Slashdot Mirror
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 ..."
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."
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.
-----
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
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.
For (i=1; i Run-Sequence(Make_Me_a_Pie!);
Mmm...
------
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.
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
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 :).
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 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
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
If nothing else, something like this would be really handy for nothing else that to give me a large LCD readout of my recipes. If, in addition, they could provide a set of, say, eight simultaneous programmable stopwatches so I wouldn't lose track of when various things were getting done, that'd be outright damned useful.
Besides, I already watch TV while I cook; cooking (or especially baking) has a nasty way of being a hurry-up-and-wait affair, and standing there staring at the clock gets old really quick.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
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.
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)
That was the first thing I thought... a color classic with speakers.
-- if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic - Lewis Carrol
More like a Color Classic actually....
i c/ stats/mac_colorclassic.html
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_class
----
Am I the only one who thinks Microsoft is a misnomer? Perhaps Macrosoft would be a better fit?
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
I was thinking of one of those new iMacs and some duct tape ...
pherris
"And a voice was screaming: 'Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?'" - HST
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
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.
Or just buy a $200 kitchen TV and bring your laptop to the kitchen table whenever you need it.
I should know, we bought a new kitchen TV for Christmas. It was $200.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
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.
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..
Finally, something that I can set up next to the shitter so I never have to take a break from coding. Yeah!
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.