You are what you eat, and what you eat also happens to be fodder for a new iOS app called Countertop, which works in tandem with the Prep Pad smart scale. The kitchen helper is set to be released in November and is available for preorder now at $149.95. The kitchen scale and app, an offering by The Orange Chef Company (previously Chef Sleeve, makers of tablet-friendly kitchen accessories), are designed to be everyday accompaniments in the kitchen supplying nutritional data to users in a seamless environment.
The scale itself features a nice clean design that doesn't bog down in details. Featuring a unibody aluminum base, the scale offers a flat surface well suited for meal making. Communicating with an iPhone or iPad via Bluetooth, information about foods placed on the scale are automatically transmitted to the handheld device. But it is more than just pounds or kilograms that get reported there.
The Countertop app connects to a database of 300,000 foods, including both "restaurant foods" as well as UPC bar codes. Users can track their consumption habits and are supplied with real-time results of the nutritional data of the foods that are placed on the scale. Here is where the device and app show real potential: generations of chefs have relied upon precise measurements to help perfect recipes, but as it turns out, that was only half the story. Now, home chefs everywhere can track both the ingredients of a recipe as well as what really goes into it.