Over the past few days we’ve seen several reports from across the pond from those lucky enough to have snagged a new iPad 2 with the new Smartcover that, if you set it up just right, you can “stick” your new iPad to the fridge. And, as the picture shows, it is apparently the case that you can indeed do this.
Which now begs the question (again!), why on Earth would anyone buy a fridge with what is essentially, a tablet buried into the fridge door?
It’s more expensive, it will be a nightmare to sort when it breaks and a fridge door isn’t as portable as an iPad the last time we checked.
The cheaper option, more portable option and more future proof option is just to go get yourself an iPad or another flavour of the new tablets that seem to be appearing almost daily.
LG and Samsung, are you listening?
Here’s what the idea of the Net Connected Fridge is:- It scans the food in the fridge (on the assumption that all food is sold with RFID tags)- It shows, on the door, what food is almost out of date- You set up a “minimum quantities” of stuff you always want (milk, butter, etc.), and if it notices that you’ve run out, it connects to your grocery service, and re-orders.- It lets you check what you’ve got in the fridge over the Internet (not sure whether you’ve got yogurt? Check the home fridge before you leave the office)- It lets you query the temperature of multiple cooling zones over the Internet.Now – if the appliance manufacturers ACTUALLY wanted a net-connected fridge, this is what would happen.As it is, we have overpriced tablets in the wrong place :-)Mark
And it still doesn’t know how much milk is in the carton or butter in the packet…K.