Melitta ME1MSB Smart Brew Coffeemaker gives you the weather

There are often days when we get up in the morning, stare down our coffee machine and think: "You know what would work really well on this thing? A weather display." Thank goodness, because Melitta has just announced its ME1MSB Smart Brew Coffeemaker with MSN Direct. The $250 MSRP coffeemaker (Amazon's got a pre-order for $200, ships on November 15), as you can imagine, brews a mean cup o' joe (perhaps not as strong as this espresso maker), but also displays up-to-the-minute weather information via MSN's FM sub-carrier broadcast network without requiring a subscription -- just plug it in wherever you can get a radio signal (most of the continental US is covered), and off you go to caffeinated meteorological heaven. We think that the ME1MSB will be a fine addition to our kitchen, because it would finally fulfill our dream of adding another way to getting the weather without peeking outside, bellying up to our computers, or reading that archaic RSS reader known among certain scholars as a "newspaper."

[jon @ Sep 15th 2006 4:08PM]

calling something with a glass carafe and a hot plate "smart brew" is beyond stupid. today's forecast: burned coffee.

[Joel @ Jan 25th 2007 10:08PM]

Funniest. Comment. Ever.

[shmengie @ Sep 15th 2006 3:52PM]

i already have a badass cuisinart coffeemaker. otherwise, i'd buy this in a second!

[mittio @ Sep 15th 2006 3:57PM]

Looks like the same coffee maker as the
Beyond Smart Mill & Brew Coffee Maker :
http://www.beyondconnectedhome.com/customercare/coffeemaker/coffeemakerhelp.html
plus weather.

Makes decent coffee, pain to clean the grind basket sometimes.

[james f. @ Sep 16th 2006 2:25AM]

Yah I think I saw this on woot.com a few months back.

[Matthew Weyer @ Sep 16th 2006 12:18AM]

Just a note the original source was http://www.liveside.net/blogs/main/archive/2006/09/15/A-Windows-Live-Coffeemaker_2C00_-really_3F00_.aspx

Also, I agree with jon, the only bad thing about this or most coffeemakers is that damn glass carafe/hot plate. Why don't they replace it with a thermal carafe and no hot plate. Hot plates always burn coffee, and since they try to re-use the hot plate to heat the water, usually the water doesn't get hot enough to brew properly [around 202F]. Anyways...

@Matthew

[Steph @ Mar 19th 2009 5:06PM]

The manufacturer took care of this! The burner only remains on for one hour, then automatically shuts off.