foodanddrink
Latest
Smartphone accessory 3D-scans your food to count calories
Visual calorie-counting apps have appeared on smartphones before, but typically involved object identification through the camera (or barcode scanning, which isn't quite the same). Other apps, with more expensive subscription costs, would direct your photos to people hired to work out what you were putting in your mouth.While this route would probably offer the most precise answers, it's also not an instant one, and learning that delicious meat pie you ate for dinner goes over your calorie count for the day is no use once it's already long gone. The NutriRay3D adds some hardware to your existing smartphone, scanning the contents of your plate with lasers for high-precision calorie and nutrient estimates -- it's looking to crowdfunding to make it all happen.
More restaurants can sign up for Uber's delivery service
UberRush, the ride-sharing company's food delivery service, is still only active in San Francisco, Chicago and New York, sorry to say. The good news is that it's no longer limited to the small group of establishments that tested it. Now, any restaurants in those three locations can sign up to be part of the service, according to Eater. Uber's partner delivery platform ChowNow customizes ordering apps for each restaurant, allowing them to tweak options based on what they're selling.
Calorie counting made easier with this pretty lunch box
Today's technology can do fitness tracking without much manual input, but that's not the case with food tracking. There's simply no "smart fork" just yet that can measure your nutritional intake, and the best solutions right now require you to follow a food plan or log the information yourself, neither of which is ideal without some way of properly quantifying the food you're eating. With that in mind, a startup has come up with the Prepd Pack, which is a good-looking modular lunch box that comes with professional recipes tied to iOS' HealthKit. In other words, simply fill up the box with one of these recipes and your iPhone will know how much nutrition you're gobbling up; and if you like, you'll also get the added convenience of preparing lunches for multiple days in one go.
Here's how you make coffee in the International Space Station
Now that the International Space Station is in bloom, how about a nice cup o' joe to enjoy alongside the (single piece of) greenery? European Space Agency astronaut Tim Peake pulls out a coffee with cream vacuum pack (with the delicious sounding sugar substitute), and inserts it into the most high-tech kettle we've ever seen. This injects hot water into the pack, and one plastic straw later you're drinking space coffee. Which is obviously the best kind of coffee. It seems astronauts are still waiting on that space-ready espresso machine from Lavazza.
The water bottle of the future has a built-in screen
It's a water bottle with a color screen built-in. Nothing sounds more "ugh, CES" than that. However, the product is more serious than it sounds. And heavier than it looks. It also does more than just measure your water intake. LifeFuels is a new company, and this is its first product ever: a smart "nutrition" bottle that adds pre-measured amounts of concentrated supplements and flavors to the water inside. There's space inside the lid for five different "fuel pods", while Bluetooth connectivity to your phone will keep you updated on exactly how much water (coconut-flavored or otherwise) you've drank in the day.
The Engadget Guide to Tokyo
Robots, the otaku culture epicenter, the country that gave us Nintendo, Sony and Hatsune Miku. In Tokyo, there's so much to see -- and maybe that's why I live here. Being the good friend that I am, I've curated a map of restaurants, shops and attractions that are a must for tech-happy tourists and Engadget readers.You can explore the map above (though that two-finger scroll turns into a zoom when your cursor is over the map). Click on one of those pretty little icons to bring up details about the place and to get our visitor's tips. Or, if that one isn't big enough, you can visit full-sized map right here. (Pro tip: if you star the map, all the locations will magically appear starred on your own Google Map apps.) This is a work in progress, so let me know in the comments if there's somewhere I've missed -- it's a big town.
Why not make a McNugget vending machine out of Legos?
The answer? Because after about 15 minutes they're not nearly as good. That minor hiccup aside, the YouTubers at Astonishing Studios have created this to celebrate the glorious food-like item that is the chicken nugget. Built and automated entirely by Lego Mindstorms, it can identify and process the proper payment before dispensing a four piece package of McNuggets on demand, with sauce. It only holds a couple of cartons, but without any way to heat -- of course Japan has that figured out -- or cool them, that sounds about right.
Uber food delivery gets an app of its own
Uber has tried a wide variety of services as of late, but they've always been crammed into the company's main app. More than a little awkward, don't you think? Mercifully, it's splitting things up by giving UberEats an app of its own. The dedicated title (currently iOS-only) tries to beat GrubHub and Seamless at their own game by emphasizing simplicity in your food selection. There's an Instant Delivery menu that offers just a handful of items you can get in less than 10 minutes, and a popular item list for each restaurant. While you can order from full menus, Uber is betting that you'd like to avoid poring over dining choices at the end of a long day.
ICYMI: Dreamy robo-chef, concussion finder and smart wallet
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-648925{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-648925, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-648925{width:570px;display:block;}try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-648925").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Moley the robot-chef will man your kitchen and creep out your friends by sometime in 2017, cooking up stored recipes just like you first taught it to. Aka the end is neigh. A new iPad app on Indiegogo is designed to keep possibly concussed young athletes from re-injuring their brains with a simple white dot test. And the Walli is a bluetooth-connected wallet that will send you notifications should you forget to replace a card in it, or leave your phone behind.
NASA's Space Cups help astronauts drink like they do on Earth
Astronauts can't really enjoy beverages the way you do here on Earth. They have to drink from a pouch through a straw, which is about as glamorous as sipping from a juice box. NASA and IRPI are giving those spacefarers their dignity back, however. They're experimenting with Space Cups that, as the name implies, let astronauts drink as they would at home. The vessels use a mix of their unique geometry, surface tension and wetting to keep the liquids headed toward your mouth. As you'll see in the clips below, it's very hard to spill anything... at worst, you can shake loose a couple of globules that are easy to recapture.
Track your Domino's order via a Pebble smartwatch
A Pebble smartwatch is handy for a number of things, and now you can use it to keep tabs on your pizza order. Thanks to Domino's app for said gadget, you can monitor the status of your Wisconsin 6 Cheese pie, Crispy Bacon & Tomato Specialty Chicken and Stuffed Cheesy Bread with a glance at your wrist. The app shows updates when food is being made, baking, undergoing a "quality check" and either ready for pickup or on its way to your door. Don't have a Pebble? There are options for ordering via iPad, TV and more, because of course.
This three-year-old pizza won't kill you
It's the zombie apocalypse, and the only items on the menu are a year-old pizza and cockroach sashimi -- which would you choose? Well, if that pepperoni-smattered pie came from the US Army's Natick Labs, you've hit the jackpot. A team of food scientists at the facility are apparently hard at work developing pizza that can stay good for up to three years, specifically for deployed soldiers' pre-packaged meals. In fact, they just finished making a prototype this February. It took the team two years to perfect the current recipe, because you can't just dip slices in vats of preservatives and hope for the best. They used humectants (ingredients like sugars, salts and syrups) to keep the crust from being soggy and changed the acidity of the sauce, dough and cheese to prevent bacterial growth. While the prototype's nowhere near ready for distribution, the munchie experts' taste testers claim it's as good as something you'd "get from a pizza parlor." They didn't mention if it's more of a Papa John's or a Little Caesar's, but hey, at least it's not made out of pulverized insects. [Image credit: AP Photo/Steven Senne]
New Microsoft app brings recipes and grocery lists to your Windows Phone
The Bing Food & Drink app for Windows 8.1 is handy if you need to look up a recipe on your PC, but what if you're searching for ingredients at the store? Never fear, as Microsoft has quietly released a beta Windows Phone version of its culinary software. Much like its desktop counterpart, the mobile port will let you both search for great meals and create grocery lists. Microsoft makes full use of its own platform by syncing selections with the desktop app, putting a Live Tile on the home screen and making it easy to share favorites. Lumia-toting amateur chefs will want to grab the app today from the Windows Store.
Pizza Hut app comes to Xbox 360, unstoppable force meets immovable gamer
Let's be frank: many dedicated console gamers among us have at least briefly dreamed of ordering food without having to lift our hands from the controller. That's about to be more than a fleeting fantasy for Xbox 360 owners, as Microsoft is launching a Pizza Hut app today for those permanently lodged in the living room. The release puts all of the delivery menu a quick hop away on the Dashboard, including custom orders. Buyers can tempt their friends through Facebook, and there's even Kinect support for greasy-handed customers who'd rather not touch the gamepad (or a napkin, apparently) when requesting a second serving. Microsoft stresses that the Pizza Hut partnership isn't the start of a broad trend toward ordering real products through an Xbox, which is just as well -- our arteries can only take so much inactivity at once.
Yelp adding hygiene ratings to New York and San Francisco restaurant listings
Yelp is great for sizing up unvisited eateries, and soon some users will be able to complement review results with a side of hygiene inspection ratings. "Health Scores" will be added to listings in New York and San Francisco over the next few weeks, with Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago next in line. The most recent rating will show up on the restaurant hub, but go deeper and you'll find a history of recent inspections, including notes on any violations. A "new open data standard" called LIVES (Local Inspector Value-entry Specification) is behind the feature, allowing local authorities to add inspection outcomes straight into Yelp. We're sure users will appreciate the extra info when scoping out new places, or even checking up on old favorites -- but they might not like what they find. One example restaurant linked in Yelp's blog post has a Health Score of 92 out of 100, which sounds all good until you see one of the most recent violations was due to "Rodents / Roaches / Flies / Other Animals." Tasty!
New Food & Drink App Store category now live
Finding apps to help you cook and serve up drinks just got a lot easier thanks to Apple's new Food & Drink category. Announced last week by Apple, Food & Drink is now live in both the desktop version of iTunes and the iOS App Store on the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Just like other categories, the new Food & Drink category tracks the top paid and free apps as well as new and hot apps. This new category may be a minor improvement for users, but it's a welcome change for developers who write apps that fall in this category. Previously, these apps were lumped into the much larger Lifestyle category.
Apple to add food and drink category to App Store
Yesterday, Apple sent out a letter to developers detailing a new Food and Drink category that is coming to the App Store in a few weeks. The category is to include "apps that help users cook and bake, mix drinks, manage recipes, find new restaurants and bars, and learn what their friends like to eat and drink." Pertinent applications, many of which are currently listed in the Lifestyle category of the App Store, will be moved automatically to the new category by Apple. There are currently thousands of apps for managing recipes and finding restaurants, and the upcoming iOS 6 Maps application will add to the mix by including Yelp check-ins. The Food & Drink category isn't expected to include diet, coupon clipping, food-related game, or grocery shopping apps. Apple's letter noted that developers have until July 8, 2012 to opt out of having their apps moved to the new category. [via The Verge]
There's literally no app for this: KIRF iPhone-branded gas stoves seized by Chinese authorities
Ordinarily, if you use your iPhone to fry eggs, it's time to check when your warranty expires. Not so for these KIRF iPhones, which can't make calls or download apps (let alone use Siri) but can fry your bacon rather well. 681 of these bafflingly branded gas stoves were seized by police in Wuhan, each bearing the legend "Apple China Limited." Apparently the units did not come with flame-out protection and only ran iOS 4.1, leading to the swoop. We should probably take that as solid confirmation that the iPhone 6's killer feature is going to involve making brunch on the go.
Domino's Pizza Hero iPad app coaxes you to design a pie, order one shortly thereafter
If the idea of pinching, zooming and tapping on your iPad is far less appealing than kneading, sprinkling and cutting, then the Domino's Pizza Hero iPad app may just be right up your alley. Putting aspiring pizza makers to the test, the game challenges players to assemble a pie as quickly as possible for points. Once you've passed levels one through five, affectionately nicknamed "Pizza School," other players will get a chance to rate your performance -- ultimately making or breaking your pizza career. If concocting virtual pies was enough to make you hungry, fear not famished souls as the app let's you order the real deal direct from your iPad -- now that's amore. Check out the gallery and video after the break.%Gallery-140086% Dante Cesa contributed to this report.
iPad use case: Foodie
Over the past few weeks, we've heard many people say, "The iPad is cool, but what would I do with it?" This new series aims to answer that question. We'll examine one user case per post, from couch surfer to mobile professional, and describe just how that person uses his or her iPad. I love food. In fact, I probably love it too much. Part of the problem is that I was a ovo-lacto vegetarian for 17 years and a pesco-vegetarian for 5 years after that. Now, I want to eat all of those things that were "forbidden fruit" for 22 years, and it has really made me appreciate good food. Being a foodie isn't just about eating food, however. It's also about having the skill and desire to cook food. Yeah, that means being a wannabe gourmet chef. And there's one more piece to the foodie puzzle - beverages. I mean, what's the use of being able to whip up a killer bison chili without knowing what wine or beer would go best with it? What I've found is that the iPad is a much better foodie-puter than either a MacBook or an iPhone. I can turn off screen dimming, twist the Apple iPad Case around so that the iPad is standing straight up, and see recipes from across the kitchen. Even with the screen at regular brightness, I don't have to worry about my battery getting chewed up while I'm working on a time-consuming dinner. Want to know what apps I'm using to feed my foodie jones? Read on...
