iCookbook
Publisher: Publications International, Ltd.
iPad/iPhone/Android application based book
iCookbook is a perfect example of how the definition of what constitutes a book is changing. This is a cookbook, delivered as an application to the iPad/iPhone or Android, containing a variety of recipes licensed from different food brands. Each recipe calls for at least one element to be a specific brand of a produce (whether rice, mayonnaise, etc.) which is dependent on the licensee source. There is a good base diversity, and additional packets of new recipes – approximately 15 each month – are available for free download to expand the book. Further modules of customization must be purchased in recipe packets at approximately #0.99-$2.99 each, such as ‘Cooking with Beer’ or ‘300 Calorie Meals,’ which contain about 25 recipes each. This makes the end result book highly customizable to the interests of each reader.
Searching on iCookbook was mixed. It wasn’t intuitive to filter on multiple areas and that all the filtering was driven by the same top navigation menu on the left. What was expected was a secondary, more refined, filter to appear. This filtering system works, but if someone wants to do Salads and then say only want to refine further to Pasta salads, it’s not that easy to do as all the areas are very high level. Finding vegetarian meals also didn’t prove intuitive as this was considered a “theme” alongside 30-Minute Recipes or One-Dish or Stir-Fry; it seemed that a ‘Diet’ type category with vegetarian along with low salt, gluten free, fat free, and other major areas licensee brands are just now getting into would be appropriate and helpful.
The Recipe Box portion (where you can save stuff to try later) did turn out to be easy to use – both saving recipes to and then accessing them later. Both a Waldorf style salad with rice and a chocolate pie were made from the recipes one Saturday, needing a quick easy fix to round out meals on a hot summer day. However, dragging icons from the searches to the ‘Meal Planner’ on the lower navigation bar as the only way to put together multiple recipes to design a meal didn’t seem intuitive since nothing else in the book application behaves in this manner.
Version 2.1 also includes Voice Control prep support, but this is always hard to test for this reviewer. Voice recognition software seems to have issues with my voice. This feature only appears in the iPad version per the company website.
In all the reading done with this book, it only crashed once. The book rotated several times at one point while balancing it on a lap, and when an attempt was made to steady it, it rotated into a diagonal and froze there. The only solution was to totally let the iPad reboot. This happened on an iPad first generation, and might not be a problem on newer ones.
iCookbook is a great way to get a selection of recipes by licensed brands you know and trust, but there’s also definitely some room for growth.
Disclosure: A free copy of this application based book was furnished by the publisher for review via the publisher, but providing a copy did not guarantee a review. This information is provided per the regulations of the Federal Trade Commission.
Additional Disclosure: The reviewer works in mobile/application/website/virtual world Quality Assurance as her “day job,” but did not work on this particular product nor has any affiliation with it.
