I guess you could say I'm an armchair foodie. Strangely enough, once I started working at home I rarely got the chance to cook a proper meal. It doesn't help that my kids have typical kid palates, and attempts to "get fancy" with the ingredients are met with wrinkled noses and frowning faces. So when I see an app that looks like it'll make my cooking life simpler and better I'm very, very excited.

Bon App looks to do just that -- it simplifies the entire cooking process, from planning to shopping to cooking. All on the iPhone (or iPod touch). What really has me excited is the way it does this. Any blunt object can bash a nail. I mean, there's a reason Mac users have higher standards, right? I like to think we appreciate ease-of-use and quality design. Bon App has an extensive feature list, yes, but it looks darn good doing what it does, and the developer spent serious time thinking about how you interact with the app.

While I can't show you any screens (the developer was adamant that I not record video), I tell you about a few things I saw. One nice touch: when selecting a particular dish to cook, an icon of the recipe bounces down into a menu bar, indicating where to go next (shopping list, if I recall correctly). I don't remember the shopping list feature well, but the cooking features are exceptional. The app shows you a visual indication of how long each dish will take along a bar graph. This helps you plan what to cook and when. As anyone who has played Hell's Kitchen will tell you, timing is critical. You don't want hot side dishes and a cold entree. It was the first time I'd seen that on an app, and was indicative of the thought put into the app's flow.

The final pieces hadn't been put together when I had a look at the demo. The developer was still thinking through the last phase (cooking, which can be tricky, as trying to prep a meal isn't as straightforward as you might think) and tweaking the interaction. I'm also not sure how recipes get into the app. If you're looking for a desktop cooking app that syncs with the iPhone, about the best I've found so far is Avenio's MacGourmet. But I will certainly be keeping an eye out for Bon App. Even though I'm very happy with Sous Chef, the detail and design of Bon App has me wishing I could pre-order now.

Seems a little redundant, doesn't it? What else would an app named Server Admin Remote do? Well anyway, if you're in the market for something to remotely administer your servers (to a point), particularly Mac OS X servers, this is one handy and powerful tool. View logs, enable services, even reboot the server all from your iPhone (or iPod touch). Plus, there's support for multiple server instances, which you switch between just like in Tweetdeck -- a quick swipe left or right does the trick.

Server Admin Remote (iTunes link) is currently $7.99. We're planning to have a more in-depth look later, so stay tuned.

This concludes our WWDC video series. Thanks to all the developers kind enough to stop by and show what they are doing. Your efforts make Apple's desktop and mobile platforms truly amazing.

Slick Shopper is a slick little list app. It does one very specific thing: make shopping lists. In fact, the developer thought through little details such as a location-specific context for your lists. If you're needing things only in your bedroom (perhaps a trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond is in your future?), Slick Shopper will winnow the list down to just those items with a couple of clicks.

While list apps are plentiful on the store, yet again we see a plethora of choices covering niche angles. Now the only problem is not littering your iPhone with list apps -- not to be confused with "to do" apps. Slick Shopper (iTunes link) is currently $.99 on the App Store.

We're winding down the last of our WWDC video demos this week, and today we're looking at Flogger, a simple but powerful flight logger for iPhones and iPod touch handhelds (despite a name that might make you look twice). I'm not a pilot, but some of the features sounded pretty nifty, including a method for exporting your logs to Google Docs, right in the app. Other nice options include a huge database of airport codes, the ability to flag entries as simulator flights, and a fast method for adding crew members from your Address Book.

Flogger (iTunes link) is currently $9.99 in the App Store.

What do Calcutipr and Gratuitous have in common? They are both tip calculators. Yet what seems like a simple thing shows amazing diversity on the App Store, with well over 3 dozen tip calculators available. What makes these two different from the rest? I have no idea, not having tested the dozens of other options available.

But I can tell you choosing a tip calculator has now become largely one of personal preference. Calcutipr (iTunes link), for example, has a sleek and functional interface with lots of options. You can hit a button to round up, for example. Gratuitous (iTunes link), on the other hand, is more "designed" and streamlines functions like splitting a bill. Both do the same thing, but in different ways and with different options. Tip calcs are like shoes: they all do essentially the same thing, so your decision boils down to what you like and what you'll pay. Calcutipr is free and Gratuitous is $1.99, which may make the decision a simple one for some. Both work on iPhone and iPod touch.

I don't know if you'll like either one of these, but they do the job. If you don't like them, you have plenty of other options (iTunes link).

When traveling, I am always amused to see other iTunes libraries appear in my iTunes as we all glom on to the same wireless network. "Oh, hello there, Sandy's MacBook, I didn't realize you were such a Hootie and the Blowfish fan." If you're constantly asking your friends about their iTunes libraries (excessively, perhaps?) you might want to check out Mashduo -- an OS X application that allows you to drag and drop library files for comparison. Finally you'll know who has the larger ABBA collection, or who never quite understood The Dead Milkmen (hint: they only song they own is "Bitchin' Camaro" or "Punk Rock GIrl").

As you can see in the video, Mashduo is pretty fast for what it does: collating and analyzing all that iTunes data. I cut about 22 seconds out as Mashduo did its thing to over 14,000 songs in those libraries. So yeah, it's fast. It is also a limited use piece of software, yes, but it is open source, so you can monkey around with it to your heart's content. First feature request: it would be lovely to have it work with those mystery iTunes shares over the network.

Coolness Test (iTunes link) is a well-executed game of skill where you tap a green button as it moves around the screen. You have to avoid the red button, and both move around the screen with each tap. The developers found people were playing for extraordinary lengths of time, and I can see why. You can enter a sort of trance as you focus on the movement of the buttons. It might even improve hand/eye coordination, but all videogames say that, don't they?

Unfortunately Coolness Test, despite the low price of being free, suffers from over 3,000 negative reviews and less than 600 positive ones. Why? If you read the reviews, it's pretty much the deal with any of these one-trick pony apps: you either love it or hate it. I think it's unfortunate the developers called it a "coolness" test, when wrapping it in the obvious skill test it is would have been more apropos. But it is free, and if you're into button-induced trances, it'll do the trick. There's nothing functionally deficient about the game that I saw, so the reviews are simply people who thought it would determine their actual coolness, I guess.

Spin the Ball (iTunes link) is a bit more toy than game but it is what it is. Swipe your finger quickly across the ball on the screen, then use the accelerometer to "balance" the spinning ball on your finger. Just like a Globetrotter, you can keep spinning the ball with your finger, thus infuriating the Generals. Spin the Ball is also free, and seems to summon less rage by reviewers than Coolness Test, but I'd say it's the lesser of these two apps.

Living in a landlocked state I was never much of a diver. But if you are an active SCUBA diver, you may find Dive Log (and companions Trimix and Nitrox) useful. Dive Log (iTunes link) does what you'd think: it logs your dives. If you've never been diving this may seem trivial. Dive logs, however, are far from trivial, as they contain crucial data related to dives -- like how much weight you added to your belt in a given location. Dive Log will import/export your data in UDCF format, and offers full sync with Diving Log 4.0 (unfortunately only on Windows). Plus, the developers have a free app for backing up your logs, and you can import logs from MacDive.

Nitrox Tools and Trimix Tools (both iTunes links) are more specialized diving apps for the serious SCUBA guy or gal, who may mix their own tanks. I'm certainly not one of them, but the tools look sufficiently hardy for those folks, plus there's an online version of Nitrox here (for Safari) that will give you a taste of the app's capabilities.

I can't count the number of hours I spent at the UT Music Library on a Performa or Quadra or Centris (I had a Centris 610 at the time) playing Daleks. Strangely addicting but incredibly simple, the game mechanic has been repeated often in the casual game universe, and Daleks was essentially a rip of Robots on UNIX. You try to get away from something, one step at a time, as those somethings inch ever closer, one step at a time. It's turn-based "tag." There's a terribly unsatisfying and buggy version called SuperDaleks for OS X here.

Zombies is a bit of an update for the venerable classic, although there's also a classic game called Zombies using the very same mechanic -- nothing new under the sun, eh? But intead of dusting off that old IIsi, you can play Zombies on your iPhone or iPod touch. The developer added spells, allowing you to do something out of the norm each round. So, for example, you could teleport (sometimes seen in variations of this game). You can also destroy zombies with a spell, handy when you're in a no-win position.

The preview you see here is the unfinished version, but it's shaping up to be a pleasant reimagining of a classic. We'll post on Twitter when it's available.

Master Jumperton is a simple game where you swipe to create platforms for Master Jumperton to continually jump higher and higher. There are some similar games on the store, but Jumperton is well-crafted and features a high scores board and basic options. Master Jumperton isn't yet available on the store.

The Battle of Pirate Bay will be available July 1, we are told, and it's a more involved game. That isn't to say it is complicated, as anyone familiar with Flight Control or Harbor Master's game mechanic will understand what to do. Battle goes one step beyond time and path management to add the element of battle with waves of enemies. You have to balance ammo and the health of your base in the bay plus the routing of faster or slower ships with different capabilities all while moving your finger around to direct traffic, as it were. Very fast-paced, and it looks like a lot of fun. We'll tweet when it lands in the store this week.

Both games are from veteran mobile developers Muteki, who developed Maze Finger and Topple 2 for ngmoco. Topple 2 won an Apple design award at this year's WWDC.

Videro is one of those silent-but-cool application suites you've probably never heard of, but you may see it being used every day. I met some of the Videro team at WWDC, and they were happy to demo a little of what the tools do: electronic signage and interactive kiosks. If you happen to need an animated in-store (or museum) display, fed from a server, easy to set up and deploy, complete with iPhone access to check on the servers (so they say), then Videro is an impressive tool.

To start, Videro has a composition tool that allows you to drag and drop your animations, complete with images, video and audio. In fact, Videro has extensive in-app tools for cropping, rotating and otherwise "fixing" your assets for display. But wait, there's more! This isn't just Keynote all gussied up. Videro is designed for business, and a server application makes sure mission-critical displays are functioning properly. There's solid asset management support both in the client and the server applications, making sure your displays never fire off with a dreaded "black box of nothing" where a product shot should be.

Videro mentioned an iPhone app in the video but I have been unable to locate it in the store and a search on their website revealed nothing. Still, it wouldn't be terribly difficult to provide some baseline stats via password-protected web app. We weren't able to get Wi-Fi at our location, so some features weren't visible and this might have been one of them.

Unfortunately Videro's site mentions nothing about price. In my experience that means we're talking about an expensive solution, and likely a custom one for the high-end customers. If you're looking for something simpler, don't miss Dave's excellent post about using Keynote and Dropbox to create an updating and easy presentation solution that would work in a pinch.

The enthusiastic developers of Parranda were at WWDC to show off their app, a simple one-man-band party in your hand. Parranda (iTunes link) has a lot of polish, too, with instruments that aren't just one big button, like some "soundboard" music apps. The cowbell, for example, allows you to tap on different parts of the instrument, which any decent cowbell player will tell you, creates very different sounds. Mostly. You can zoom in or out on the instruments, something you will have to see in the video, but it is a nice effect and adds to the experience.

Parranda has pre-set rhythms to choose from, plus vocalizations to add a little spice to the performance. Already a hit in Puerto Rico, I think Parranda has a good shot everywhere, as it's a fun little app. Perhaps a bit more than you're used to paying at $2.99, but I think it's a fair price for the quality of the app.

Balloons! for the iPhone (and iPod touch) made me smile. It's like Distant Shore, but more personal and fun. Don't get me wrong, I love Distant Shore, but Balloons! reminds me of being a kid and tying a message and photo to a balloon to send up into the stratosphere. Plus, you get a real sense of community. It's just plain fun to pick up a virtual balloon supposedly drifting past you. To see what I mean, check out the video. But if you ever tied a note to a balloon and let it go, that's what this does. Except now you get to catch other balloons, have conversations and attach photos all from your iPhone.

Unfortunately Balloons! isn't in the store yet, but from the build I saw looks pretty close to being ready. The Balloons devs are looking for beta testers, which you can apply for here.

If you prefer to keep your fingers on the keyboard and away from mice or trackpads, MercuryMover will allow you to do something simple: move and resize windows with the keyboard. There are a number of hotkeys for wiggling the windows into place, in 2 different increments, and a method of resizing windows via the keyboard.

Highbrow gives you fine control over which browser opens a certain link. For example, if someone sends you a link in IM and you want to open in it Firefox, but your default browser is Safari, you'd have to copy/paste that link into Firefox, or Safari will open it instead. But with Highbrow, you can quickly choose which browser opens what. Instead of mucking around in Safari prefs, Highbrow sets the default browser via handy menu bar item. Plus, you can opt for a floating window each time you click a link, and choose on the fly.

MercuryMover is $20 and a free trial is available. Highbrow is $12 and a free trial is also available.

This is video from a fast-paced chat with Joe Michels of Software Ops, creator of several iPhone apps. His lineup includes several applications for secure storage of information, such as My Eyes Only (iTunes link) and ID Lock (a "lite" version of My Eyes Only). There's also Aerochive on the Mac desktop, which allows wireless archiving and visualization of the information stored in the iPhone apps, which can include credit cards, passwords and notes, among other things. With your data fully encrypted and password protected, Joe's stated mission is to keep your info safe and away from prying eyes.

Joe also mentions an upcoming application, called My Eyes Only Photo, which brings My Eyes Only security to photo storage and browsing. There are screenshots of the soon-to-be-released application up on the Software Ops site. Check out the video to hear the developer's take on these apps.