MacGourmet: What's Next?
So, now that version 2.2 and Nutrition have been released, you may be wondering, "what's next?"Well aside from any bug fixes on the new releases, making some cosmetic tweaks for Leopard, and adding a way to enter your own nutritional items to Nutrition, the next big thing on the ol' "To Do" list is menu planning. The heavy design "lifting" has already been done, as have some of the UI elements I'll be using, so it's actually already underway. My hope is that this feature will be simple, and easy to use in a variety of manners. Being redone alongside menu planning will be shopping lists. I've already done the design for this as well, and plan on rolling in a lot of the things people have been asking for. Still, if you have anything specific you'd like to see in either menu planning or shopping lists, feel free to post them in the comments.
You will probably also see some other things in the interim, like new importers and exporters, and maybe some new plug-ins. I'm actually thinking of opening the MacGourmet "Test Kitchen," a place where you can download and try things before they are ready for release, but I haven't finalized the specifics of that yet, it's just an idea I've been kicking around.
So far 90% of the sales of MacGourmet have been to English-speaking countries, so another thing I'm planning to do is, again, try and get localizations done. I had made a push in the past, but that kind of fell flat. Because MacGourmet changes often, and there is so much language, it's been hard to get to a point where localizations can be done. Hopefully version 2.2 will be a good jumping off point. I already have some localizations that had been submitted by people in the past, and I plan to see where I'm at with those. Once that's determined, I'll probably be looking for people to help localize and test localizations, not all at once, but one at a time. Here's the thing though: I'm not sure how I can support non-english speakers. Localizations, while great, I think set the expectations that support will be available in the different languages. We'll have to see how this shakes out. I'd be interested in thoughts from people who are in support of localization in their language. I also don't know how to publicize MacGourmet once it's available in the different languages, so any help with French/German/etc. Mac sites would be welcome.
Labels: Sneak Preview
Digg
This | 
Post
to del.icio.us
posted by Michael on 8:37 AM
| 10
comments
10 Comments:
One of the most read news sites is mactechnews.de, which you may contact at "news at mactechnews dot de". Additionally you may enlist updates at www.mactechnews.de/index.php?function=10 (English will be fine, too).
Another big one is macnews.de, which you may contact at "pr at macnews dot de", or even here: http://macnews.de/intern/77746.html (Ansprechpartner: Redaktion)
MACup.com you may contact at "macup at macup dot com", macwelt.de at "redaktion at macwelt dot de" or http://www.macwelt.de/service/kontakt/
A little swiss one (German-speaking) is macprime.ch, to contact at "info at macprime dot ch" or macprime.ch/kontakt/
There are many other German news sites, but this is probably a point to start at. As editors are speaking English (well, they should do (better than me); I personally don't know any German Journalist not speaking English) it should be no problem at all to translate your English written news so it can be published in German.
Greets from Hamburg, Germany,
Peter
Dear Sir
We provide the Indian directory as well as Foreign directory which has the list of Importers and exporters for various items like apparel and accessories, chemicals, automobiles, handicrafts, textile and other miscellaneous industries.
Kindly visit at http://www.themallofindia.com to know more about importers and exporters .
I am sure that it will definitely prove to a useful guide for the people who are looking for various importers or exporters.
Pinky Jain
(webmaster@themallofindia.com)
Menu planning, and shopping list creation would be even more elegant with a pantry function.
The user who chooses MacGourmet to simplify their menu planning and shopping could not create a final shopping list without checking the pantry. Why not simplify that too?
If a pantry database is already included in your planning, thank you. If not, it would be a terrific way to add value for the serious cooks among us.
Thank you for continuing to make the best even better.
Eric
I am enjoying your software. I think that the Nutrition component should disclose, on the saved recipe, those ingredients that it could not include in the calculation of calories. Also, if a recipe includes another recipe (e.g., a pie crust), the program should be capable to linking the two in order to produce accurate nutrition information.
Thank you for this opportunity to comment on your program. Cheers!
@samckay: You can already get information on the details of your calculations by opening the "Calculation Details" window, accessible from the Nutrition Tools menu.
I've mentioned this before as a feature request, but I didn't get an outright "No way in heck that's going to happen", so I'll mention it again.
Apple TV support.
I'm not sure how doable this is, but when cooking, my wife and I are within view of our large screen TV, but not the computer. So, if we want to cook off some recipe, we either have to print it out from MacGourmet from the iMac, bring the laptop into the kitchen and bring it up on .Mac, or shuttle back and forth to the den. Having the ability to browse MacGourmet recipes on the Apple TV would be fantastic. Big fonts, easy to read from a distance, music playing, etc. Very cool.
Hi Michael,
I had mentioned this before in an email, but thought I'd post it here so others could see too.
"* A calendar meal planner that can also plan using the left overs."
So if for instance, a recipe made 4 servings, but you were only having two the planner would remember that you have two more to plan to use up. It could either ask you to pencil them in right up front (say 1 serving as left over for lunch the next couple days each) or keep a list of leftover servings that haven't been put into the plan yet. And maybe a user defined expiration alarm (maybe a week by default), to remind me to use up older left overs before they go bad. Maybe a dialog could pop up. "You have 2 servings of xyz, that were made on xyz and should be used before xyz."
Also I'm sure this is more detailed than you're looking for, but it would be GREAT if the menu planner could plan prep work that had to be done more than a day in advance. For instance, if I put fried rice into my menu for Friday, that recipe could have an alarm so the menu planner would remind me that I needed to make plain white rice on Thursday night. Now it's not really Thursday night dinner, but it needs to be cooked at the same time as Thursday night dinner...
I second what samckay said about the pie crust. I think MacGourmet would benefit from meta-recipes. This could either be the case where one ingredient in something is an entire other recipe such as in the pie example and this would still be a "recipe". But the same meta-recipe idea could be used to implement "menus", that just add different recipes together (main, side, dessert) to get the nutritional value of the whole thing in one place. And which might also have meta-recipe specific instructions such as "When making these things together, start this first, then that, etc." Also, just realized the "menus" could just be the on the fly data structure of the menu planner and might not need their own permanent place like recipes. Although I still like the idea of that...
I agree with the previous posters about the pantry and leftovers function. They would be perfect for me! As kind of a combination of these, I would also like to be able to track perishable items (like fresh fruit and veggies) along with the leftovers and longer-shelf-life pantry items to know what I need to use up!
Shopping list wishes: Assign a default store/aisle to each ingredient once and have it used in every instance.
Also, be able to add more than one store for an item. For example, I can get lettuce at SuperTarget or HyVee or the Farmer's Market. For items with multiple stores, I would like to be able to choose to create a list where the same item appears under each store, so that I can see which store will get me the most needed items. And I would also like to be able to specify some way to see or flag items that can only be found in a specific store so that I know I have to make a special trip there. The options are endless.
One more thing-I would like to be able to record the date I last prepared a recipe and then sort based on that date. I seem to make the same 10 recipes over and over and would love to be able to see for a given smartlist (say-family favorites)in what order I last prepared them. I could help me make sure I mix things up more.
Look forward to all the new features that have been mentioned!!
I havent purchased a product yet, but if yours had meal planning and pantry I would in a second. I want the best of all features and you seem to have it for web importing and interface. Others have pantry with expiration dates, that removes items from shopping list. I would like it to still show up there with expiration date - so if I see on the list I happen to still have apples in there, but they are 3 months old, I will know to buy it again anyway and clean out the old junk!
This is for way in future but maybe a plugin for families with small children, that tend to eat something different from adults, or partial recipes before you put spices in or something. Having a way to list that in meal planning would be great.
Post a Comment
<< Home