Shop’NCook Blog

The first Shop’NCook iPhone application has been released about two weeks ago. After a first glitch 3 days after release, everything has run smoothly. During these two weeks, the app has been installed 1424 times and 667 recipes have been uploaded to the Direct Access online database. That is without counting the numerous “test” recipes I had to remove - actually, I had to make a special moderator version of the application just for this purpose.

I would like to share here how I envision Shop’NCook development on the iPhone and iPad.

Why an iPhone application now?

Writing a Shop’NCook iPhone application has been in my to-do list ever since the iPhone was released. It shot to the top of my list however when I saw Steve Jobs’s keynote presentation unveiling the iPad at the beginning of this year.

My first reaction to the iPad was

I want one in the kitchen!

I have many computers at home, but not one in the kitchen. It is a tiny kitchen and I wouldn’t have the place. Mainly, I don’t see myself typing on a keyboard or manipulating a mouse with hands covered in flour.

But the iPad is something else. It doesn’t have small mechanical parts that can become dirty while cooking and barely takes any place. It’s the ideal medium to consult recipes in the kitchen.

That’s when I became really serious about developing a Shop’NCook application for the iPad. Since the iPad was not yet available in Switzerland (it has only been available here for the last two weeks), I started by developping an iPhone application.

What next on the iPad and the iPhone?

I see complementary roles for Shop’NCook applications on the iPad and the iPhone:

• In Shop’NCook for iPad, I want to focus in developing basic recipe editing and organizing capabilities, as well as allowing users to access their recipes from Shop’NCook software for Windows or Mac OS X.
• The iPhone is a great and environmentally-friendly way to take your grocery list to the store. I want to create a Shop’NCook app for iPhone that lets you access your shopping list, but also create grocery lists on the fly from recipes to take better advantage of the specials in the store.

What is the feature you would most like to see on Shop’NCook for the iPhone or iPad? Let me know in the comments below!

Great start
Shop’NCook Lite was off to a great start:

472 users and over 300 new recipes in just three days!

Then crash!
Early this morning, I receive an e-mail to let me know that the app doesn’t even start. A few hours later, the rating on the app store is

one star…

As a user put it:
“The only reason I gave it a 1 star is due to you CAN’T give it a zero! The app won’t even open!”
What happened
I never expected there would be more than a hundred or so new recipes per month on the server.The first time the application is started after installing, it downloads the index of the new recipes on the server. Three hundred new recipes was too much and made the application crash…
What now…
This problem is now fixed. If you have installed the app within the last few hours and could not get it to start, you can try again and it will work now. You don’t have to reinstall the application, as I have only modified the code on the server so that it does not send more than 50 recipes in one time.

I had the happy surprise this morning to discover that my application “Recipe Organizer Shop’NCook Lite” for the iPhone had already been accepted and was listed in the iTunes store.

Shop’NCook Lite lets you browse the recipes of the Direct Access online database and add your own. Go ahead and install your copy now - it’s free!

In a few days, I will tell you more about this new app and about my plans in general for the iPhone and the iPad.

Users of Shop’NCook Direct Access recipe database may have seen recently strange recipes with title “Test iPhone” appearing and disappearing from the recipe list… Well, as you may have inferred, I was busy testing my new iPhone application!

I have just finished submitting it to Apple’s app store: a browser application for the Direct Access recipe database that lets you also add your own recipes to the database too.

Apple’s submission process of new app is said to be very tough - and it’s the first app I submit, - so I don’t expect it to be accepted on the first try. But hopefully it will be available in a few weeks on the app store…

Meanwhile, here are a few pictures of the app.

I will keep you posted here on the status of the submission and tell you more about this app soon. And maybe you’ll soon be organizing your recipes on the iPhone!

As a follow up to yesterday’s post on sending your grocery lists to your mobile phone, here are below Shop’NCook e-mail settings for some main providers. I have written when the settings have been confirmed by users. If you know other working settings or if you confirm some unconfirmed ones, leave a comment below. I will be updating the list regularly.

You enter the e-mail settings in the E-Mail tab of the Preferences. If you cannot find the correct settings for your configuration, try the solution proposed here that should work for everybody.

Important note: After modifying the e-mail settings, you must restart Shop’NCook before sending e-mails.

(more…)

In the last post, I published a video showing a Shop’NCook grocery list on my iPhone. There seems to be some confusion about this - somebody even sent his grocery list to my iPhone!

Anyway, in case you are wondering, you don’t need an iPhone - or a Blackberry, an Android or other smart phone - to get your grocery list on your phone.

Shop’NCook Pro comes with an e-mail feature that makes it really easy to send grocery lists to your phone. It isn’t either a new feature. Actually, it had this capability from the very beginning, - even when it wasn’t usual to read e-mails on mobile phones, - as I wrote Shop’NCook partly because I wanted to be able to send my grocery lists to my husband. But that’s another story…

So what do you need to have your grocery list on your mobile phone?

If your phone supports e-mails, it’s very easy. You just need to set up Shop’NCook to send e-mails to your phone.

If it doesn’t support e-mails but has Java (and chances are that it does), you can sign-up for a browser-based e-mail account like GMail, set up Shop’NCook to send the grocery lists to your new account and install Opera browser for mobiles to view your grocery lists.

In both cases, you get a practical shopping list with checkboxes that you can mark as you go.

Now, even if your phone does not support Java - or if it does, but installing Opera sounds a bit too complicated, - don’t despair! You can probably still have your grocery list sent to your mobile phone very easily. You see, most mobile carriers have a free “SMS gateway”, which takes e-mails and delivers them to your phone as SMS text messages. For example, if your carrier is AT&T, you send an e-mail to your-10-digit-phone-number@txt.att.net - now your have to replace your-10-digit-phone-number by your actual phone number - and receive it as SMS on your phone. Just ask your carrier for the e-mail address you should use (or check this list).

That’s it for sending grocery lists to your mobile phone. More to come soon on setting up Shop’NCook to send e-mails.

I have put together the video below to illustrate the steps from finding a recipe on the internet to having a store-ready grocery list on your iPhone.

And YES, you can send your grocery lists to your iPhone with Shop’NCook - a question I get often. I’ll write more about the iPhone in a future post.

Don’t just watch the video: download the software if you haven’t already - it’s free for a 45-day trial - and go through the steps. See for yourself how easy it is to plan your meals.

I hope you like it! After trying it, I’d love it if you let me know how you did in the comments below.