4 ms·

In the Wall Street Journal review, Joanna Stern managed to put two timers on top of two different pots while she was cooking with the headset on. Was pretty coo

In the Wall Street Journal review, Joanna Stern managed to put two timers on top of two different pots while she was cooking with the headset on. Was pretty cool. I would assume that the next iteration for the Mac and AVP integration would be to break out the windows from the Mac and place them anywhere, unconstrained by the concept of a screen.

al_borland 3y ago
The timer thing was the most impressive and useful thing I’ve seen so far. Which in a way is kind of sad, but it does hint at where things can go in the future. The big leap that still need to be made is the jump from VR to AR, and much smaller. I think AR will make the idea of people wearing this stuff all the time much more socially acceptable. I can’t see an average person putting on the current AVP to cook dinner.
- deng 3y ago
  I'm really struggling here: aside from baking and pressure cooking, why would you ever need a timer for cooking? Is that a cultural thing? Don't you guys see and taste when things are done? (And for pressure cooking, just get an InstantPot, it's cheaper and you don't have to wear it in front of your eyes.)
  - phatfish 3y ago
    Why would you need a timer for pressure cooking? Don't you just stand there staring at it counting the whistles?
  - justsomehnguy 3y ago
    Not the OP, but right now I set a timer on my $200 phone so I can shitpos^W engage in the comments here. I don't need to watch the pot, I don't want to watch the pot. And my pressure cooker has a built-in timer so aside of the initial check what it did got the required pressure I don't need to bother with it at all.
    - deng 3y ago
      As said, I'm fully in favor of timers for pressure cooking. I love my InstantPot. It solves an actual problem. No more turned-to-sludge potatoes! And I think we can agree that if you don't want to watch the pot, having the timer spatially over it makes little sense, and that little phone in your pocket is probably better suited to remind you... BTW, guys, a large part of cooking is actually pipelining: for instance, while the pasta is cooking, you can cook other stuff in parallel!
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - goosedragons 3y ago
    Gives a rough idea/reminder. I'll often wander off and do something else for the 10 minutes it takes to cook pasta or whatever so a timer is preferable to ruining my food. I don't know why I'd need it spatially over the specific dish, my cheapo smart speaker will do multiple just fine.
  - Tagbert 3y ago
    I regularly set timers for things like pasta, steel-cut oats, baking cookies, backing lasagna, roasting chicken, chilling pastry in the fridge. Many of those things take significant time and do not need constant attention. I can wander off and do other things and be reminded when to come back and check on them. (If something takes an hour, I’ll usually set a 30-45min timer to check on progress.) Sometimes that other activity is just sitting in the kitchen table and browsing the web or watching a video. I could do that on the AVP, too. Obviously you wouldn’t pay for an AVP just to set cooking timers, but if you are wearing an AVP, it is handy to be able to do this.
  - al_borland 3y ago
    I don’t do a lot of cooking, but when my dad is cooking for a holiday meal he will almost always have his iPad out to time stuff. He has an app that shows the burners on a stove and he can set times for each one so he can keep track of what’s going on. The stuff might not need exact timing, like with baking, but if he is prepping something else on the counter, or gets caught up in a conversation, the timers keep things from going off the rails. He has a tendency to lose track of some of that stuff without the reminders. He also keeps track of how long things take, so he can better plan in the future, as he tries to get all the stuff to finish up around the same time. When it starts getting close to dinner time there are a lot of timers going off and things seem a bit chaotic, so I think it would be easy for things to fall through the cracks. I don’t think he cooks often, especially not for a group, so it’s not a skill he’s developed where he can just go by feel. The recipe will say something like, “simmer for 10 minutes,” so that’s what he does.
Our_Benefactors 3y ago
Still, is it $3400 better than “Siri, set a timer for 5 minutes; Siri, set a timer for two minutes”?
- thelastparadise 3y ago
  Ah, but which one is for which pot?
  - goosedragons 3y ago
    "Alexa, set a spaghetti timer for 10 min", "Alexa, set a sauce timer for 15 min". 10 minutes later: "Your spaghetti timer is done." 5 minutes later: "Your sauce timer is done." At least this works fine with Alexa, just name the timer.
    - davely 3y ago
      Interestingly (and somewhat surprisingly) you can do this on an Apple Watch. However, you cannot do this on an iPhone (what?!).
      - mercutio2 3y ago
        Perhaps you haven’t updated your version of iOS in the last 4-5 months, or haven’t tried it recently? This is high on the list of surprising warts on iOS that has been fixed.
        davely 3y ago
        Ah, my apologies then. I have updated but out of habit, I haven't tried it on my phone since that feature hasn't worked for years.

al_borland 3y ago

The timer thing was the most impressive and useful thing I’ve seen so far. Which in a way is kind of sad, but it does hint at where things can go in the future. The big leap that still need to be made is the jump from VR to AR, and much smaller. I think AR will make the idea of people wearing this stuff all the time much more socially acceptable. I can’t see an average person putting on the current AVP to cook dinner.

deng 3y ago
I'm really struggling here: aside from baking and pressure cooking, why would you ever need a timer for cooking? Is that a cultural thing? Don't you guys see and taste when things are done? (And for pressure cooking, just get an InstantPot, it's cheaper and you don't have to wear it in front of your eyes.)
- phatfish 3y ago
  Why would you need a timer for pressure cooking? Don't you just stand there staring at it counting the whistles?
- justsomehnguy 3y ago
  Not the OP, but right now I set a timer on my $200 phone so I can shitpos^W engage in the comments here. I don't need to watch the pot, I don't want to watch the pot. And my pressure cooker has a built-in timer so aside of the initial check what it did got the required pressure I don't need to bother with it at all.
  - deng 3y ago
    As said, I'm fully in favor of timers for pressure cooking. I love my InstantPot. It solves an actual problem. No more turned-to-sludge potatoes! And I think we can agree that if you don't want to watch the pot, having the timer spatially over it makes little sense, and that little phone in your pocket is probably better suited to remind you... BTW, guys, a large part of cooking is actually pipelining: for instance, while the pasta is cooking, you can cook other stuff in parallel!
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- goosedragons 3y ago
  Gives a rough idea/reminder. I'll often wander off and do something else for the 10 minutes it takes to cook pasta or whatever so a timer is preferable to ruining my food. I don't know why I'd need it spatially over the specific dish, my cheapo smart speaker will do multiple just fine.
- Tagbert 3y ago
  I regularly set timers for things like pasta, steel-cut oats, baking cookies, backing lasagna, roasting chicken, chilling pastry in the fridge. Many of those things take significant time and do not need constant attention. I can wander off and do other things and be reminded when to come back and check on them. (If something takes an hour, I’ll usually set a 30-45min timer to check on progress.) Sometimes that other activity is just sitting in the kitchen table and browsing the web or watching a video. I could do that on the AVP, too. Obviously you wouldn’t pay for an AVP just to set cooking timers, but if you are wearing an AVP, it is handy to be able to do this.
- al_borland 3y ago
  I don’t do a lot of cooking, but when my dad is cooking for a holiday meal he will almost always have his iPad out to time stuff. He has an app that shows the burners on a stove and he can set times for each one so he can keep track of what’s going on. The stuff might not need exact timing, like with baking, but if he is prepping something else on the counter, or gets caught up in a conversation, the timers keep things from going off the rails. He has a tendency to lose track of some of that stuff without the reminders. He also keeps track of how long things take, so he can better plan in the future, as he tries to get all the stuff to finish up around the same time. When it starts getting close to dinner time there are a lot of timers going off and things seem a bit chaotic, so I think it would be easy for things to fall through the cracks. I don’t think he cooks often, especially not for a group, so it’s not a skill he’s developed where he can just go by feel. The recipe will say something like, “simmer for 10 minutes,” so that’s what he does.

Our_Benefactors 3y ago

Still, is it $3400 better than “Siri, set a timer for 5 minutes; Siri, set a timer for two minutes”?

thelastparadise 3y ago
Ah, but which one is for which pot?
- goosedragons 3y ago
  "Alexa, set a spaghetti timer for 10 min", "Alexa, set a sauce timer for 15 min". 10 minutes later: "Your spaghetti timer is done." 5 minutes later: "Your sauce timer is done." At least this works fine with Alexa, just name the timer.
  - davely 3y ago
    Interestingly (and somewhat surprisingly) you can do this on an Apple Watch. However, you cannot do this on an iPhone (what?!).
    - mercutio2 3y ago
      Perhaps you haven’t updated your version of iOS in the last 4-5 months, or haven’t tried it recently? This is high on the list of surprising warts on iOS that has been fixed.
      - davely 3y ago
        Ah, my apologies then. I have updated but out of habit, I haven't tried it on my phone since that feature hasn't worked for years.