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Microsoft and Miele Team Collaborate To Cook Up an IoT Revolution
Mark Wilson writes When people talk about the Internet of Things, there are often semi-joking references to fridges that know when you've run out of milk and ovens that know how to cook whatever you put in them. Forget the jokes; this is now a reality. We've already seen a generation of smart appliances, and Microsoft wants to be part of what happens next. At Hannover Messe today, Miele — of oven, vacuum cleaner and washing machine fame — announces it is working on a new breed of appliances based on Microsoft Azure Internet of Things (IoT) services What does this mean? Ultimately it means you'll be able to find a recipe online, have the ingredient list and preparation instructions sent to your mobile device, and your smart oven will be automatically configured with the correct settings.
- every company ever, when announcing their new product
Hot.
to facebook
AUTOMATICALLY
Ultimately it means you'll be able to find a recipe online, have the ingredient list and preparation instructions sent to your mobile device, and your smart oven will be automatically configured with the correct settings.
I fail to see where any of this is saving me much time or effort compared to what I can do today. We already keep our grocery list in a Dropbox file. One might argue that knowing you're out of something is an advantage; but in practice it's too late at that point - and "running low" is dependent on what you're planning to eat over the next several days.
Having a recipe displayed on my phone or iPad is certainly handy - but I can do that now, with no more effort than is described above ("find a recipe" is the only effort involved - and you have to do that either way).
Configuring the correct settings on my smart oven? That's like 5 seconds - tops - on my current oven. And my current oven is at least 25 years old! I have to turn a dial to set the temperature... oh, the humanity!
Seriously, as far as I can tell the only "advantage" this particular corner of the Internet of Things offers is either to 1) advertisers hoping to sell me stuff; or 2) other various parasites.
#DeleteChrome
Miele, the company building what's basically the best on the market of its kind (at a price, if you can afford it), cooperating with Microsoft, providing questionable quality "must have" monopoly-ware.
Can this end well?
Here's a list of reasons why I don't like the Internet of Things:
1) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I sleep.
2) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I pee.
3) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I make kaka.
4) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I pleasure myself.
5) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I wash my body in the shower.
6) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I relax in the tub.
7) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I brush my teeth.
8) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I make passionate love to my wife.
9) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I brush my hair.
10) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I read a book.
11) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I read Slashdot.
12) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I bake cake.
13) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I put in my contact lenses.
14) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I get ready to play golf.
15) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I do my laundry.
16) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I think about rugby.
17) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I tie my shoes.
18) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I celebrate the 4th of July.
19) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I water my flowers.
20) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I eat ham.
21) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I use my stapler to staple documents.
22) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I chew bubble gum.
23) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I check the oil in my car.
24) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I look for my TV remote.
25) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I blow my nose.
26) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I rearrange my stamp collection.
27) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I listen to the Backstreet Boys.
28) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I do my calisthenics.
29) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I search for a paper clip.
30) Internet of Things devices could send information about me to advertisers.
31) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I sleep.
32) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I pee.
33) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I make kaka.
34) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I pleasure myself.
35) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I wash my body in the shower.
36) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I relax in the tub.
37) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I brush my teeth.
38) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I make passionate love to my wife.
39) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I brush my hair.
40) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I read a book.
41) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I read Slashdot.
42) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I bake cake.
43) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly coll
What's with the "we", paleface?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
And IoPatch *day ?
No wait seriously, I think I've been using my oven wrong all these years. Seems there's Bake, Broil, or Convection...and then a temperature. Is that really so farking hard? You're in your kitchen cooking things, is it so much to ask that you push 4 buttons? (assuming the b/b/c buttons are independent, and that you then put in a 3 digit temp). I totally get wanting an easy way to keep track of what you have in the pantry and frig, and correlating that to things you can make atm and things you need to buy when you're at the store, but assuming that you're making a batch of cookies...you're looking at a recipe (whether an electronic or paper version), mixing things in a bowl, and putting globs on a baking sheet. Is pressing 4 buttons on your oven really a stumbling block at that point? Or is a solution to a non-existent problem just an over-complication making things more likely to fail...
You will not be able to vacuum your flat if you do not pay your comcast bill.
in lack of security I confidently expect it will become possible to remotely burn down someone's house. /me makes note never to buy Miele appliances.
Besides, the Amazon variant will not only allow your house to burn down but also automatically order the ingredients for the recipe... ...half of which will only arrive two days late.
Cmon people are not interested in "IOT" in their life, it's going to end up as a commercial tool where automation is needed, no one wants this shit in their home it doesn't improve anything substantially enough.
So the oven refuses to start. Close the oven door, shut off all timers, unplug the oven, then plug it back in, reset the timer and re-open the oven door. Yeah, like I'm going to trust microsoft with food.
I've been disconnecting things, not connecting them. Not going to change directions.
SJWs are the new boogeyman. -Me
So I am preparing the food, and oh, how nice the oven is warming up for me. Hey, what's that smell? Oh shit, I should not have stored that plastic tray in the oven!
Vorwerk's Thermomix kitchen appliance, which does a lot more than an oven, already does this: http://thermomix.vorwerk.com/h... (as do other, cheaper, similar products)
OK, one point is not there yet: While there is a Thermomix online forum and you can get recipes to your mobile device (revolutionary!!1!), the actual transfer of the instructions to the Thermomix devices is via special DRM-ed memory chips. So it's not "IoT", but all the other, harder, problems have been solved.
Now, if the washing machine would contain acoustical and electric sensors to detect and diagnose the approaching pump failure and at least manage to compile a report for the 120 EUR maintenance man visit, so that the service tech could come prepared and do something else than just look the machine and say "dunno" and start changing parts, a 120 EUR visit plus parts at a time.
Let's talk about Hillary Clinton running for the presidency. I'm going to vote for her because I don't want people to think I am sexist. I voted for Obama because I didn't want people to think I was racist.
I mean, sure, she's corrupt, and almost certainly not a good choice, but the alternative is worse. And this is a two party country. If you aren't a republican or democrat, you might as well not even bother trying to be the president.
Then again, maybe Hillary Clinton will make it possible for people to work minimum wage jobs for more than 27 hours a week. I know most of you don't really care about the little people, but I do. And I distinctly remember being able to work for 40 hours a week at a single job when I was a teenager, before Obamacare.
But I fail to see a matching problem
As if the current one wasn't... but this will be a completely new beast.
You will have not only a customer base who doesn't know jack about the internet (and who might not even care about it, let alone consider their fridge, toaster or dishwasher being even remotely connected to the internet), you will have MS with its record of treating security as an afterthought, leading to half-baked tacked-on solutions that may or may not finally work more or less correctly after half a dozen iterations or so.
And now let's ponder why this might be a problem with appliances that might be a bit hard to "field-upgrade", simply due to their nature of not having a sensible user input interface. Let alone having users that often neither know nor care about their ability to be upgraded.
But, and that's the important bit here, this isn't just some "toy", like what a computer is to many people out there. A computer is something they use for their pastime. To play, to collect pictures, to surf the 'web, to have fun. If it doesn't work, well, that's a pity but nothing that would make the world stop. But with the IoT we're talking about the machines that store and prepare their food, the machines that clean their clothes and dishes, stuff that does matter to many people more than their "toy" computer.
And don't think that after a while of crappy, insecure appliances with embarrassing hacks we'll get better secured appliances. Remember who the companies are that you're dealing here. It ain't MS and Nintendo. We're talking the likes of GE here. They don't make their stuff more secure. They simply have finding security holes outlawed. It's cheaper. And they already bought the politicians anyway, so they can as well let them get to work. And of course the idiots will cheer that their fridge will no longer cook their cheese now that they're secure from the evil hackers.
I predict a lot of rather interesting times coming our way.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Microsoft teams up with a vacuum cleaner company, to finally produce a product that doesn't suck. This stuff just writes itself.
A republic cannot succeed till it contains a certain body of men imbued with the principles of justice and honour.
Smart homes and appliances have been the promise of the future for decades. And, for the past fifteen years or so, we've had all the technology that we need in order to achieve this. The problem is that the big players all want to own the workflow. You'll have to have a separate flipping app for everything you want to control. For the oven manufacturer, these features will be less about you having a more useful cooking tool, and more about a marketing deal with the software company that requires you operate the features through their walled garden. Sure, we'll have pockets of innovation, and even a few outliers that get it right, but I don't see it becoming anything more than a hodge podge of spotty functionality.. At least for the next decade or so.
The solution will likely come from AI that can control those devices intelligently the way humans do, without waiting around for a standard protocol / interface.
Ultimately it means you'll be able to find a recipe online, have the ingredient list and preparation instructions sent to your mobile device,
I already have that. Its called allrecipes (allrecipes.com) and conveniently allows me to check off ingredients I already have. Best of all, it is free.
and your smart oven will be automatically configured with the correct settings.
My oven is a device that if misconfigured can start fires or fill the house with explosive gas. It is about the last thing I would connect to the internet, especially with Micros~1 running it.
"Be grateful for what you have. You may never know when you may lose it."
..of the personal computer era
Most of the speculations about how personal computers would be used were wrong..comically wrong
Most of the articles I see today about the Internet of Things seem silly, comically silly (NO, I don't want my refrigerator to order anything)
I suspect that there may actually be some useful ways to put "things" on the internet..we just haven't invented them yet
"Ultimately it means you'll be able to find a recipe online, have the ingredient list and preparation instructions sent to your mobile device, and your smart oven will be automatically configured with the correct settings."
Boy, that sounds like sounding straight out of the 1950s... a Carousel of Progress from a World's Fair or something... Elektro the Robot, vocoders, and AT&T picturephones...
All it needs to complete the picture is a white woman in an apron, a white man smoking a pipe, and two smiling white children.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
And you forgot the most important one word: ZUNE
Microsoft logo'd fridges with start screens on the outside.
A fridge that automatically orders too much food then crashes and spoils all the food.
A new breed of cyber criminal that holds your pantry contents to ransom with malware.
Where do I sign up?
insecure appliances: I am a toaster and I hate my life.
Those aren't bugs - they're features!
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
North Korea will be able to burn your roast and make your milk turn sour.
An effective "democracy" creates the illusion the people have a say in their government.
Sort of gives new meaning to the "blue screen of death"
insecure appliances: I am a toaster and I hate my life.
I'm a vacuum. My life sucks.
Next new fad: The Internet of Emo Things
Internet of things will revolutionize voyeurism porn!
Mm. Oh, yeah baby. Water those flowers. Ooh. Your heart rate is so low I bet you get good insurance rates.
Unnnnnngh
I predict this will bring about a very good episode of "The Twilight Zone" entitled "A Thing About Machines". The guy abuses his appliances and the machines in his home start attacking him. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Thing_About_Machines#Plot
Viruses in smart machines will do the same thing.
Whether you agree with my prediction or not, watch the episode. It is an excellent episode of a great classic show.
No, the wealthy, the futurists, and the people selling us this stuff may or may not have it ... but the overwhelming majority of people for the foreseeable will have nothing of the sort.
We're at least two decades, massive changes in how incompetent security is implemented and punished, an actual roll out of IPV6 and the year of the Linux desktop away from even a trifling amount of people having any of this crap.
If Microsoft or Miele think I will own a "oven, vacuum cleaner and washing machine" which is connected to the internet they're delusional.
Microsoft + Internet of Things = security and privacy nightmare.
This is a flying car or a jetpack. It's a cool idea, but the majority of people will never own one.
And so far the IoT is one bit of security incompetence after another. That has to be fixed before this technology doesn't just die on the vine.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
you forgot the glaring silently with the "i will kill you in your sleep" thing
And also, Microsoft? My Washing Machine will show a blue screen? WTF! I would prefer a washing machine with the following features: * robust, reliable technology * fair to competitively priced * Using hardware like Arduino or Rasperry as the controller. * Using some flavor of linux if using Rasperry. I buy such a machine tomorrow if offered. If you have the balls and the time you can kind of build your own: http://www.zabex.de/site/wasch...
A gigantic rebranding exercise?
Do these people even listen to themselves? They can't even communicate a coherent value proposition.
To our homes to track our every move.
Why would my microwave oven need access to the internet?.
Wow joke sequence was awesome guys! Thanks for the gut laffs.
To go with all the tiny, blinking sea of blue screens of death that surround me.
On y va, qui mal y pense!
Why would Miele, a company with an excellent reputation for durability and reliability, let their devices depend on software from one of the most dubious software vendors in the industry? It just makes no sense at all.
There are fancy microwaves and ovens galore, with all kinds of flashiness on them.
I buy the one with the lowest number of dials and without any electronics, if at all possible.
Microwave: One dial power, other dial time.
Oven: One dial for each component for temperature. One dial for On/Off/Lights/etc.
I know IoT is "the big thing" this week, but I can't see what advantage I gain. I still have to have the ingredients, I have to go through a check-in /check-out process for every ingredient, I have to buy expensive appliances and hook them all up to the Internet somehow (even on wireless, they're just sucking up my wireless bandwidth), and then I have to find the app recipe, press lots of buttons and - hopefully - it'll put the oven on 220 degrees as specified in the recipe.
Or I could just turn the dial to 220 as I read the recipe. And just because something is in the fridge doesn't mean that I want to use it, so I end up using up the last of the butter that I need for the NEXT recipe I was going to do, because the fridge told me I had enough, etc.
There are some things in life which shouldn't be over-complicated and, if you are bothering to cook from ingredients, enjoy doing so. Don't let the app rule the experience.
And it will all go wrong that day you press "Cook" on the train on the way home and the oven sets fire to that turkey you forgot you left in there last night and you come home to a pile of ashes.
Some things technology can benefit, and it's usually the stuff that's NOT lauded about as features until we're all already using them that way (e.g. SMS). The "big name features" tend to be gimmicks and fads.
Honestly, I don't WANT to manage my kitchen from an electronic device. If I don't want to bother to cook myself, I'll get takeaway or someone to do it for me. The day I have to wire the kitchen for Internet will remind me of the day I was required to install a specific driver to get a monitor to display things... I'll be reeling in horror and desperately hoping technology will backtrack before I'm forced to catch up.
And this is from a guy with RFID entry to his side-gate, dashcams and GPS-tracker in his car, etc. ffs.
I find it very odd that people are concerned about enabling things like ovens and stove tops to assist with cooking plans.
The people I know who actually take the time out of their lives to use these appliances are not the sort of people looking to shave 3 seconds off every daily process.
The other people I know that are far too "busy" to ever cook for themselves are the ones lazy enough to embrace IoT, but it seems rather pointless attaching it to appliances they never use.
Reboot after replacing the vacuum bag
Forget the jokes; this is now a reality.
Something can be a reality and a joke at the same time. This oven, for example.
depress the Start button: you're just an ugly little button and it's all you'll ever be.
I still have the oven that was installed in my house in 1959. Works great. Finding parts is a bitch, but it only breaks once every decade or two. Microwave died last week, I'll have to hunt down a two-dial model.
Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
What does this mean? Ultimately it means your fridge will get hacked because Whirlpool doesn't have the first goddamned clue about network security. Some jackass will order a bunch of shit you didn't want, or turn on your sprinklers in the middle of the day, or broadcast your "facial recognition" camera to show your wife getting a pearl necklace. The threat is directly proportional to the attack surface, and when everything has an IP, then everything is a potential attack vector.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Press that Start button! See if I care!
Uh... some of my appliances already exhibit that behaviour. Fuckin' Chinese crap!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Yes, closed source IoT is mostly going to be as useless as this "connected oven" here; but as open-source software and hardware will come to the market (either home made or mass market, it doesn't really matter - it's open source, both can work together) we may see really interesting things, as it will be driven by the needs of who uses them, not who tries to sell them...
For have your appliances connected to internet, you need a 3G/4G for order the appliance to work while you are out of your house. With these data caps like 1 USD = 1 MB in some Argentina phone companies. Or more "cheaper" ones as 0.15 USD per 1 MB in MExico, I would prefer just have a dumb appliance that do not bleed me money just not be lazy and push some buttons when I arrive at home.
As usual only richies and geeks will jump for these appliances, like these Nestle Coffemakers that are glorified tea pots if you don't buy these "coffee carts". Nice for vintage and showoff. The rest of us just buy a coffee machine and use it for made coffee.