For a kitchen dummy like myself, I can't wait for smart devices to help me out. Smart scales might appeal to people who want more information about their food. The Avanti Bluetooth Nutritional Smartscale ($70), through an app, gives you additional information about calories, cholesterol, carbs, sodium, fat, and protein in whatever food you are weighing, from raw vegetables to processed cheesecakes.

But it's not a matter of just popping a banana on the scale and getting the information: you have to let the app know what is being weighed.

You could, of course, get the information from Google, which says there are 89 calories in 100 grams of banana. However, it is quicker and more useful to have a calorie reading for the exact quantity used, rather than making your own calculations.

The scales have both gram and millilitre readings, so questions of how many calories are in the wine I'm adding to the pasta can be answered. But it's not obvious how to move between the two — reading the instructions turns out to be essential.

The app lets this device down. For example, there are many cheeses listed in its database, but most of what I had in my fridge wasn't there. There is the option of adding a new item to the list, recording the nutritional profile per 100 grams, but that sounds like way too much hard work for a device that's supposed to make things easy.

The app tracks the calories, cholesterol and so on,but if you don't eat what you've put on the scale  — by using just half the banana, for example  — then the stats are meaningless.

The app asks for a date of birth, a level of detail that is completely unnecessary, and one you should never give lightly.