I was going to say 'not,' and then I realized - we use my ipod touch to do this very thing, but the screen is so small... The iPad would be very practical in the kitchen, if not for much else.

didn't answer the survey because I would have to vote, "I could see this being good in the kitchen for many people." So what the heck, I vote, "HOT!!!!!"

As with a lot of "hot" things, they start off as being expensive and exclusive but I can really see the potential for its utility in the kitchen and haven't thought about til now.

Here's why I think this kind of thing will most likely be a fixture in many many kitchens.

It's capable of being:
-ia calculator
-a converter
-a general recipe data base
-a nutrition log
-a cookbook
-my wife subscribes to cook's illustrated online--here's an example of it being a cooking magazine.
-it's an ingredient identifier

I don't believe it has a camera and that I believe is a downfall. To really be a part of the future of kitchen technology it should have a camera.

Yeah, an iphone has these capabilities but the "pad's" size and interface? makes it user friendly in a kitchen environment if it were placed on some sort of mount--either on a countertop or below a cabinet.

The ability to pull up a recipe or list from an e-mail or website and not have to walk over to my computer (cause I don't print stuff out, too much work) would be great.

Also this makes me want a Joy app.

I'm not sure, I need to know more. Does it have to lie flat all the time? Does it have some sort of support to enable it to stand up its side? Is it easy to clean? Is it durable, can it survive spills and drops?

I use MacGourmet, and take my iPhone into the kitchen with me - I'm excited to have the larger format where I will be able to see more of the recipe at a time.

Kathryn - there will be an available case that allows you to have it either tilted gently or standing up.

In my kitchen I use an old laptop that survived a drop off the roof of my car on the freeway. I would say that this would be a nice, smaller alternative to that, if I thought that my old computer would ever die.

I'm guessing anyone with enough money to be buying an i-pad already has a personal chef in their kitchen. Whatever happened to a pad and pencil?

i look up recipes (from the kitchn, usually) on my iphone all the time. the screen gets messy but it is so very helpful to have it right there....i'm not a fan of printouts, so i would LOVE an ipad in the kitchen. that said, i would take steps to have a protective screen and a doc available. yeah, i love reading cookbooks, but can just imagine the possibilities that a completely digital, fingertip-guided ipad will bring.

the price tag is a little hefty for now, but it's on my "complete dream kitchen" wish list anyway.

I'm not impressed with the ipad to begin with so maybe that's why I think it's "not" I could also be that when I do look up a recipe I just set my macbook on the kitchen counter.

I have a $300 netbook which i carry all around the house, including the kitchen. I have no need for an ipad.

I don't understand why it's necessary to have any type of "tech toy" in the kitchen. Our grandmothers managed just fine in the kitchen working from tattered, well loved cookbooks and ingenuity. My grandmother was a wonderful cook and taught all her grandchildren how to cook. We love to work in the kitchen with the same tools we grew up with. Tech toys are very expensive and outdated every other year, if not sooner. Thanks, but no thanks to another incroachment of capitalism.

Needs some sort of multitasking to be able to go from the essential tools of the kitchen. Recipe manager, calculator, conversion, etc. I think later offerings may fair better, such as Android, or even the Win7 solutions.

These days when the grandmas give me recipes, they always do it via email and most of the recipes I hunt down are from online, not cookbooks. My index card system just wasn't working any longer and I took many hours to type up my frequently used recipes and print them out.

I'd love to have an electronic system, but this is too pricey for me.

Non-tech savvy question--Would this only be useful for retrieving online recipes or could you load recipes into it from your computer?

I'm already using my iPod touch to cook from, because I hate printing things out, so this is a straight win: same recipes but I can see more of them at a time.

I've been clipping all of my bookmarked recipes into Evernote, which makes them easier to read and annotate, too. And if I'm at someone else's house, I still have access to my recipes!

I don't know if I will get the tablet per se, but I do very much want a slate or perhaps a netbook that I can take into the kitchen with me.

Not at those sky high prices, no.

I'm counting down the days before I can get one of these! I hate taking my MacBook Pro into the kitchen, but it happens at least once or twice a week. I just started using the iPod Touch for this, but the screen is too small. This one should make it easier to read recipes people email me, or that I find online.

I'm for a computer in the kitchen (though I don't have one yet), but not this one.

I'll wait for the second or third generation (or get something else entirely) so that it's been adapted to better fit real users' needs, not just what they think we'll need. Plus waiting brings prices down.

I already use my iPhone for recipes rather than printed recipes and cookbooks. I have all of my favorite recipes saved as PDFs and organized in folders on my computer, and I have my computer set up to automatically sync up those folders to iDisk. Then I can open the PDF right up on my iPhone.

So the iPad would be extremely useful, but I would never purchase it just for kitchen use.

I don't think this is a necessary addition to the kitchen at all - i keep my laptop at arms reach from the cooking area and prefer having a keyboard to type on - even with doughy fingers which i suspect may not work on a touchscreen iPad.

saer
cravenmaven.wordpress.com

The iPad would serve the function of a kitchen computer adequately, but why?

Why spend $500 on this when you could get a netbook that has more functionality for $200 less?

It's funny, one of the first things I thought of when I saw a video of the gadget in action was "oh man. this is going to be the best ever thing in the kitchen." It's not just that it will be, essentially, the world's most complete cookbook, but the ability to look-up (and watch videos of) techniques i am not familiar with, etc. will be great.

The first thing I thought of when I saw this was, I want one for the kitchen! I'm currently using MacGourmet on my iMac in my office and iPhone in the kitchen. Something that I could mount, and with a bigger screen would be really handy! The only drawback I could see is that I can't tell if the iPad (awful name) will be able to run full applications such as MacGourmet, or only its iPhone app. The screen view, organization, and search capabilities on the full application are MUCH better on the full version.
I agree with Mrs.Mack. I will be waiting a few years/versions before I consider actually buying one.

We have something called a viewsonic air pannel for our kitchen, its like an Ipad from 2002 or so. When they came out they were ridiculously expensive, but we picked one up last year for $30 used. Its touch screen, has an onscreen keyboard iphone style and everything. The only disadvantage is it doesnt play videos well. But its great for pulling up a recipe or website to follow in the kitchen. Sure it isnt as glamorous as the new ipad considering you have to plug it in but it does the job at a 1/10th the cost.

I'm sorry, but they couldn't pick a better name than iPad? I don't even like saying it. Then again, maybe this sketch from THREE YEARS AGO has something to do with it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eF0y0IfpPU

They didn't have one intern to Google their own product name idea before they decided to call it that?

As for functionality in the kitchen, it can't do anything that my laptop can't do, and, knowing Apple, on top of that $500 for the product, you'll have to spend another $40 on a stand, $30 on a cover, etc. etc.

I don't get why people like them so much...I agree with previous commenters. Wait until Android puts out their product. It'll be cheaper, more durable, and won't be named after something meant for female robots.

I think this would be great to have in the kitchen. I'm pondering it myself. One feature that would be useful would be to have an app that allows you to start multiple timers so you can track progress of multiple tasks accurately.

I'm disappointed by the lack of a camera on the iPad, but I don't feel that is as big a miss for kitchen use as it would for general use.

Another concern I'd have is how resistant to water it would be. It's easy to imagine needing to interact with the thing without clean hands, so making sure it would clean up nicely is a must.

Conceptially - yup, it'd work great. Especially for those of us whose recipes are already electronic.

Practically, my dedicated kitchen computer already does the job fine and doesn't need to be replaced. It's a small way-old laptop with a dead battery and a wireless internet connection. All my recipes are saved as Google Documents. If I find a new one while at work, or at my desk, or at my mom's, I copy / paste it into a new google document and it's automatically in my recipe collection. Since it's on google documents I can browse the full list, or search for a recipe that has key ingredients. And it's all freeeeee...

i have the mibook in my kitchen and that's exactly what it's designed for, but i've only used it once and it doesn't have the ability to browse the web, this may be a good alternative!

I primarily use cookbooks, so the iPad won't be able to replace those unless I could get someone to scan all my cookbook recipes and indexes. Then I'd be truly digital (and thrilled!).

I have typed up a number of recipes that I've tried and deemed worthy of making again into Word documents and categorized them. These are recipes from sources other than my own cookbooks (anything from my Grandma to a recipe from a friend to a recipe from a magazine). These are in a three ring binder with my cookbooks. I could easily convert them to Google Documents so that they're available anytime I have an internet connection, but that still wouldn't sole my cookbook problem identified above.

I do use some online content for recipes, but I have a small inexpensive laptop that I use in the kitchen for accessing these and then end up typing them up into my Word files if they are good enough.

I currently use my MacBook/MacGourmet in the kitchen. I think the iPad has *potential* in the kitchen, but not until it is more like an actual computer (with the ability to run multiple apps/programs) and less like a giant iPod Touch. Ideally there would be a stylus/pen so that you could jot notes on it (for example, in the margins of recipes, or updating your grocery list) without needing to type. I'm disappointed in the capabilities of the current iPad, but I think that time will bring improvements that will make it much more appealing for "specialty" uses such as in the kitchen.

One part of me says that I would love to have a computer in the kitchen - it's where I get most of my recipes from, anyway, and I like the compactness of the ipad and the possibility of instructional youtube videos.

The other part of me remembers that most of my cookbooks have half the pages stuck together with unidentified food substances, so I think bringing expensive technology into that environment is a no-no.

I have always managed by jotting down ingredients and measures on a post-it prior to the start of cooking something new. Old-fashioned, I know.

I'd love to use this in my kitchen. I don't like printing stuff out, not only because I don't like wasting paper, but also because when I do the printouts get wet or gross and don't keep too well. Plus it's easier to keep everything online (I use Gmail labels to keep track of my recipes, so I can access them anywhere). I'm also constantly bringing my Macbook Pro or my iPhone into the kitchen, but I have limited counter space for the Macbook, don't want to get it messy, and my iPhone screen is usually too small. The iPad would be just what I need, and I may actually end up getting one. Would be great to have some kind of wall dock for it so I don't have to use up my counter space, or risk getting it too messy.

YES as to avoiding printing (saving toner & paper) but I'll wait til it's less expensive.... which won't be terribly long... perhaps a year or two tops

I use my Macbook in the kitchen. Couple of huge downfalls of the iPad- no background app processing. As much as you'd like to pull up the Epicurious app alongside the calculator, you can't. On the laptop I can do both those things WHILE Skyping/listening to iTunes.

I'm totally intrigued by the iPad, but I'm thinking the second gen will have some huge improvements worth waiting for.

I have been wanting something like this for quite sometime. I do have a laptop but it's set up with a monitor and is connected to a number of wires as well - so disconnecting it and taking it into the kitchen every time I cook (then back again) would be really inconvenient.

I've tried using my iPhone but the size gets in the way. Also, the screen goes dark every time I turn around. And my hands are usually so messy, I hate to touch the phone to turn it back on. I know I could turn off the screen saver, but that eats up the battery.

So when I heard rumors of the iPad, I began hoping it would use apps and that the app I use (MacGourmet) would be adapted for use with it. So far, of course, I have no idea - but when and if it is, I'll purchase the lesser expensive iPad with its 10-hour battery. No need to buy the high-powered model. I won't be leaving the house with this and we'll get by just fine with our home wi-fi service.

So, yes, I voted Hot!

I generally just bring my laptop into the kitchen if I don't want to print. I think if I were going to spend $500 on something for the kitchen, I would just purchase a large flatscreen that could be used as a monitor to one of my computers. Then I would be able to see the recipes from across the room, instead of having to walk over and check the next steps as I do with a laptop or a book.

This would be the perfect supplement to my iphone (as screen size definitely hinders its utility in the kitchen).

To answer the question of whether or not it will always have to lie flat: apple will also be releasing a case (their own, not the typical third party's) that will double as a stand for the ipad.

Just a note of warning to people. I bought the MacGourmet a lot of people were referring to in comments. Even with my master degree in library science, I can not imagine finding such an overblown database necessary for keeping track of recipes. It is counterintuitive and very difficult to begin using stay away would be my advice on this one. Save your money use Evernote paired with Grocery IQ or any other number of cheaper apps on the Itunes store.

The kitchen iPad would be that much better with this bracket for mounting your iPad to the wall:
http://www.claywarestore.com/pad_bracket.html

I work for an iPhone/iPad developer, and talked him into making a simple recipe book app for the iPad, because I knew I would use mine in the kitchen all the time - we just finished it, and are pretty excited about it! You can check it out here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/my-recipe-book-your-recipes/id375811859?mt=8