It might not be the summer yet but my barbecue is coming out regardless.

iGrill was demoed at CES this year and we were very intrigued by what it offered. Priding itself with an interactive App working in harmony with the Bluetooth enabled Thermometer device, this appeared to be the next generational wave of cooking.

The iGrill unit is obviously designed to fit in with your Apple surroundings having a white glossy plastic finish throughout the exterior. The top surface of the iGrill sits the touch sensitive buttons to function the device. On the sides we see opposing inputs for the probe and the sides are moulded to wrap the probes connection cable around for easy storage. The back reveals a very handy flip out stand which can also be used as a hook.

So to get started you insert 4 AA batteries into iGrill to power it up and then pair with your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. Once paired you will be alerted that you can download the iGrill App which you will want to do. Now the Apps downloaded you can use the iGrill. On the lower back of iGrill a switch is placed for choice between Fahrenheit and Celsius. Choose which ever suits you best. Once you begin to set iGrill up its LED display will respond to all actions such as the temperature and the unit will beep. So in the App you can see a realtime temperature and look at dozens of recipes to select. The selection of recipes is a little weak at the moment with a nice amount of items to cook like fish, chicken, beef, pork, lamb and sauces the dishes within each are to few. This will hopefully change over time with updates and maybe we will see this come into play with cakes ect.

The App offers tips for cooking and Safari embedded to browse the internet also. Once you select a recipe to cook iGrill will show you a timer and graph of the reading and then work out how long it should take to cook.This is where the software and hardware work like a dream. Now you may be thinking how can I just walk away from the iGrill and let it keep giving me readings across my house because it will lose connection? Well thats definitely not the case here, the iGrill has a 200ft radius for bluetooth which is staggering. So while your recipe is cooking away you can be on the sofa watching a little TV and be alerted when it’s ready. It sounds great but it also works great too.

Overall iGrill is an excellent idea. An easy to use App for both the iPhone and iPad is a huge plus but the lack of recipes and selections really lets it down. Of course you could just use it for readings. The actual iGrill unit is small and compact with the wrap around probe cord for easy storage.