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Brava's light-powered smart oven is too expensive to make sense
Smart cooking gadgets aren't new, but the rise of computerized countertop ovens is relatively recent. The June was one of the first to arrive on the market, three years ago, and the Tovala, a steam-powered model with a meal-kit-subscription service, debuted last year. Now there's yet another one, and it's called the Brava. It retails for a whopping $995, and one of its main selling points is that it cooks with light. Yes, it's basically an Easy-Bake Oven, but for adults.
Tovala's latest smart oven looks and feels a little more familiar
Last year, Tovala introduced its first smart steam oven, which was specially designed to go with the company's own meal-delivery service. Think Blue Apron but without the hassle of actually knowing how to cook. Just do minimal prep work, pop the ready-to-cook meal in the oven, scan the associated barcode and you'll get "homemade food" in less than 30 minutes. Today, the company is ready to reveal the second-generation Tovala, which was designed to look and feel a little more like a regular oven. It's priced at $349.
June's smart oven adds Whole Foods meals to its library
Healthy eating without the tedious fuss of preparation -- that's the dream, right? Well, things are set to get a lot easier for lazy cooks looking to improve their diet, thanks to a partnership between Whole Foods Market and June, the do-it-all smart oven. From today, foods sold at the store will be integrated into the oven's custom cook programs.
The Morning After: Wednesday, November 16, 2016
A smart oven that does the thinking for you, a new product from Apple that costs $300 and doesn't even have a touchscreen, and DJI's duo of upgraded drones that are tailored for filmographers. We're halfway through, folks, you've got this.
June is smarter than a regular oven, but $1,495 is hard to swallow
Smart cooking gadgets are de rigueur these days. We've seen connected sous vide machines, smart kitchen scales and even a WiFi slow cooker. So you'd be forgiven if you thought a smart oven would be just another appliance with an app. The June smart oven, however, is a lot more than that. It's outfitted with an HD camera, a 5-inch touchscreen, a slew of sensors and even a 2.3 GHz quad-core NVIDIA CPU, all for the purpose of taking the guesswork out of cooking. And after three years of development, the company is finally starting to ship to preorder customers next month. The downside: It costs $1,495. And while I think it's a wonderful machine, that's still much too rich for my blood.
A $1,500 smart oven made me the perfect leg of lamb
If you'd like to cook more but tend to feel disappointed by the results, you might be interested in the June. Announced last year, the June is an intelligent oven outfitted with a camera, a scale, a bevy of sensors and the guts of a smartphone or tablet (It has an NVIDIA Tegra K1 chip plus a 2.3GHz quad-core processor) to deliver the perfect meal. Want a medium rare steak? Simply weigh it, plop it in the oven where the camera will instantly recognize it's a steak, stick a temperature probe in, enter in your desired temperature on the touch screen and the oven will take care of the rest.
Samsung's Smart Home service ready to control new wave of TVs and appliances
Samsung has just taken a big step in its home automation plans by launching its Smart Home service in the US and Korea. That means you can now download an Android app that, in conjunction with Samsung's cloud service, will give you control over certain (crazy expensive) Samsung smart appliances. In the US, those include Samsung's T9000 Smart French Door refrigerator, the WF457 smart front loading washing machine, all 2014 Smart TVs and, later in the year, the Smart Bulb, Gear Fit and Smart Ovens. On top of an app for any Android 4.0 or later device, a Tizen app will soon arrive to Samsung's Galaxy Gear 2 smartwatch, as well. Once all that's installed and connected, you'll be able to fully control a wash cycle, check the temperature of the fridge or even say "good night" to the TV remote to shut down all connected devices. Samsung has promised that all of this is encrypted and secure, so let's hope that's the case -- all this is just the beginning of its "grand plan" to enhance your home.
Samsung Zipel oven takes instructions from your Android phone
Smart ovens have long been a promise of appliance-makers, but they haven't exactly caught on with the general public just yet. Samsung's now making another push to change that, however, rolling out its new Zipel oven in Korea. In addition to some decidedly modern styling, that standout feature here is some built-in WiFi that lets the oven communicate with your Android-based smartphone, which can be used to dial the oven in just right for 160 different dishes. The oven itself is also an infrared oven, which promises more versatility than a conventional oven, and it packs a number of "smart" features into the oven itself, including the ability to display the number of calories of a particular dish. Unfortunately, there's no indication of a price just yet, or a release outside of Korea.
