any of the "apps" that I hear about. I prefer to spend time in my back yard enjoying the flowers that I have all year, and they require quite a bit of attention.

I do have two battery operated timers, which will fit in a pocket, but I can have one outside by the barbeque and one inside, if necessary. Kevin generally tends to whatever is being cooked outdoors, as he enjoys making the fires/smoke, and we do cook outside quite a bit. Rain (which has been extremely rare lately) is the only thing that prevents us from cooking outdoors, now that we have more lights outside. This time of year it is easier because of increased daylight. I want to get even more lights installed outside, however, so that the entire back yard can be lit up. It very much increases our living space.

I've done computer programming in the past, and so I am not a technophobe, but I like to keep computers restricted to a certain portion of my time.

Lars

This is so interesting! I have a smartphone as a mobile data platform and I'm fond of my apps, but I don't have it set up for messages and don't text, and hardly ever use it as a phone. People who want to talk to me or leave a message call the house phone. :)

I haven't seen the barbecue app, but I'm guessing it's either (a) a receiver for a temperature probe, or (b) a bunch of timing advice for novices. Or both.

Rather than having dedicated receivers that use radio waves, an awful lot of newer household gadgets use wi-fi or bluetooth to talk to a phone/tablet app. That way you don't have to put the readout for the remote probe in your pocket--it's already in your phone. You can use an app to control your TV, stereo, your central lighting system, garage door, sprinklers, security system. It's a LOT cheaper to make and sell, more convenient if you don't have to keep track of all those remotes, and even at full cash money price, a tablet (let alone smart phone) is cheaper and better built than last decade's wireless display whole house remotes that cost four figures and died after a year.

If you want to cook your meat dead solid spot on perfect, every single time, you have to embrace the technology.

The concept of probe thermometers is hardly new, pro chefs use them all the time.

I think that the bluetooth iphone thermometer is a pretty awesome invention. But I'm one of those who reads his little light box for 3 hours a day.