Web enabled fridge

But technology had run amok at the LG Electronics booth, where its $10,000 Web-enabled refrigerator lets you watch TV, download music from the Internet, leave messages, send and read e-mail, keep track of food supplies, order groceries online, conduct videoconferences, make two-way video phone calls and take still photographs (that’s me, smiling and waving in the photo at left). Aiieee! Stop!

Frigidaire is refining its prototype Electrolux “screen fridge,” which provides Internet access, a place to leave family messages, a way to order groceries online and a built-in video camera for personal messaging, among other things.

“The refrigerator is the center of the kitchen, and we want it to be the center of the home,” Mitchell said, a one-stop control center for the household. And there is something to be said for making maximum use of the one family appliance that is always on.

Being able to conduct video conferences and make two way video phone calls from your fridge seems a bit over the top, as does turning it into a giant camera. On the other hand, integrating tv, music and email as well as keeping track of food and being able to order it all seem fairly useful – many kitchens have radios and televisions in them already.

http://www.sptimes.com/News/051901/Homeandgarden/Gourmet_gear__Look_wh.shtml