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Hi, I'm wondering first if there are any plans to create an app for mobile devices so my info is easily accessible with one step. Also it would be so much more helpful to me if the shopping list was available on the mobile site that opens when accessing with my iphone or ipad as well as either having a shopping list that was more usable for all my grocery shopping or easily transferred into an app that is. My goal being the ability to add ingredients from recipes I am planning to shopping list with the ability to remove things I have so I can use it on my phone while shopping (or add recipes while at the store when I see a particular ingredient). Then use my ipad for recipes while cooking at home which is the way I usually access them. Hope that all made sense, sorry if not I've been a member for a while but haven't used it much so still new. Thanks

We definitely plan to create an app.  We have been very focused on the existing business but we do realize that more and more people will be accessing the site from their phones, and the current mobile site does not do everything we want.  Some features we would plan to add (and we welcome additional suggestions from members):

• Barcode scanner so can add books from your phone


• Upload recipe photos from your phone


• Improved shopping list


• Meal planning


• Search filters

What else would you like to see?

Would want the ability to add bookmarks and create bookmarks. Would want it to be more functional and not as limited as the current mobile version, for both iphone/ipad and android...

scanning product barcodes to search for an ingredient...

I would really like to see an Ipad app, mainly because I have it mounted in the kitchen and look at the recipes as I cook

Second that bookmark request.  I walked all over the house with an iPad to find various shelves full of books to rearrange.  The bookmark is one way I note which location each book is in.  I had to use a paper and pencil....OMG, paper and pencil!!...to remember the shelf and input it later on the desktop computer. 

rcard and rivergait - you can use the full site on an iPad.  It actually fits pretty well on the screen - in fact Fiona and I use iPads when we are demoing the site.

I have used the full site on my IPad along with the laptop and desktop computers since I started.  The site works wonderfully on an IPad.  I wrote to Jane last month after a good friend died who had a large cookbook collection and was also an EYB member.  My friend's sister and I were able to login to her EYB account  and use it to create lists of the books.   I took my IPad over to her house when we were sorting out which books were going to a college for a donation and which books were going to family and friends.  With EYB and the IPad a huge project became quite straightforward and organized.  I have EYB bookmarked on my IPad and login on it most days to read the articles and do quick recipe searches for dinner while I am eating breakfast.  I have found that sometimes the apps aren't all that wonderful for other sites.  I downloaded the Epicurious app,  just hated it and now never use it.  But I still go to their full website on my IPad and do fine.  I would rather see EYB put their limited time and resources into indexing more books and magazines than creating an app that may be just a poor substitute for the regular website.

I would love an app - I rarely use the mobile site even on my phone because I cannot access my bookmarks that way. And I would use a meal planning feature regularly, as well as the search filters.

Linking functionality between different sites is not that easy. EYB is a database so the data from another site may not connect properly with our database set up. You can add any recipe on the NYT website to EYB using the Bookmarklet - explained here in Help. And we do have the David Tanis NYT column, Cooking in the City indexed on EYB as we have produced a complete index of all David's recipes.

We do plan to add a meal planning function on EYB. We have a big development project underway right now but once it is complete we will be able to get back to enhancing existing features and adding new ones. Before we improve our shopping lists function and add the meal planning function we will ask members for input on the features they would like to see.

I'm excited to see a meal planner will be coming so I won't have to keep a paper list or another app, etc.  Honestly based on what I see in other places this feature could help increase membership as planning meals helps a lot in reducing wasted food and reducing eating out.   One request, look into the possibility of syncing (at least recipe titles for the meal) it to Google Calender, iCal, etc. I use my digital calender a lot and an option to click to copy Monday's meal to Google calender, etc so when I am trying to schedule an appt in the evening I can plainly see that i need to shuffle meals as I cannot possibly make a nice stew when the appt will make limited time in the evening, etc. 

Would EYB consider having an API so that a third party developer could create an app? I believe this is what Ravelry do. I guess there are intellectual property risks and it might be counterproductive if there is going to be an official app one day.

dichohecho - what is you expect to get from an app that you don't get from our mobile website? if you would like just one click from your phone, you can add the EYB icon to your phone's homescreen. This is explained in Help - iPhone and Android.

I think what I'd be after is something that adapts well to my phone screen and possibly allows some offline referencing. I often find myself wanting to use certain websites and do certain things on a "real computer" instead of my phone as I don't quite trust my phone and browser and a website to work properly together - an app gives more defined use cases and it feels like there's less to go wrong.