T-Mobile G1 & Android Market with Cooking Capsules Taster

Hi Folks!

Things have been crazy and exciting here at the Capsule factory. The team and I are so excited to finally have our first set of encapsulated recipes up on the Android Market! We will be putting some love into the website as well. Christine has taken a lead on that, so we can keep it fresh and offer more information and neat cooking related tidbits. She's doing such a great job- thanks, Christine! Actually a lot of people have been doing some pretty great things for Cooking Capsules, so we will get some bios and credits up soon so you can meet more of the launch and content team, as well as more about those who were involved in our Google's Android Developer Challenge win.

We've been getting so much amazing press! Since my last post, there was an article about me and Cooking Capsules in the Palo Alto Weekly (my parents were proud!), and coverage about the app in TIME.com (Cooking Capsules Taster was the journalists "personal favorite"!), and yesterday the Wall Street Journal where we were listed under the heading of "fun" with PacMan, Bonsai Blast (my two favorite games on Android) and a handy movie finder developed by an engineer at Google. There is nothing quite like pulling the paper from my doorstep in the morning and reading about Cooking Capsules over a hot cup of coffee. Truly amazing.

Christine and I showed up to catch some of the madness at the T-Mobile store in San Francisco Tuesday where there was a long line of people waiting to buy their G1 phones. We talked with a few people and told them about our app, ran into a couple of Googlers, and just generally soaked in the excitement. It's great that people are so excited for Android! Yesterday the phone was released in the rest of the country, although some had gotten theirs in the mail early.

And, as if the G1 launch and media coveragewasn't enough, we are currently ranked #1 in popularity in the Lifestyle category on the Android Market. Who knew how hungry so many people would be for the Capsules?

We've been getting tons of great feedback and ideas from users, which we love, since this app is for you. The resounding one is "we want more!" Patience, Android users. We hear you! We can hardly wait to give you more. There is lots unfolding and we will keep you in the loop. One user told us if we have a mailing list he wants to be on it. This got us thinking about that. So stay tuned, we'll be working on some sort of newsletter. As I mentioned, we will be enhancing cookingcapsules.com with lots of goodies, and we have been keeping good track of the press coverage, if you would like to follow that, please check in periodically at cookingcapsules.com/press.

Thanks a million for the support, and keep on cooking with Capsules!

Mary Ann

eComm Conference: March 3-5 2009

I'll be doing a short talk at this eComm (Emerging Communications) conference in March. Come and check it out. It's a great lineup and interesting subject matter! I'll remind you again closer to March..
-Mary Ann

Google and T-Mobile to announce first GPhone!

Hello Geeks and the Culinarily Curious,

The first Android phone, the G1, will be announced in roughly a half hour from now here--and it will also be available after the fact:

We at Cooking Capsules and as members of the growing community of Android developers and fans are very excited about this first gPhone! There will be many more, but this first announcement has been very long anticipated.

We are working away getting ready to launch our first of many offerings called, "Cooking Capsules Taster" which will be available for download onto this phone.

This first one is free and will be comprised of eight delicious recipes- four Indian and four with a French flair. A good way to get to try out our exciting new way to cook!

Stay tuned for more details on how to get cooking with your phone!

-m.a.c.

Tongue tied with Alice Waters @ Slow Food Nation

I went to the Slow Food Nation Taste Pavilion event last Sunday with Sukhjit and Igor.

Signing books under the glaring lights of 60 Minutes cameras was Alice Waters.

Something unexpected happened. I became completely star-struck. I've met my share of noteable people over the years and usually don't get terribly wierd. But not since I met Michael Stipe at the 40 Watt Club years ago have I felt this. (When I spoke with Stipe I found his voice so disarming I had to set my water glass down to keep from spilling it--but I was so much younger then).

Maybe it was the 60 Minutes boom over my head, maybe it's that hers is just the sort of approach to food that I would like to help to spread with Cooking Capsules. I don't generally claim to know who's who in the industry, but I deeply admire her commitment to connecting people with the source of their food. (I'd love to see a Slow Food channel on Cooking Capsules in the future or even just a partnership where we make some of Alice Waters' recipes and link to her projects to spread the word.)

So I said something like: "I ummm..like what you uhhh...are doing..."

(Shit. If that lands on 60 Minutes I will crawl under a rock. I actually waited for a window when they had gone away, but they came back just in time to catch the silliness.)

I did manage to tell her very briefly about Cooking Capsules and hand her a card with the url on it. I asked her if she would take a look at it. She humored me with a smile and a nod. How awkward for her to be under such a spotlight in front of cameras and then have idiots like me standing there lamely trying to tell her about their company.

Oh, well! I got the opportunity to meet her and I now have her lovely book, "The Art of Simple Food". Meeting her has inspired me to learn more about her projects and the philosophies of Slow Food. Perhaps the next time I meet her it will be under better circumstances.



Sukhjit admitted to being star-struck too, but surely she formed words that formed reasonable sentences. She's used to having cameras in her face and a boom over her head. ;-)




I have to say- while I enjoyed the Slow Food event- standing in mile long lines for every tasting with very few places to sit, didn't seem in keeping with the philosophy somehow. I guess this is their biggest event yet and is still experimental. Every taste I had of everything was good though.

One moment that made me laugh was when I got a small cup of organic coffee and asked if they had any cream or milk. The woman informed me they didn't have any "additives" available.

One of the best things besides some tasty marinated squid I tried was some brick fired pizza from Chez Panisse (Igor and I actually talked with the chef who assembled the oven brick by brick for the event) and a very lovely, fresh-as-a-summer-day pluot sorbet from Gelateria Naia. I can almost taste it now.

-m.a.c

Google introduces the winners of the Android Developer Challenge I

Official Google Blog: Introducing the winners of the Android Developer Challenge I

Cooking Capsules wins TOP 20 in the Android Developer's Challenge Round 2

It's Official! WE WON!!!!! (again) Yipeee!!!

Cooking Capsules has officially landed in the Top 20 of the Android Developer's Challenge! For this my teammates and I will be awarded a collective $100,000 from Google.

You can see the entire list of apps here with descriptions and screenshots of each.

The Round 2 Cooking Capsules development team:

Ivan Angelov in Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Tu Chengyuan in Beijing, China
Travis Choma in Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Mary Ann Cotter in San Francisco, U.S.A
Tom Gibara in Birmingham, U.K.
Muthu Ramadoss in Chennai, India

So you can see it turned into quite an international line-up! (I feel like I should thank Skype!)

I would also like to credit several other people who have contributed significantly to the success of Cooking Capsules:

Erika Bauer, User Experience Consulting
Sukhjit Ghag, Show Host and Content Provider
Jane Gideon, P.R. Consultant
Christine Gonce, Show Host and Content Provider
Shane King, D.P. and Editor
Dia North, Video Producer
Igor Stalew, Video Producer
Jason Wolos, Crew

And all the family and friends who have supported this endeavor and helped us brainstorm and network. Thanks for being there and believing in this. It has only just begun, but we are off to an auspicious start! I've also been blessed to receive lots of messages from people excited about the app who have comments, questions and suggestions. It means a lot.

Also thanks to the other members of the Android community. I am honored to be among them. There are such exciting apps throughout the top 50 and beyond.

And last, but definitely not least, thank you on behalf of all of us to Google and the groundbreaking Open Handset Alliance who did the judging. It is an extraordinary honor and an exciting time.

Thank you!!

Please stay tuned for more Cooking Capsules news as it arises!

-Mary Ann

Android Marketplace Announcement

For the Android curious:
Google has just announced on their Android blog that there will, in fact, be an Android Marketplace, akin to Apple's App Store. They will also soon be announcing the winners of the second round of the first Android Developer's Challenge! Stay tuned...
-Mary Ann