The video shows the App in operation, and so users can see how the program works before going to the iTunes App Store.

The video shows cookCal being used to calculate the amount of time that would be needed if you were following instructions such as: “cook for 10 minutes, and then at 20 minutes per pound (lb), and rest for 15 minutes before carving”. The calculation is also shown in metric (kilograms, kilo, kg).

The video finishes with a demonstration of how to calculate start and end times, and how the inbuilt presets can be used for calculating cooking times for beef (rare, medium, and well done), chicken, duck, goose, lamb (medium rare, medium, and well done), pork and a range of turkey sizes.

For more information visit the cookCal home page or read our recent blog post.

cookCal is available on the iTunes App Store

So, what is new in cookCal?

cookCal is a very easy to use cookery calculator that helps you do those tricky calculations such as cooking a piece of meat from 25 minutes, and then at 20 minutes per pound (or 44 minutes per kilo), and resting for 15 minutes before carving. Using the calculator is very easy, you just touch on the number that you wish to enter until it turns green (see the screen shot below – standing time shown), and then using the number buttons to enter new values.

With version 1.0 you could:

1. Enter the time per weight (min per pound or min per kilo)
2. The weight as kilo (kg) or pounds (lb)
3. Any standing time or pre-cook set times (such as the 25 minutes in the above example)
4. Set a start time and get an end time, or set an end time for cooking and get the start time.

It was also possible with cookCal to enter a time per weight for min per pound cooking, and the weight in kilos (or vice-versa) and get the cooking time calculated.

Version 2.0 of cookCal, builds on version 1 and has some great new features and these include:

1. Pre-cook set times (such as the 25 minutes in the above example) can be added
2. A post-cooking standing (relaxing) time can be added
3. Start and end cooking times, and the time to remove the meat from the oven, can all be calculated – enter a start time and get the end time, enter an end time and get a start time, enter the time you wish to remove the meat from the oven and get start and end times calculated
4. Cooking guide – meat presets – cookCal now comes with a number of suggested cooking times, and oven temperatures, for a range of meats including beef (rare, medium, and well done), chicken, duck, goose, lamb (medium rare, medium, and well done), pork and a range of turkey sizes.

Just like version 1.0 there is also an extensive help section built in to cookCal.

Screen shots of cookCal

New imperial cookCal calculator
If your recipe called for the meat to be cooked for 15 minutes and then at 20 minutes per pound, with a 10 minutes rest before carving, then the data would be entered as shown above. The 10 minutes would be entered as the ‘Set Time’ and the resting time as the ‘Standing’ time.

New metric cookCal calculator
If your recipe called for the meat to be cooked for 15 minutes and then at 44 minutes per pound, with a 10 minutes rest before carving, then the data would be entered as shown above. The 10 minutes would be entered as the ‘Set Time’ and the resting time as the ‘Standing’ time.

Cooking start and end times calculator
Once the required cooking time (including any resting time) has been calculated it is possible to calculate start and/or end times. If you enter a start time the time to remove from the oven (assuming there is a rest time) and the time for serving will be calculated. Alternatively, the end time can be entered and the start time calculated. It is even possible to enter the time you wish to remove the food from the oven and have the start and end time calculated.

Suggested cooking times and temperatures
cookCal now has inbuilt cooking guide for a range of meats including beef (rare, medium, and well done), chicken, duck, goose, lamb (medium rare, medium, and well done), pork and a range of turkey sizes. The calculator gives suggested cooking temperature, cooking time, cooking time per weight, rest times, and some cooking hints.

Suggested cooking times and temperatures
cookCal also comes with an extensive help section.

cookCal is now available for download on the iTunes App Store.

The new version of cookCal was submitted to the App Store late afternoon on Sunday 7 February, 2010, and was approved and available for download by the evening of Wednesday 10 February, 2010…. Great! Fantastic!

It is great to see that Apple has listened to its developers and improved App store review process. And, again, I am sorry about the poor score I gave!!!

Well, currently MMISoftware has 14 iPhone / iPod Touch Apps on the iTunes App Store (MMISoftware at the App Store). These include:

chemCal – chemistry calculator for students
beatCal – beat and rhythm timer
TipTax – a tip and tax calculator
cookCal – cooking time calculator
snowNews – latest news from ski and snowboarding resorts – FREE
bodyCal – a BMI and BMR calculator
bmiCal – a BMI calculator
bmrCal – a BMR calculator
bmiPounds – a BMI calculator – FREE
bmiStone – a BMI calculator – FREE
bmiKilo – a BMI calculator – FREE
bmrPounds – a BMR calculator – FREE
bmrStone – a BMR calculator – FREE
bmrKilo – a BMR calculator – FREE

(BMI = body mass index; BMR = basal metabolic rate)

Now according to Apple all these above Apps will run unmodified on the iPad. However, MMISoftware will be checking out all their Apps on the iPad simulator in the SDK (and a real iPad as soon as I can get my hands on one)…

Plus, MMISoftware has some other Apps in the works, and these may need a small re-think.

But the question is, what to do to take advantage of all that screen space? Well, MMISoftware has a few ideas, so watch this space….

So, what is snowNews?

snowNews is a free App for the iPhone and iPod Touch for downloading the latest news from ski and boarding resorts around the world. snowNews directly follows the official twitter accounts of around 200 ski resorts (more being added all the time), and also takes the twitter news feed from theSnowSite.com (@theSnowSite), which reports on around 600 ski and boarding sites. With snowNews you can keep up with the latest snow conditions, special offers and general news from around 800 ski and boarding areas all in one App.

snowNews – news loading screen – available on the iTune App Store

So, if you want to keep up with the latest news from ski and snowboarding sites or resorts around the world then give snowNews a try – IT IS FREE – and available now on the iTune App Store.

Initial download figures from mobclix (see earlier post) were very strong. In fact they were so strong I was blown away by them. I couldn’t believe them. However, there was one very odd thing, mobclix was reporting very high downloads, but very few page impressions being served of the adverts in the snowNews. This made no sense. Today it all became clear. The mobclix download/user data was around a 1,000 fold out from the data reported by Apple. Things suddenly make more sense….

Oh, well, I guess the next App will be the big one. It was a fun ride whilst it lasted though….

The new mobile blog for MMISoftware can be found at http://mmisoftware.co.uk/iblog, or if you visit the usual blog using an iPhone or iPod Touch you will be redirected to the new mobile site….

MMISoftware – mobile blog page

beatCal is a rhythm/stroke/beat/pulse calculator that you can use to either work out the rhythm/stroke/beat/pulse of something, or you can use to set a rhythm or stroke rate. For example, the calculator could be used for working out a pulse rate, the stroke rate of a rowing squad, or the rhythm of some other event. The calculator then tells you the beats per minute.

The calculator can be used in one of three ways:

1. Tap Mode (T)
2. Count Mode (C)
3. Beat Mode (B)

In Tap Mode (T) you tap in the beat on the screen, and the calculator tells you the beats per minute. In Count Mode (C) you count the beat, so you would set the calculator to the number of beats you wish to count, start the timer, count the beats, and when the number is reached stop the timer. The calculator will now display the number of beats per minute. Finally, Beat Mode (B) can be used to set a tempo/beat for something. An example may be exercise on a rowing machine where you want to maintain a stroke rate of 20 strokes per minute. The calculator can give you the stroke rate in one of three ways (and these can be set using the sliders), as a beep, as a flash, or as a vibration.

Tap Beat – with beatCal you can work out the beat rate (for example the stroke rate of a rowing crewing) by tapping the iPhone/iPod Touch screen in time with the event and the calculator will show current and average rate (plus elapsed time and number of beats)

Count Beat – with beatCal you can also set the calculate to a ‘count’ (see below), start the calculator, and then count the number of beats, and then press stop. The calculator will then display the current rate (and the average since the calculator was started).

The count rate used in Count Beat (and also Beat Mode) can be set using a standard iPhone/iPod Touch picker.

beatMode – with beatCal you can use the App as part of your training routine. You can set a beat rate and then have the calculator give you the rate as a beep, buzz (vibration) or flash of the screen (or any combination). This is ideal for use in the gym where you may want to keep a sustained stroke rate going on a rowing machine, or a stair master. In addition, you can listen to music on beatCal, and still hear the ‘beep’ of the beat rate given.

For more information on beatCal please visit the beatCal home page.

beatCal is available on the App Store.

So, following their story….

According to their story Apple App store sales are about $70-$160 million.

According to http://148apps.biz there are:

Active Apps: 37,956
Total Inactive Apps: 4,577
Total Apps Seen: 42,533
Unique App Publishers: 11,510

Therefore, $70-$160 million between 11,510 developers means $6,000 to $14,000 per developer.

As I am not making that sort of money (yet!), and I would guess a lot of the 11,500 are ‘one-hit-wonders’, or free App developers, I can only conclude that the stories of a small number of people making a LOT of money must be true…

Now if only I could join that exclusive club! And, if you would like to help me join that club please have a look at our iPhone Apps:

chemCal

chemCal is a basic chemistry concentration and dilutions calculator for students studying the life sciences, chemistry, biology, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, microbiology, biomedical sciences etc., at school, college, and university.

TipTax

TipTax is an easy to use tip and tax calculator for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The calculator also has some built in math functions to allow you to work out bills, including tips, per person.

cookCal

cookCal is designed to help with those tricky kitchen calculations where you have to work out the cooking time for food based on weight (kilos or pounds).

bodyCal

bodyCal is a quick and easy to use body mass index (BMI) calculator for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The calculator is capable of working in imperial (stones and pounds) and metric (kg and m).

TipTax is a very simple to use tip and tax calculator for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Just enter the cost, and the percent, and the calculator works out the total. If the percentage is input as a negative number then the tax is worked out, if entered as a positive number then the tip is worked out. The calculator can also add, multiple, subtract and divide, so a cost of a meal, plus tip, can be worked out per person. If you leave a tip, the percentage value of the tip can be worked out.

Features:

• easy input
• calculates amount to leave as a tip from a percent
• calculates percentage left from tip
• calculates true cost before tax
• helps work out the bill per person

Tip calculator – TipTax

Tax calculator – TipTax
(Note: to calculate tax you use ‘negative’ percentage values)

Tiptax Help

There is also a TipTax demo video available:

TipTax is now available for download on the iTunes App Store.