refrigerators
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Samsung's smart home vision includes more intelligent fridges and vacuums
CES wouldn't be CES if Samsung didn't have a slew of new appliances to announce, and the longer the company invests in its vision of a connected home, the more we at Engadget wind up writing about refrigerators and vacuums. Samsung's smart Family Hub fridge, for instance, packs all of the same nifty storage options found in the company's Bespoke refrigerators, and once again lets you peek inside the fridge with a camera. There are also new tools here for the novice cook or nutritionist -- you can plot out a week's worth of family meal on a calendar for all to see, and a tie-in with a Samsung cooking app provides meal inspiration, automated ingredient ordering, and guided cooking instructions piped through the refrigerator's 25W speaker.
Greener fridges will keep cool using magnets instead of chemicals
Though modern refrigerators are getting fancy and connected, they're still just a jumble of pipes, pumps and hazardous fluids. Scientists from Canada and Bulgaria have made a discovery in the field of so-called magnetic cooling that may change their core functionality, however. Such systems work when ferromagnetic materials are removed from a magnetic field, causing them to cool down. That cooling energy can be recaptured using water as a heat transfer fluid instead of environmentally harmful hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants. Previous experiments have yielded inefficient systems, but researchers found a compound that could create a so-called giant magnetocaloric effect merely by rotating in a magnetic field. That drastically reduces the required input energy, and could one day result in simpler, more efficient fridges -- or anything else that needs to chill.
Siemens shows off iPad-controlled homeConnect appliances
You use your mobile device for pretty much everything these days, right? So why not the kitchen? That was part of Siemens' pitch today at IFA -- the ability to control your cooking and dish washing from afar. The company debuted homeConnect, a "networked kitchen," which lets homeowners check on their energy consumption, shut down appliances remotely, receive notifications when the washing is done and view the contents of their fridges in real time -- with the help of internal cameras trained at the food. By downloading recipes from the internet, users can also import temperature and cooking times. This isn't the first time we've seen some kitchen-based connectivity, of course -- LG debuted the similar smartphone-based Thinq line at CES earlier this year. %Gallery-132133%
European R&D advances 'internet of things,' hastens our Phildickian future
Why can't our refrigerator fire off an urgent email when the milk has gone lumpy? And the toilet paper dispenser warn us it's empty – before we sit down? And when will our microwaves run BitTorrent? EUREKA, the European R&D network, knows how badly you crave networked objects, and rather than mock you, it's moving to help. To that end, it has developed small, inexpensive, battery-powered sensors able to link everything from consumer electronics to environmental monitors to factory robots – creating the much-anticipated "Internet of Things." But unlike the over-hyped RFID, it's technology you'd actually use. Instead of knowing whether your keys are indeed on the RFID reader, the network could gently remind you that you left them in your car, which is now 100 miles away with someone else at the wheel, but, luckily for you, low on gas. Gaze into the so-called future of things with EUREKA's press release, conveniently embedded after the jump.
Control4, Sub-Zero get in on the home automation game
While brands like LG, Samsung, and Kenmore all showed off their own special brand of Jetsonian appliances at CES this year, Sub-Zero was close by touting a stable of 30 automation-ready products and a partnership with Control4 that could make them a contender for home automation domination. Sub-Zero's ZigBee-based system uses preexisting serial ports (initially installed for diagnostic purposes) to connect users to appliances via touchscreens, smart phones, and other enabled devices. The system lacks full control of potentially dangerous appliances like the oven, instead acting as an alert system when, say, your turkey is done roasting, but it does grant complete access to things like your refrigerator or freezer. Other systems might sport increased functionality, like LG's Thinq, which allows users to set oven temperatures remotely, and Samsung's fridge, which lets you tweet from a built-in touchscreen, but Sub-Zero is hoping a second-quarter release will put them at the head of the pack. We'll see if a head start makes a difference in the glacial appliance market, when Samsung rolls out its smart refrigerator this May and Kenmore's system comes to fruition in 2012.
Samsung WiFi-enabled RF4289 fridge cools, eats and tweets; we go hands-on
Other brands may view networked fridges as the key to going green, but it seems Samsung is more interested in letting users access Pandora or tweet while grabbing a snack. At least that's the impression we got from its staff while playing with the RF4289 fridge at CES, which the brand touts is the first of its kind to feature integrated WiFi. To be fair the unit provides a few pragmatic features too like the ability to view Google calendars, check the weather, download recipes from Epicurious, or leave digital notes -- though we'd have been more impressed by functions such as remote temperature adjustment or food spoilage alerts. We also found that the stainless steel exterior made reading the 8-inch LCD touchscreen screen difficult from more than a few feet away. Otherwise, further details on the software and definite pricing are nonexistent at this point, but we do know the appliance will be available to cutting-edge Canadians sometime in May. For more details check out shots of the UI in the gallery below, and hit up Samsung's vague press release after the break. %Gallery-113980%
Whirlpool Espresso refrigerator brings the coffee to the cream
Today's "Adventure in Laziness" is brought to you by Whirlpool, which has just -- rather cleverly, we must admit -- announced an upcoming refrigerator with built-in espresso maker, saving you several precious steps during your rushed morning routine. No longer will you flutter between fridge and coffee machine like a caffeine-addicted idiot; instead, your milk, creamers, and sweeteners are just inches away from a freshly-brewed cup. Coming in January of next year for what will likely be significantly more than your standard icebox, the "20RI D4 Espresso" bodes well for future fridge-tech, and makes us yearn for the day when our Whirlpool sends us off to work with a warm cup of joe and welcomes us home at night with a frosty, self-brewed lager.[Via The Appliancist]
New Sharp refrigerator freezes, then thaws
You know, we love a good "love hot warehouse" (thanks Google Translation!) as much as the next guy, but we're not really sure what that has to do with Sharp's new refrigerator. From what we can tell based on our poor Japanese language reading skills and our uncanny ability to decipher strange cartoons, it appears that this fridge has a thawing mechanism inside one of the drawers so that you can unfreeze that meat you bought a month ago. We're still not exactly sure how it this fridge works its magic other than by blowing warm air into the thawing tray, but perhaps all you Nipponophiles can help us out, ok? The only other information that we can glean from this cartoon is that apparently this mechanism takes place by sacrificing your right eye to the Japanese fridge gods.[Thanks, xman]
