What is the right length of time to boil the perfect egg? For some, this is a fundamental philosophical question bordering on a Zen koan. For The Perfect Egg, a clever new mobile app from Pico Brothers Ltd., it is a puzzle that can be solved in real time directly on your Nokia S60 5th Edition or S60 3rd Edition device.

The perfect answer for the perfect egg comes in the form of one number, the time that the egg should be left in the pan once the water starts to boil. To get that one number, The Perfect Egg asks the consumer to choose whether the perfect egg end product should be liquid, soft, or hard. It also takes into account the size of the egg, the altitude at which the egg is being cooked, and the temperature of the egg when it is placed in the pot. I gave this app a ride on my Nokia N97.

The consumer chooses the perfect egg as liquid, soft or hard.

Before choosing the consistency of the perfect egg, one must first click on the gears icon in the upper left of the screen.  That brings up the heart of the application, the Settings screen.

In the settings screen, the consumer sets the egg size, altitude, and initial egg temperature.

At first glance at the screen, I saw that I needed to know the diameter of the egg, and thought about  looking around for calipers to start measuring it. However, when I touched the egg icon in the upper right, I found that the screen of the S60 device itself turns into the calipers with which to measure the egg.

The S60 screen itself turns into the calipers with which one can measure the diameter of an egg.

The size slider on The Perfect Egg defaults to 46 mm, which is the middle of the range for a large chicken egg found in most supermarkets. The slider goes up to 70 mm, which is well above a jumbo chicken egg, and down to as small an egg as one would care to cook.

Going back to the Settings screen, the next step is to use a slider scale to set the altitude at which the egg is cooked. The left side of the scale is sea level, and the right end is a mountainous 2 km. Finally, I set the third scale to indicate whether the egg is fresh out of refrigerator (2 degrees C), up to room temperature on a hot day (27 degrees C, 80 degrees F).

Going back to the main screen, I was ready to choose whether the egg should be liquid, soft, or hard, and voila`–the perfect cooking time appears.

The Perfect Egg calculates the perfect time, and counts it down.

The calculated time is from the first moment that the water in the pot boils until the egg should be removed from the pot. Being the impatient sort, I discovered that it also works if you put the eggs into the water once it is boiling. I just had to be careful not to crack the eggs in placing them in the boiling water.

Progress of the cooking is shown while the timer counts down.

After the Start button is pressed, the application counts down the time, and then sounds an alarm bell through the S60 device when the countdown is complete.

A demonstration video of The Perfect Egg is available from the developers:

The Perfect Egg can be downloaded from the Ovi Store. It is priced at $1.99 (USD).

Editor’s Note: To “try” this app for yourself, click on the Green “See this app in action” button – or the Tutorials tab – at the top of the page.