About six years ago I reviewed the first Internet refrigerator for the home, an $8,000 LG Electronics kitchen appliance that to say the least left me cold. As I remember it, the on-board Windows computer froze about as often as the ice cream you might store in the thing.
Fast forward to the present and I am at IFA in Berlin, walking around looking at "white goods." That's what the companies at this European tech show call household appliances –never mind that there are a heck of a lot more color choices.
And some products still fit the "curious" or should I say the "because we can" category.
Take Vestel of Turkey. It demonstrated a dishwasher with a built-in TV screen that has to be at eye level for a four year old. This assumes you'd actually want to watch TV on a dishwasher, but that's another matter. Besides, I was more interested in being able to peer inside the machine's transparent windows. To be fair Vestal has no plans to market the TV/dishwasher—and it did get a bunch of US journalists to stop by its booth and look at more mainstream appliances. A fridge with built-in MP3 controls was not one of them, however.
Meanwhile, I also ran into Gary Shapiro, the top executive at the big Consumer Electronics Show trade show in Las Vegas. He was here in part to announce that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer would take over the opening night keynote time slot at CES that was long the province of the "retired" Bill Gates.
By Ed BaigPhoto: Visitors check out a "disassembled" washing machine at German home appliance giant Miele's stand at IFA in Berlin. By John MacDougall, AFP/Getty Images
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