ADD cooks like myself are constantly wandering away from the stove to multitask – often leaving our precious pots to determine proper cooking time and temperature to disastrous results. I can’t even count the times where I’ve burned or overcooked things, which is why I was excited to see this Range smartphone thermometer that can send me alerts. The graph feature is an added bonus so I can study my recipe’s cooking temperature over time – for even more precision!

Jeff Bezos‘ purchase of The Washington Post shocked the publishing industry this week and one of the big questions that people are asking is whether or not the paper will survive in the print medium under the management of such a digitally-focused owner.

Bezos expressed his ideas of the future of reading in the new documentary film Out of Print. ”If you look at technology over the last 20 years, most of our connected devices, whether it be, you know, a smartphone, or a laptop, these are very good for reading news articles, email messages, blog posts,” he said in the film. “We humans do more than what is convenient and easy for us and so I think there has been a shift over the past 20 or so years away from long-form reading, from book-length reading, and toward short-form reading.”

The film, directed by Vivienne Roumani and executive produced by Aryeh Bourkoff, also includes interviews with publishing industry experts including best-selling novelist Scott Turow and Harvard Librarian Robert Darnton.

Do you think print will survive under Bezos’ direction?

Slicebooks, a digital publishing platform that lets publishers cut up and repackage eBook content through a widget, has raised a round of seed funding from ICG Ventures Inc., an Ingram Content Group company.

The company will use the funding to help support the company’s technology and the launch of an upcoming Slicebooks Store, a digital retail environment intended to help publishers repurpose existing content, be it books, magazines or journals, and repackage and sell them digitally. The partnership also makes Slicebooks available to any publisher that has integrated with Ingram Content Group’s CoreSource digital asset management platform. Publishers will not have the option to have their files delivered to Slicebooks for slicing.

“The Slicebooks ecosystem is all about helping publishers repurpose content to improve discoverability while also giving consumers greater choice and flexibility,” stated Jill Tomich, CEO of Slicebooks. “Our mission is to make all content available whole, sliced and remixable, and how, when and where consumers want it. Everything we build has that goal in mind.”

Galaxy S 4 Active phones are advertised as water-resistent, which means it’s often portrayed as submerged in pools of water. In real life, however, this is not as safe as one might expect. That’s why AT&T has offered to replaced the water damages, but only once.

Samsung designed and tested the Galaxy S 4 Active to adhere to IP67 standards for water resistance (1 meter for 30 minutes). If your Galaxy S 4 Active has been damaged due to water exposure, bring it back to an AT&T retail store as soon as possible for a one-time exchange for another Galaxy S 4 Active.

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Locking yourself out of your home or your car will no longer require a call to a locksmith, thanks to a new iPhone app called KeyMe. KeyMe lets you store digital copies of your keys in the cloud that you can access in the event that you are locked out.

So how does it work? First you have to download the app and use it to take photos of your keys, creating a digital version of your physical keychain. Then if you get locked out, you can take your phone to a KeyMe kiosk or bring the digital files to a hardware store that will make keys based on these digital files (better find out who does this in your area before you run the risk of getting locked out).

You can also mail order copies of your keys. This feature would come in handy if you have guests coming to stay in your home and you won’t be there to let them in. You can also share the digital files with friends and they can go and get copies made on their own. (Via TechCrunch).

Disney has released a new iPad app that takes readers through the history of Disney animation. Disney Animated tells the story of Walt Disney Animation Studios through the decades highlighting the technologies that helped create the classics like Cinderella and Winnie the Pooh.

The app features a collection of interactive illustrations and virtual animation workshops based on actual Disney technologies. Readers can see how Disney animated films are brought to life from idea through to final assembly. Readers can peel back the layers of these animated scenes to reveal the work-in-progress animation steps and visual effects layers behind their creation. Readers can try their own hand at animation by animating Vanellope from Wreck-It Ralph using a 3D animation package based on real Disney software.

The app also features a timeline of all 53 Disney animated feature films along with including video clips. The app features more than 750 interactive illustrations, more than 400 short animation clips and more than 350 photos from Disney’s Archives. Disney created the $13.99 app in conjunction with app developer Touch Press.

Toca Band is today’s Recommended Children’s App of the Week.

The app encourages kids to experiment with found music. Kids can choose from 16 different characters, each that has their own unique musical sound, and arrange 48 different sound loops on stage. The $2.99 iOS app’s musical tracks includes a range of music from rock guitar to opera.

Here is more from the app’s description: Put your band members on stage to get the music started – then move them around and see what happens! Try out new band combinations, explore different sounds – and while you’re at it, why not give the lovable rapper, Stikk Figga something he always dreamed of: a solo performance!
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YouTube co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen have created a new video editing app that lets you shoot, edit and publish videos that is similar to Instagram or Vine.

Unlike their competitors though, Avos Systems’s new app MixBit has better editing tools. Rather than just clipping videos, users can edit together strings of clips that can be anywhere from a second to an hour long. Videos are made up of clips that can be as long as 16 seconds each and a MixBit video can be made up of as many as 256 video clips.

MixBit lets you drag and drop clips into a mini timeline, where you can rearrange them. Not only can you make your own content, you can use the app to remix other users’ videos. Once you’ve created a video, you can post it and share it to the MixBit community. The app is currently available for the iPhone and as a web app. An Android version is expected late next week.

New York parents know that it can be tough to find a kid-friendly restaurant when venturing out of their neighborhood. That’s what Mommy Nearest is for. The app uses crowdsourced reviews from parents around the city to help users find places that are good for kids. It’s like Yelp for the stroller set.

Parents can use the app to search or review everything from restaurants and shops to playgrounds and hair salons. Kid-friendly restaurants are broken down by the amenities that they offer so users can search for restaurants that include high-chairs, kid’s menus or stroller-friendliness. Playgrounds can be searched by amenities as well, so a parent looking for swings and a sandbox can find their way. The app also lets a user search for bathrooms with changing stations and urgent care options based on their location in the city. The app is currently running a promotion and is giving away cash prizes in exchange for writing reviews.

The app is available for both iOS and Android devices. Right now it only works in NYC, but there are plans for other cities in the works.

Amazon is now letting developers submit URLs for HTML5 web apps and mobile websites to the Amazon Appstore and distribute mobile web content without using third party software or doing any native app development.

Like other Amazon apps, these HTML5 apps support Amazon logins and have A/B testing tools. Developers can even create in-app purchases within these apps through Amazon’s API, which lets them add sales of digital goods within their apps.

“We’ve heard from developers that making their web apps available for mobile devices is hard because many times it means rewriting their app, which takes extra time and often requires third party tools,” stated Mike George, VP of Amazon Appstore, Games and Cloud Drive. “By launching support for HTML5 web apps in the Mobile App Distribution Program, we’re giving web developers the tools they need and all the benefits that native apps already enjoy in the Amazon Appstore and on Kindle Fire. This opens up new possibilities—starting with faster discovery, access to tools for increased monetization, and the ability to reach new customers for greater exposure.”

Follow this link for more details on how to develop and distribute apps through Amazon.