Category: Technology

Recommended Iphone App – Time to Roast

When I first saw this app I thought ‘how ridiculous, who on earth would need that?’ but apparently I do. It’s brilliant. I’m forever googling cooking times for different cuts of meat then digging out a calculator to work out cooking times based on the weight.

It’s dead simple, simply choose the type of meat (e.g beef, lamb, chicken, pork), enter the weight, how you would like it cooked (rare, medium or well done) and presto it displays the exact instructions, including time to sear. There’s even an alarm but I didn’t try that.

[xrrgroup][xrr label=”Overall:” rating=”5/5″ group=”s1″ ] [/xrrgroup]

Available to download  (.69p) from

Disclosure: I have used my own affiliate code for this post. So, on the off-chance that you purchase it I get a measly couple of pence.

What does your iphone say about you?

My hubby was given a hand me down iphone3, which we were very grateful to receive. However, as usual I was left to sort it out. Bless him, he can barely send emails with attachments.

Long story short after nearly bricking it, we had to have it unlocked and I was told under no circumstance should I update it and guess what I did? Anyhow, I managed to get it sorted. But, what I found interesting was the content of the phone prior.

My mate, who gave us the phone, is a food technologist. The phone was full of food type apps; Waitrose, nutrition calculators, shopping lists etc. It made me wonder what our phones/ipads say about us.

I’m not a huge fan of memes but would love to know what

@dadyougeek

@the_moiderer

@annieqpr

@mattbigg’s

@dannynic

@R2UK

@whitespider1066

phones says about them!  Plus, it’s a great way to share good apps.

According to my phone I’m a social media addict! For Christsake, I have a separate folder for it with 3 twitter apps!

 


I’m a mum! Phone has been a godsend, especially when you want one more sneaky drink in the pub.

Lastly, I’m a Libra, slightly OCD and possibly anal. I have at least 8 folders on the first screen! Check out the categories: travel, entertainment, blogging, social media etc. I do worry myself sometimes.


Even if I haven’t tagged you do join in!  If you’ve never done a meme before, basically you write a post similar to this, link back here and then tag a few friends.

My New Gadget (Apple TV)

It all started when I wanted to find a way to get movies from my laptop to the TV without having to burn them onto DVD’s.  After a lot of conversation with the lovely Mark (@thelongmile), I decided to purchase an Apple TV and if you’re like me the first thing you need to know is that it’s not actually a TV.  It’s a small device that you connect to your TV which allows you to stream content from ITunes on your computer to your TV wirelessly.  Plus, you can also purchase and rent videos from ITunes and you can also make back up copies of DVDs you already own.

Prior to buying it I did do a lot of research and the reviews were very mixed.  The biggest complaint was the lack of content in the UK compared to what’s available to Apple TV users in the US.  However, I weighed up all the options, including gaming consoles as they will do a similar thing, and in the end felt that since I was already an Iphone and Ipod user and was familiar with ITunes the Apple TV would be the best for me.

The first stumbling block was when I realised that I needed to have a flat screen TV with HDMI ports on it.  We had an ancient telly so it was time to get a new one anyhow.  After a lot of research we settled on a 32″ Samsung Full HD LED TV.

After a quick trip to the local Apple Store I returned home with the New Apple TV (£99).  As usual, with most Apple product the design is sexy and it’s surprisingly small.  For the most part it was fairly straightforward to install, the only complaints I have are down to operator error.  Only two cables, one power lead and one HDMI cable.  So if, unlike me, you read the instructions you should be fine.

A few notes about installation

  • You will need to purchase the HDMI cable separately.
  • You may have to change the source using your remote.  As I had plugged the Apple TV into HDMI port 2 that’s the one I selected.
  • Have your wireless usernames and passwords to hand before you install it.  I did find the remote a bit fiddly.  My wireless password is 26 characters long with a combination of case sensitive letters and numbers, which was a nightmare to enter on the alphabetic keyboard using the ditty remote.   I just about gave up but got it after the umpteenth attempt and loads of swearing.

The good news is you should only ever have to do this once.  Plus, there is a free Iphone App that will turn your phone into a remote for the Apple TV

  • Make sure you have the latest version of ITunes as you need V10.1 or higher…I didn’t and it took me ages to work out why it wasn’t working.
  • You will also have to set up home sharing, both in ITunes and on the Apple TV.

In ITunes:

Advanced>turn on home sharing

Enter your Apple ID and Password

On Apple TV:

Settings>Computers and turn on home sharing.

I’ve now started to make back-up copies of all Madame’s DVDs.  It’s a bit of a long winded process, especially since I’m a PC user and have no idea what I’m doing, but I’m getting the hang of it.  I have to use two programmes (DVD Encrypter and Handbrake).  However, this may mean no more scratched DVDs!

I’ll keep you posted on how I get on. I’m off to watch Inception with hubby which I downloaded earlier.