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A Kitchen Computer That's Actually Useful?
twilightzero writes: "I was at the Rochester Area Builders' Home Show (Rochester, MN) today and ran across what looks to be first actually useful and practical computer appliance I've ever seen. Called the iCEBOX, it mounts under your cupboard or sits on your countertop, but I found the under the cupboard model much more attractive. It includes an LCD display on a tilt/swivel mount that locks up out of the way to protect the screen, a DVD drive and with DVD software so you can watch movies or listen to cd's while cooking, cable ready 125 channel tv receiver, and the ability to act as a remote monitor for a camera (as in a baby's room or the front door), useful for all you X-10 owners. But the best touch, IMHO, is the spillproof, shockproof, greaseproof, and washable wireless keyboard that comes with it, an absolute necessity for the kitchen. It also includes a modem and NIC and says it's compatible with any dialup or broadband service that doesn't require the downloading of software (i.e. prodigy yes, AOL no). There's no mention on the website about the hardware or software that it's running but with its name I might assume it's running Windows CE or Pocket PC...not sure though, since it also says it's not compatible with MSN. I'm thinking about redoing my kitchen sometime soon, I might have to put one of these on the list for installation ..."
"Mom, why do brides wear white?"
Mom replies "Cause brides are pure and virginal"
Kid then goes to dad
"Dad, why do brides wear white?"
Dad replies "'Cause all kitchen appliances wear white, son."
The above post is an editorial, the poster cannot and will not be held responsible for all or in part for it's contents
Nice to see it moved out of the way though. Good if you have a kitchen/diner combined area as well, as you can eat dinner whilst watching downloaded porn.
when it can do the dishes, get the shopping done, and have dinner waiting for me when I get home.
Until then it's a waste of space.
Behold the Power of Cheese!
"I don't know what happened, I was watching 'Jingle All The Way'
and I must have been engrossed by the performances of Sinbad and Arnold,
but the next thing I knew I had lost two fingers and there was blood everywhere."
do we need to watch tv all the time? when we are working with hot things, etc?
I don't like TVs in cars, either. There are times when we shouldn't watch tv.
Yes, there is free enterprise. You have a right to buy this. However, the more people buy it, the more "ubiquitous" having every room wired becomes.
Think about it from your grandkids' perspective: They might have to have a computer in every room of the house for their 18 hour workdays.
Goat sex free since 2001
1U essentially. would take up less room. has a DVI and DVD too. Exhaust is side mounted too so air can escape pretty easily. Mounts under the cupboard without a problem.
Sleekline 1260
These guys make absolutely bulletproof power supplies too. But take this, throw in a wireless/RF keyboard/mouse combo, and put in a 15" flat panel ($200 now?) and you have something for the kitchen or wherever.
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the might have just chosen to call it an iCEBOX because it's a box, they wanted to use jargon (i-). and being for the kitchen wanted to give it some sort of name that would fit in with the rest of your everyday stuff. Ice, commonly found in freezers, or an ice-box, a name for a freezer type thing; iCEBOX or i-cebox, fits right in. Follow?
"It's the Law of the Universe, and I'm the sheriff." Slash-cott 2/10-2/17
Wow, the new desktop iCEBOX looks a bit like my Mac SE/30.
This is something that I could build with a Spacewalker case, a mid-range Celeron, a DVD-ROM drive, and a flat-panel monitor. Toss in a Logitech cordless keyboard and mouse, an inexpensive remote control, and a PCI TV tuner card, and you're good to go for less than this alleged "iCEBOX" (ugh) costs. How do I know? I have one in my kitchen right now. It runs Linux, too.
For more information, click here.
The flipdown one is $2995.00. OUCH. Still it is a neat device, but missing a few key features I think. Where is the touch screen? Recipie program? Wireless? I couldn't find if it would play streaming audio from my server. Since it doesn't look to allow loading of software, no AOL or MSN, how does it get updated for new software? I really would like to have a LCD panel WITH touch screen in my kitchen that I could view recipies and play streaming audio with. Oh well, back to coming up with something myself I guess.
Who would own one? The darn pop-up and pop-under ads have turned me off to it.
For (i=1; i Run-Sequence(Make_Me_a_Pie!);
Mmm...
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Today's Top Deals
If I want to listen to a CD, I'll turn up my amp, or tune into Digitally Imported on my PC and be done with it. What I'd rather have in the kitchen is a recipe server. Something with...say...the Joy of Cooking built in, along with plugins for other recipe books, and the ability to input my own recipes.
So lessee, I'm in the mood for a chicken dish. What recipes have chicken in them?
I agree that they've come up with an ideal form for kitchen use. I'm not sure if it's worth $3000, but it's pretty cool.
Make dinner while suring porn!
Get the two esstentails in one sitting, porn and food.
This has been out for a while. I saw the Icebox at the Atlanta Builders show last february. At the time my company was considering partnering with them.
The booth lackey clearly liked demoing throwing the keyboard into the sink in the booth. IMHO, this was it's best feature.
My single biggest complaint is that the entire machine is done in firmware. There is no disk, and no OS per se.
At the time (last year) the Icebox shipped with it's own custom browser. It didn't have Adobe or flash plugins, and because the software was done in firmware, there was no ability to install these plugins.
This machine is entirely rigid in it's application. This makes no sense in the world of Internet where standards seem to change monthly.
The people behind the Icebox clearly come from a consumer electronics background. These machines have more in common with a DVD player then a PC.
As I mentioned, the waterproof keyboard is the only "feature" of this machine that actually has value. I'd like to see more "Internet Appliances" pick up on this.
_Am
One thing I always thought a computer would be useful for in the kitchen is is a digital cookbook. My mom has all sorts of old, tattered recipes shoved in a folder. Just whip up a quick PHP set of scripts that will allow you to enter, edit, and view recipes and you'll never lose one again.
Okay, I'm dreaming now but I don't think it's so far-fetched. It would need a way to input what foods you just bought and the amounts (bar code scanner?) and then what food you just used and the amounts. Combine that with a recipe database and you can input that you just made pancakes and it will automatically deduct milk, eggs, flour....
Of course, then the kid will sneak some chocolate cake in the middle of the night and the data will get all messed up. But a girl can dream :).
Or does the icebox look like an old 80's style Macintosh Classic?
But the best touch, IMHO, is the spillproof, shockproof, greaseproof, and washable wireless keyboard that comes with it, an absolute necessity for the kitchen.
If it's Spillproof, and greaseproof, how come it even needs to be washable? Amazing concept.
"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
1 John 4:14
Kind off odd that Slashdot would finally mention the icebox, considering that it was in PC Magazine months ago in the After Hours section... Typically, I consider Slashdot to have the latest news, albeit with slightly less accuracy.
Still, awesome little device. If it wasn't for the fact that I was economically disadvantaged due to corporate and familial mismanagement, I'd get one.
The real question is, does it include a built-in receipe book program? If not, somebody please make one!
Here is a link to the google cache of the homepage..
-- the computer doesn't want any beer, no matter how much you think it does. NEVER, EVER feed your computer beer.
but how much movie do you plan to watch while you slap a Pizza in the microwave or get a new brewsky from the fridge?
I mean, that's all I ever do in the kitchen...
I wish I had some sort of computer terminal in the kitchen that was somehow attached to a recipe database. This product would work except for two problems. First, it looks really hard to program -- I'm guessing that you'd need special drivers for it. Second of all, it doesn't appear to have a touch screen on it. I don't think I'd want to leave a keyboard sitting around the kitchen. It would get dirty quickly, and it would get in the way.
I want a simple X-terminal with a flat-panel touch screen that mounts under the cabinets like this one does. I could then write a graphical application that interfaced with the recipe database and control it by touching the buttons on the screen. This is close, but probably not what I want. Grrr....
But does it have a High Speed link to Food TV?
http://www.foodtv.com/
"Let's see Fritos, Garlic and Eggs.... Must be SOMETHING I can cook up with those ingredients....."
. But the best touch, IMHO, is the spillproof, shockproof, greaseproof, and washable wireless keyboard that comes with it, an absolute necessity for the kitchen.
Forget the kicken, I already wasted enough keyboards due to excessive p0rn watching. Give me a keyboard that I put in the dishwasher and I'll never use an old sock again.
For tracking groceries? How can one in this high-tech time we live in even CONSIDER attempting a task so complex as grocery organization without keeping very careful and accurate inventory via computer. With a barcode scanner to ease the entry and removal of items from the system. I mean, *I* have a grocery inventory system in my kitchen (although I've yet to figure out WHY).
Oh well. Maybe the next version.
-Restil
Play with my webcams and lights here
Excellent, now i can spend all my fat ass day in the kitchen preparing gourmet food while masturbating on the waterproof keyboard, it sure is time to get myself one of these...
Oh wait. I'm not a rich Slashdot IPO millionaiire with free product perks if I blatently plug one as legitamite news.
The price tag apears to be $3,000. I ask why pay this?
If I have the extra cupboard space (and many people have it), I can easily build a similar system. Take an empty kitchen cupboasrd of mine. It is 11.5 inches deep, 16 inches wide, and 19 inches tall. Using this available space, I can fit a LCD monitor into the front facing (15 inch). I could also add say a DVD drive and mount it underneath. To protect everything could be encased in plexi.
The total cost would be under around 1200.
Wile this is a good all in one solution, I beleive that the more savvy users could easily build a much cheaper solution.
Since the iCEBOX link is Slashdotted, you can go here instead. You can order the iCEBOX from this page for $3,500.00.
iCEBOX Flipscreen
A complement to any contemporary kitchen, the iCEBOX is the first web-enabled entertainment center designed specifically for the kitchen. This sleek new space-efficient device combines cable-ready television, DVD and Audio CD Player, Internet access and household monitoring - all delivered to you seamlessly and with push-button simplicity. the iCEBOX also comes equipped with a waterproof, wireless keyboard and remote. The perfect union of elegance and innovation, the iCEBOX fits conveniently under a kitchen cabinet and features an adjustable LCD monitor that flips up and out of the way when not in use. Finally, an appliance that recognizes you do more in the kitchen than cook.
Screen Size: 12.1" LCD TFT
Resolution: 800 x 600
Aspect: 4:3
Contrast: 400:1
Weight: 40lbs.
Dimensions: 23.54" x 11.8" x 3.8"
Power: 110Vac, 60 Hz, 230Vac, 50Hz
Ships in two business days
CMI-ICEBOX-000
$3,500.00
There is a news article at USA Today.
Another article on Cnet
And there is the press release here.
--Metrollica
This is what I tell my girlfriend, but does she listen?
I'm also losing patience with the "in" use of the letter "i" being tacked onto the front of every new "i"nternet enabled device. I almost completely lost it when they started putting "e" in the front of everything, but then a whole bunch of those companies went "e"xtinct.
Ok, so we can do google lookups, look up recepies and play mp3s hosted on the main box in the basement with pretty cheesy sound. No DVD movies but, dammit, we're cooking dinner.
The important part is that it didn't cost $3000. When somebody spills a pot of spaghetti on it, well, there goes another 486 laptop, not the marriage.
It's a kitchen, people. It's a social place. Any computer stuff in it should take its lowly utilitarian place alongside the potato peelers and colanders or get the hell out.
The iCEBOX(TM) is the first web-enabled kitchen entertainment center designed specifically for the kitchen.
Were all of the other ones designed specifically for the toilet?
What happens when Grandpa Billy tries to open the CD/DVD Drive and tries to put ice in the "Icebox" ??
The revolution will not be televised. It won't be on a friggin blog either
Wow! Imagine a beowolf cluster of these!
/. - flogging dead horses is par for the course.)
(Yes, I know it runs WinCE, but lighten up and laugh - it's good for you.)
(And, yes, I do agree that this joke has warn out its welcome but this is
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
i think i need a spillproof, greaseproof, shockproof computer for regular computer use.
(spillproof for my coffee, greaseproof for my hands and shockproof for stileproject)
free (as in mp3s) electronic music
And you could overclock them by sticking them in the freezer! So close. So convenient. So cold. The kids would need the "never lick a frozen computer" talk a little early though.
Is it just me, or does anyone else think it looks like an old Macintosh or something?
My wife's recipe station. An 802.11b wireless and built in keyboard/screen and a spot to plug in speakers (wireless there too if you like) and she's got a great way to get to the net and grab any recipe she likes -- and IM -- and whatever else can be installed. It's an old PI 150 w/ 96meg of RAM and certainly didn't cost $3,000! ...
In my kitchen, I have a 13" tv that I got for free at a yard sale and a cheap CD/Tape/Radio stereo. I could add a cheap dvd player for $80 and, if I really wanted to, a cheap computer for $300. Is this thing really worth it?
Get a mailstation device (usually $50 after rebates) and use recipesbyemail.com (shameless plug) to do a text search through about 1500 recipes.
Seeing some dork spend $2900 on this overpriced crap, priceless.
A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess? - Joshua (Wargames)
Kitchen PC's have always attracted my attention, since I spend a lot of my spare time cooking or brewing beer. I love to cook, it's one of my favorite hobbies (next to eating, perhaps!) and so when I see kitchen devices, I'm pretty harsh unless it gets it "right".
So, let's look at this baby. Waterproof, shatter proof, so far so good. TV tuner, very nice. DVD so you can listen to music, not bad, although un-necessary for me since I have an MP3 server. But this is seriously missing the point, IMHO. Why would I want a TV tuner? Yeah, it would be nice to watch TV while cooking, but I like watching those cooking shows. And the recipe tends to fly by too fast! I want to record the show as I'm watching, rewinding, pausing, and so on. As for the keyboard, it's nice to be water proof, but I just don't want to move a bulky keyboard around when my hands are covered with dough, oil, sauce, what not. Flat panel screens should be touch sensitive, and ave an on-screen keyboard! And when it comes time to wash it, think about it. How easy do you think it would be to remove gunk from between the keys, versus removing the LCD and washing it like your other dishes, with it's flat surface and all? (No, I'm not asking for a dish washerable LCD, just removeable and hand-washable.)
I think the problem is that the designers still look at these as peecees. Yes, it would be nice if it were a real PC since us geeks could easily customize it to do what we want. But most importantly, this is a tool, a kitchen appliance. Focus should be on that aspect, not "what cool feature is available on the PC market today?" Computers were meant to be tools, not self-conclusive devices. And that's what I want in my kitchen!
Just how many movies/cds can you watch/listen to while waiting for your 5 minute pizza to cook in the microwave??
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
http://www.iceboxllc.com/flipscreen/index.html
Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price $2,995.00
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!
Man, just buy a $1000 dell, stick it out of site in a cabinet, and hookup an lcd/washable keyboard.
It looks cool and all, but $3K? No way.
Wouldn't one of those heavy duty military grade laptops be the go for this? Surely it would be chealer, and in addition to music/movies, you could actually hook it up to your SQL server full of recipes and have it generate your shopping list.
O/S could be anything that can talk to a server with a database.
If my call is important, why am I talking to a recording?
Please don't do that.
This is an interesting device but hasn't been thought out too well. These would be nice.
1. Touch Screen for easy menu selection.
2. Bar code scanner for scanning in groceries.
3. Built in b/w scanner for scanning recipes.
Forget the DVD/TV player combo and give me the previous instead.
Get an Audrey with a USB ethernet adapter and you have a cheap kitchen internet appliance for a little more than 100 bucks. What's even better is that it runs QNX.
I use my Audrey in my kitchen to pull up recipes, get the weather and even to control my whole house mp3 player.
It's great for doing a quick search when you're too lazy to go to your desktop.
Live web cams
would be the option of letting it pick recipes randomly based on the ingredients in the fridge. I think this has already been done on some website or another, just that this would be that much more automatic. :)
:)
Especially useful shortly before payday.
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
Since I purchased a wireless access point a few months ago, I have no need for a "kitchen computer." I just take my laptop wherever I want to work in my house. I think that since the use of wireless networking continues to grow, people will stick to multifunctional laptops and PDA's rather then spending money on a system that is designed to function in only one specific area.
Heh. It looks nearly *identical* to my Color Classic.
I'm not sure why anyone would want the freestander, given the premium counterspace is getting to be (appliances, anyone?) but the cupboard-hugger doesn't look too bad. As long as it's got a decent browser for recipes, and (ideally) could talk to my TiVo/whatsisname box to show me the Iron Chef shows I recorded...
A hero is someone who knows when to run away. I am a hero. -Trent the Uncatchable
Impossible, as a former MSN Tech Support weiner I can tell you that MSN uses standard PPP MS-CHAP dialups with a username of "MSN/" and your regular password.
Kindof hard to not be compatible with that.
-- iCEBaLM
A number of comments in this thread remark on the need for a touch screen. I believe a better solution would be to incorporate some type of voice activation / voice recognition. Make the system completely hands free. Voice recognition technology has advanced quite a bit in the past few years, and it would make the product infinitely more accessible to your average user. A keyboard/mouse/remote could still be included, but the unit should be capable of being operated completely by voice command.
In my kitchen?
People need to take a lesson from the success of the Palm. The Palm is a device that fills a niche well and does little else. The result is a well-tuned machine that doesn't cost too much. There are some things that I want to do in my kitchen. Optimize a device for them.
I'll consider wiring my kitchen when I can get a machine for a few hundred bucks that can serve me up recipies, access the Webtender, and check my email. If it does more, great, but form and price are key here.
Here are the specs that I'd like to see in a kitchen machine:
- No more than 8"x6"x1" deep so that it will attatch under my cabinet and not get in the way. Counter space is a premium.
- A small screen. Maybe 6" diagonal. I don't want the thing to get in the way too much even when I'm using it.
- No keyboard. No mouse. Make it a touch screen. Counter space, remember?
- Integrated 802.11. I don't want to have to recable anything.
- Less than $500.
I don't see why this isn't doable now. Start with a palm, use a bigger screen, and integrate a wireless card. Voila!Follow similar logic to create my wireless tablet, my bedside-table computer, my waterproof shower computer.
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
That's why it should also have a catalog of your food. If you don't know what to make, it will tell what you can with the ingredients in your fridge.
I would also like something like this for my bar. I have software but its not interactive. Something that could print out shopping lists, and tell me how to mix drinks. I dont need the movie feature, but controlling my stereo or play mp3s would be nice.
To break it down:
1) The "i" starter is cool
2) It seems to run WinCE as its OS
3) It is indeed a BOX
4) Who can deny that an iCEBOX belongs in a kitchen?
Hey!!! the parentheses are good for something
Hey!!! the parentheses are good for something
So we can see what's going on in the...um...baby's room? :).
The Right Reverend K. Reid Wightman,
Why exactly is Linux free-er then FreeBSD?
Yes, having a computer in the kitchen is great for things like: keeping your grocery list, displaying recipes, setting multiple timers for cooking times, keeping track of nutritional contents, etc. But who on earth would watch a movie?! If your hands are that free, you're not going to stay in the kitchen to watch on a tiny screen. Playing music or streamed radio? Maybe. But piece of crap computer can handle that. This thing is a useless gadget. And if you really want to be able to browse / e-mail in the kitchen or other locations with small terminals, don't you think you'd at least want a centralized login to each machine in the house? Oops. And no, WinCE won't cut it for that. Lameness..
Recipezaar.com does this already (except for the MP3 part). Just get a cheap machine, put it in your kitchen and hook it up to the net.
Finally, something that I can set up next to the shitter so I never have to take a break from coding. Yeah!
Personally, I think this device won't end up doing that well either... Why? the price is to high. People will wonder 'why should i get this instead of a pc or an imac?' For an internet appliance to be successful is for it to be low cost AND robust...
What I think would be interesting to see someone do is market a combination of superthin clients designed for the enviroment they are in, and a server to serve applications... Perhaps do it over 802.11... Applications could be distributed to a terminal that was liquid spill-resistant, or perhaps push button in the kitchen. Special terminals for the kids would be available, and in the family room another terminal could be used to control a dvd or cd changer, and surf the internet. Essentially, design a good system that lets multiple devices connect to it... I know it's doable, it would just be interesting to see someone do..
[Something witty and intelligent should have appeared here.]
{Traicovn}
One reason why MSN might not be supported is because all POP3 MSN email accounts now have to be accessed using Outlook with Secure Password Authentication turned on, which happens to be a MS proprietary authentication protocol.
I think we're going to see more and more devices (i.e. any not made by Microsoft) be incompatible with MSN. Kind of sad.
iOpener.. hacked to use linux and added a touchscreen... Or a basic hacked Gateway Connected web appliance.
don't need a keyboard at that point. no I cant watch a DVD from it or watch tv... but then those are 2 useless features for me and most prople., if you can afford a PC in your kitchen then you already spent $300.00 on a dishwasher, so watching TV while washing dishes isn't needed. being able to access my recipies easily and listen to mp3's (by commanding the Audiotron in the basement, and telling the Home automation system to switch on the kitchen speakers to the audiotron's source....( BTW, I have a measely $90,000 home getting rich mans automation and whole house audio is easy and cheap you can get a more sohpisticated system than the richest man on the planet can buy for less than $10K total) If you really wanted to watch DVD's in your kitchen on a 9 inch screen, get a small sony Wega and actually enjoy the DVD instead of looking at a low quality screen. I cant see anyone spending that kind of money for a Kitchen PC, except for the rich that have money to burn.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Dad: Because you want the dishwasher to match the rest of the appliances.
Now I'm sure it'll be able to make a huge dent in the consumer/home market, with compatibility like that...
Well if I could afford the best part of 3 grand for a TV/Hi-Fi in the kitchen, I'd just get a chef!
r ide
Or a http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=mail+order+b
"Windows and Linux can co-exist on the same machine." - Microsoft Corporation.
I dunno, all I make is Kraft Dinner and easy stuff like that, and I've got the good ol' radio. I'm not a technological luddite, but I hardly see a purpose for this computer, and while my noodles are cooking it's not so hard to just go in the next room and catch a couple of glimpses of the TV. But do I really need to be in front of the media every minute of the day? Sometimes the kitchen's a nice break.
.sig: Open Source, Open Mind
"You've got milk!"
can be had for a fraction of the cost of a 'IceBox'. I should know, I've got one sitting right here. With a few brackets, available at any hardware store, you could even mount it under your kitchen cabinet.
Oh, and did I mention it runs Linux? And is easily modifiable? $199 + monitor.
The ice box is a great idea, especially for the wives or whoever is in the kitchen especially if you work at home or what not. Or if you just want to do something to pass the time while you are cooking. So it is a great thing.
I could use that spillproof, shockproof, greaseproof, and washable wireless keyboard in my office !