Advisorator Free: A smart way to save recipes
Tip of the moment: A smart way to save recipes
The folks at Macstories bring word of a clever recipe management app called Mela. The app includes five ways to slurp up new dishes:
- Scan them from a book, and Mela will recognize and format the text.
- Search for recipes with the in-app web browser, and you can add them with a couple of taps.
- Use the Share function in iOS to add recipes from other apps.
- Enter a cooking site into the “Feeds” section, and Mela will automatically pull in new recipes as they come out.
- Fill out your own recipes from scratch.
Once you’ve saved a recipe, you can add ingredients to a list in Apple’s Reminders app, scale the recipe size up or down, and enter a “cook” mode that makes text larger while keeping your screen on.
The app’s recipe recognition wasn’t flawless in my experience. It had trouble dealing with a printed recipe that ran across two pages, and it couldn’t register descriptions on Tastecooking.com. Still, you can always modify or add to any recipe manually—something you might want to do anyway—and the RSS-based Feeds feature is a smart way to scan for new dishes. It’s worth the $5 one-time purchase price if you want to experiment with a novel way of tracking your culinary endeavors.
The latest from PCWorld
When it works, a text shortcut tool can feel like magic. Create a few shortcuts for your most frequently typed phrases or sentences, and you can enter them instantly with just a few keystrokes. With a bit of practice, text shortcuts—also known as text expansion—can cut down on vast amounts of repetitive typing.
Beeftext is an open-source Windows program that’s free to use and simple to set up. Once you’ve installed the app, you set up “combos” that include the text you want to write and a short keyword you use to make that text appear.
I first wrote about Beeftext for paid Advisorator subscribers earlier this year, and it’s quickly become one of my must-have apps. You can read all about it in my latest syndicated Advisorator column at PCWorld.
Spend wisely
Apple’s AirPods Pro are currently down to the lowest price I’ve seen in a while. You can grab them for $180 on Amazon, which is $70 off the list price and $10 less than some other sales we’ve seen recently. Nice deal if you want easy-to-pair iPhone earbuds with active noise cancellation.
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Jared