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Of course, I think Pogue suggested that microwaves should have a barcode reader, and food packaging should have barcodes that provide cooking instructions.

Target used to sell the Beyond microwave oven by Westinghouse. It just used the ordinary UPC barcode on the food and looked up the cooking time for that food in its database. It could also learn your cooking times for whatever barcodes you fed it. But they screwed up the user design by making the barcode reader a wand-type instead of a grid scanner. You had to actually take the reader out of its pocket and swipe it across the barcode manually -- how gauche. I mean if you're going to be too lazy to read the side of the food packet and punch 2-0-0-start, what makes them think you'll want to pick up a wand?

could never benefit from an OS?
http://www.beyondconnectedhome.com/products/microw ave.html this one surely could.

It's a bit pricey, it's based on WinCE, and it's on its fourth or fifth "focus shift", redesign, and/or corporate parent since I first found it years ago (researching alternatives to WebTV), but the iCEBOX may be the last remaining "internet appliance" on the market.

If you do then this is the toy for you. I ran across it a while ago and bookmarked it for my post-lottery kitchen remodel.

iCEBOX FlipScreen

When I'm just hungry I can walk a block and a half to my favorite nieghborhood resturant and have a quick meal in about 30 minutes. I know the chef who is cooking my food, I know the maitre d' well enough she invites me to her christmas party. Like any other resturant in my nieghborhood, it is good food, they will prepare it to meet any dietary needs I have, and I trust the people cooking it. Given that the valet charges $15 every time I pick up my car, plus the $2 tip, plus the cost of gas. The $20 - $30 for a good meal is competitive to driving to a grocery store.

Most importantly if I were to cook at home that would require going to a local grocery store. There is only one company on the island I live on that sells discount grocieries. (The rest are either organic grocers for the granola bunch or epicureans for the people several tax brackets above mine.) They have three stores, and their food is much more expensive than eating out. Add to that the hassle of the place. . . I personally don't like the stupid Jetson's style people mover that gets you and your cart from floor to floor.

To top it all off when you figure up my other living expenses like rent, parking, utilities, and such, the $20-$30 a meal dissapears between the cracks, its inconsequential. However! An LCD on the splashboard serves a profound purpose. When you have a cocktail party you can put something like Emeril LIVE on and people that are congregating in that room have and easy subject, whether it be his food, the rumor he's putting a resturant in at 15th and Collins, or those obnoxious toothpaste commercials, it keeps the conversation flowing. And quite frankly I think that looks much better than the iCEBOX that I currently have fulfilling that role.

Westinghouse has a new line of connected apliances available. They do such interesting things as, your alarm clock tells you if the coffee maker is not filled with water and coffee, when you go to bed. Or you can use the barcode wand on the microwave to scan your tv dinner, and the microwave will look up how to cook it on the internet. They are already available to purchase at Amazon. The appliances are about average for luxury appliances, but the "home hub" (an alarm clock + windows CE pda, the one require piece) is a bit pricy at $500 if you ask me.