Former Microsoft CTO creates beautiful culinary app exclusively for iPad

Posted:
in iPad edited January 2014
Microsoft's former chief technology officer Nathan Myhrvold loves both science and food, a combination that resulted in Modernist Cuisine, a six volume foodie encyclopedia that's now available in a digital form exclusively as an iPad app.





After applying his interest in science and technology to the culinary arts to create the original Modernist Cuisine, Myhrvold created a distilled "At Home" cookbook, featuring the same beautifully illustrated focus on expert cooking technique in app form.

However, despite his high profile background in tech (Myhrvold founded Microsoft Research in 1991 and spent 13 years at the software company) he "wanted nothing to do with digital," avoiding any eBook or PDF version of his cooking reference,
stated Mark Wilson writing for Fast Company.

"His concern was around usability," explained Matt MacInnis, the founder and CEO of Inkling, the publishing platform used to deliver the iPad app. "He has an insane attention to detail. The notion he'd do this on a normal ebook reader wouldn't do justice to the work he'd put into it."

After an initial rejection of the idea by Myhrvold, MacInnis outlined a project to do the cookbook justice on the iPad as an interactive app, a project that would involve a development team of 10-15 people working over nine months.

The result is a interactive work that includes 37 technique videos, 416 recipes and 1,683 photos. Recipe cards dynamically adjust the measure of ingredients you'll need to yield a given number of servings, then add these items to a shopping list.

Myhrvold targets iPad despite scathing tablet market press releases

Myhrvold


In addition to crafting culinary literature, Myhrvold cofounded Intellectual Ventures, a patent acquisition and licensing business that's earned him the pejorative of "patent troll" from his critics over the past decade.

Last summer, AppleInsider covered Myhrvold's defense of intellectual property in a conversation with Walt Mossberg at the Wall Street Journal All Things Digital conference.

Myhrvold's decades of background in business and technology, combined with his master's degree in mathematical economics, led him to publish his book on iOS despite grave warnings from IDC, Gartner and Strategy Analytics announcing that Apple's share of the tablet market is falling, has fallen and will possibly continue to fall.

Microsoft says apps don't matter as Surface fails to sell

Microsoft itself is still struggling with the concept of mobile apps, despite originally being one of the first companies to recognize the commercial importance and potential of software back in the 1980s.

Last year, Cameron Evans, the chief technology officer of Microsoft Education, tried to explain to the The Denver Post that the limited number of apps for Windows 8 wasn't really a big deal.

"Why do we have so many apps in the first place? The reason why we have so many apps is because when the first smartphones were created, they didn't have enough processing power to run the full Web," Evans said. He then demonstrated a "a popular iOS game" running within Internet Explorer "on a Samsung tablet powered by Windows 8."

"Instead of something that looks like a website, it's functioning and moving for me like an app would," Evans said. "The Web is there, it's open, it's free, so why do you need 700,000 apps?"

Andy Vuong, writing for The Post, added, "even so, Microsoft is making a push to bolster its lineup of Windows 8 apps."



Since then, Microsoft has spent over $1 billion advertising Windows 8 and its its own Surface tablet, then reported writing off $900,000,000 in unsold Surface inventory after sales flopped.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 48

    Everyone comes to iOS eventually ;), and the iPad is the perfect consumption and productivity tool.  People are using apps for all types of business and education these days, your life can really be an 'App 360' of digital productivity. Microsoft just doesn't get it with the Surface. Yeah its a good unit and probably well designed, but when your productivity is limited to only MS Office, it makes for a pretty constrained life. I believe that market appeal of the Surface will just continue to decrease as the 'App 360' across the iOS and Android ecosystem will consume more and more of peoples lives and investment. As such, people will depend on their devices more and more...(I'm never parted from my smart phone), hence the move to wearable devices and less importance placed on MS Office, because no-one wants to compliment their life with MS Word, you really want to leave that at work, if you even use it at all???.

  • Reply 2 of 48
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member

    It's pretty telling that this former MS CTO is releasing his app for iPad and not for the Surface. The Surface is a damn joke. iPads are where it's at. He's not stupid, he wants his app to sell, and he wants to sell it to people who actually buy apps, and he wants to sell it on the best app store in the world.

     

    First of all, there's the Surface Pro, which is not really a tablet, it's just a laptop, with laptop components inside, including ridiculous fans, and it's basically a laptop that got it's keyboard chopped off.

     

    Then there's the Surface RT, which is a huge flop. I pity the ignorant people who would waste their money on one of those, as it has no future at all.

  • Reply 3 of 48
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    I'm guessing the ex MS CEO also loves food! :D
  • Reply 4 of 48
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    kormoran13 wrote: »
    Everyone comes to iOS eventually ;) , and the iPad is the perfect consumption and productivity tool.  People are using apps for all types of business and education these days, your life can really be an 'App 360' of digital productivity. Microsoft just doesn't get it with the Surface. Yeah its a good unit and probably well designed, but when your productivity is limited to only MS Office, it makes for a pretty constrained life. I believe that market appeal of the Surface will just continue to decrease as the 'App 360' across the iOS and Android ecosystem will consume more and more of peoples lives and investment. As such, people will depend on their devices more and more...(I'm never parted from my smart phone), hence the move to wearable devices and less importance placed on MS Office, because no-one wants to compliment their life with MS Word, you really want to leave that at work, if you even use it at all???.

    Welcome to the blog.

    All good points.

    I have to say when we eventually get to the point in history where we have devices implanted in our heads I'll be in line outside the Apple Store not the Samsung or Microsft one! (assuming I'm still here) :D
  • Reply 5 of 48
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member

    Anyone who is interested art, culture, and style eventually ends up using Apple products.

  • Reply 6 of 48
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mstone View Post

     

    Anyone who is interested art, culture, and style eventually ends up using Apple products.


     

    I agree.

     

    I'm more into the art side of things, as opposed to business, and virtually everybody that I know is an Apple user. It's a blessing that I don't have a single friend who is an Android user, because that tells me right there that they are not worth knowing. I have no time for uncultured people.

     

    And who gives a crap about Office and those sorts of things? I'm not a damn secretary. I do know one person who still uses Windows, but in his case, it's because he couldn't afford anything else at the time, so I don't usually give him a hard time.

  • Reply 7 of 48
    Let's see your windoze 8 tablet run something like Infinity Blade in explorer Mr Evans...
  • Reply 8 of 48
    I would like to be able to support Modernist Cuisine, but Myhrvold's "real" job as co-founder of Intellectual Ventures (aka one of the biggest patent trolls) means no thanks.
  • Reply 9 of 48
    $80 US? Well it certainly is priced like a Microsoft app. Looks beautiful, but that's a lot of cabbage for a cook book...
  • Reply 10 of 48
    focherfocher Posts: 687member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by pdxfrogdog View Post



    I would like to be able to support Modernist Cuisine, but Myhrvold's "real" job as co-founder of Intellectual Ventures (aka one of the biggest patent trolls) means no thanks.

    Exactly. The guy is a fucking scumbag. Don't support him or this app.

  • Reply 11 of 48
    fh-ace wrote: »
    $80 US? Well it certainly is priced like a Microsoft app. Looks beautiful, but that's a lot of cabbage for a cook book...

    Expensive indeed Not cheap, no. Then again, 9 months for a whole team...they gotta eat.

    I didn't see a link in the article:
    https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/modernist-cuisine-at-home/id731685730?l=en&mt=8
  • Reply 12 of 48
    Wow someone really likes writing articles about the surface to mention it in an article on a cook book.

    10 - 15 devs over 9 months is a lot of resource! Just shy of £2 million. Must be an epic cook book.
  • Reply 13 of 48
    feynmanfeynman Posts: 1,087member
    I'd also like their business users to try these "comparable" web apps when they are on a business trip and have no access to the web on their cross country or cross Atlantic airplane trip. Or in a motel that does not have internet access. Or or or or or....
  • Reply 14 of 48
    fh-ace wrote: »
    $80 US? Well it certainly is priced like a Microsoft app. Looks beautiful, but that's a lot of cabbage for a cook book...

    You haven't checked out what the hard cover copy set sells for, apparently.
  • Reply 15 of 48
    timgriff84 wrote: »
    Wow someone really likes writing articles about the surface to mention it in an article on a cook book.

    10 - 15 devs over 9 months is a lot of resource! Just shy of £2 million. Must be an epic cook book.

    Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking by Nathan Myhrvold Hardcover $525.73 on sale at Amazon. w00t!!!
  • Reply 16 of 48
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    I guess he wasn't a good enough dancer to dev for the Surface.
  • Reply 17 of 48
    apple ][ wrote: »
    It's pretty telling that this former MS CTO is releasing his app for iPad and not for the Surface. The Surface is a damn joke. iPads are where it's at. He's not stupid, he wants his app to sell, and he wants to sell it to people who actually buy apps, and he wants to sell it on the best app store in the world.

    First of all, there's the Surface Pro, which is not really a tablet, it's just a laptop, with laptop components inside, including ridiculous fans, and it's basically a laptop that got it's keyboard chopped off.

    Then there's the Surface RT, which is a huge flop. I pity the ignorant people who would waste their money on one of those, as it has no future at all.

    Who was the Microsoft VP who said if he weren't working for Microsoft, he'd be using a MacBook? Anyone remember that?
  • Reply 18 of 48
    fh-ace wrote: »
    $80 US? Well it certainly is priced like a Microsoft app. Looks beautiful, but that's a lot of cabbage for a cook book...

    Modernist Cuisine: Ultimate Edition... for $399.
  • Reply 19 of 48
    stompystompy Posts: 408member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by pdxfrogdog View Post



    I would like to be able to support Modernist Cuisine, but Myhrvold's "real" job as co-founder of Intellectual Ventures (aka one of the biggest patent trolls) means no thanks.

    Thank you. Only reason I clicked on this article is to post the same thing. If you must have it, get a used copy.

  • Reply 20 of 48
    ipilyaipilya Posts: 195member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post





    Modernist Cuisine: Ultimate Edition... for $399.

     

    What was the Ballmer quote again about the price of the iPhone?

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