The best kitchen computer ever

It hasn’t been the most elusive of computing’s holy grails, but there have been a few attempts toward optimizing a computing device for kitchen use. Two of them, the Macintosh Color Classic-like Icebox (now in an under-the cabinet configuration courtesy Salton) and the apparently madness-inducing 3Com Audrey, bombed. Another, the HP TouchSmart, has done well, but more generally than as a kitchen PC per se. We’ve also seen some content recently aimed at usage in the kitchen, such as the family of digital cooking video programs for the miBook and Nintendo’s Personal Trainer Cooking for the DS.

While the expansive TouchSmart might be a natural addition to, say, Kitchen Stadium, it’s a bit overwhelming for many an urban countertop.  Enter the iPod touch. It plays music from local storage, a home network, or streaming from Pandora, Slacker or other sources, and maintains its minimal footprint with the JBL OnStage micro , it can act as a digital photo frame or display a clock, including a countdown timer. It can access weather forecasts when getting ready in the morning or check traffic on the route, and has a Yellow Pages app for looking up businesses and Safari for much more. Oh, it also has the AllRecipes app for connected cooks.