After completing many a survey asking me how I would feel about having a ‘smart’ kettle, washing machine, microwave, fridge etc. that I could operate with a smartphone and have it automatically order me milk when I run out etc. I decided to google it to see if they are real thing. Unbelievably, they are. Here is a brief description of their ‘smart’ features. Please someone tell me it’s not just me getting old and these things are actually bonkers! PERFECT DRINK Smart Digital Kitchen Scales £49.99 The Perfect Drink scales work with the free downloadable app to eliminate the need for measuring. Simply place your glass on the scales and start pouring. The virtual glass on your smartphone's screen will fill up and tell you when to stop pouring. Can I not just look at the glass in front of me? Or the number on the scale? SMARTER iKettle 2.0 Smart Jug Kettle - Stainless Steel £99.99 Have the kettle already boiled and waiting for you when you get home with the smartphone and tablet controlled Smarter iKettle 2.0 Jug Kettle in stainless steel. From wake up alarms to welcome home and baby modes, through the Smarter app you can have the iKettle ready to go at the ideal moment. You'll also be able to view how much water is available via the app. Simple to set up, just connect the kettle to your home Wi-Fi and away you go. You'll be happy to know you can also work the iKettle by hand, if you don't have your smartphone or tablet on you. Wherever you are, the Smarter iKettle 2.0 Jug Kettle provides an even better way to start your day. It takes about two minutes for a kettle to boil. I’d have to open the app as I was walking down the drive. Why would I want to walk into my house with my coat on, bags/keys to put down, mug/teabag/spoon/milk to get out etc. with the kettle already boiled (which I’d probably have forgot to fill up anyway), when I could just flick the switch when I walk in? BOSCH CNG6764S6B Built-in Smart Combination Microwave - Stainless Steel £1571 Smart connectivity makes every day life easier With Bosch Home Connect technology, you can control your microwave from your smart devices, making it easier to keep track of cooking. What cooking do I need to keep track of via an app exactly? It’s a microwave, I shove my food in for 3 minutes and wait for it to bing – job done. SAMSUNG Family Hub RF56K9540SR American-Style Smart Fridge Freezer - Stainless Steel £3499 Top features: - Internal cameras let you see inside your fridge freezer even when you're not at home for easy food management - Watch TV or listen to radio through your appliance to bring entertainment to your kitchen - Create a shopping list and use your app while shopping - CoolSelect Plus Zone lets you between additional fridge or freezer space - Bluetooth connection allows you to connect to smart sound multi-room speakers I like the idea of the CoolSelect but I really don’t need cameras in my fridge or to watch the tele on it. There’s a whole load of other ‘smart’ things too but I got depressed enough after reading those.
I can understand the TV screen on the fridge if it's a big kitchen or somewhere you spend a lot of time. Instead of having a separate TV why not have the fridge with one on? Wouldn't have it personally but can see why it exists. Can also sort of understand the idea of being able to see inside your fridge when you aren't there so you can check whether you need something while you're out shopping but at the same time i don't see where it fits in. If you are rich enough that you can afford that for such a pointless little thing then to be honest you're rich enough to buy a spare cucumber. I also understand the kettle that you can set to boil but again only for a few people whos lives are so busy that those two minutes are costly. For 99.99999% of us it is pointless. I can actually see the alarm kettle thing being a bit more useful especially if it was in your bedroom (why not?). Have it set to make a cup of coffee from 7am and the alarm goes off when it's made. Sounds like it could help you get up in a morning if your bedroom is filled with the aroma of fresh coffee and there's a cup waiting for you. Wouldn't have it myself though. You can actually get a fridge that tweets every time you take something out of it. What is the point in that? "Dear world, jamdrop's had a chocolate biscuit. The greedy cow"
Haha! Actually laughing here. I did think I'd rather save the thousands and just spend that on the milk just in case. I really don't need a fridge that tweets what I eat!!
It's worse than that... I went to a seminar a couple of months ago on IoT (Internet of Things) Security and most of these appliances are totally insecure (mainly through people leaving the default wi-fi security settings on them. Anyway the guy running the seminar ran a little piece of code and thousands of these things appeared on his radar. Now you might think so what if someone can see my kettle, what are they going to do, make me a cuppa ... well it turns out that while our national grid is equipped to handle surges in demand (by someone switching on hundreds of thousands of appliances at once) what they're not very good at handling is hundreds of thousands of appliances being switched on and off repeatedly and there is the very real possibility of some malicious person/govt/terrorist group taking out our national grid. The problem gets worse as apparently all but one of the power stations requires another power station working in order to provide the power to start up again ... which means it could take days to get the grid up and running again. Hopefully no one would declare war on you during that period, as you would be pretty much blind/paralysed !! It does sound a bit far fetched, but the guy seemed to know what he was talking about. So think on ... if you do get a smart device change its default password settings, your country is relying on you I think it is pretty common these days for hackers to use 'things' (web cams etc.) for denial of service attacks.
That's because I can't get my head around this new message board ... I'm blaming early onset corrected it now ... i think?
I'm half a bit too paranoid to get any smart devices (I don't even own a smartphone) and half a bit I can't see the point. It is scary how much everyone is jumping on the bandwagon though. I refuse to have anything voice activated,
What amazes me is the level of trust people have for businesses. I'm currently working on an IoT project for work where the machines that we make are connected to the cloud and send sensor data back for monitoring. This allows us to offer our customers a lot more services (early failure warnings, automatic stock replenishment etc.), but it also allows me to see what people are doing with the machines. Right now i can see machines all around the world and while we aren't malicious it is feasible that I could take control of those machines, or just stop them from working. I bought the eldest an Amazon Echo a while back and you forget that it is constantly listening. i'm pretty sure that they are showing me adds based on random discussions we have in the house. to highlight the point, about a week ago I was watching telly and there was an ad for the Amazon Echo. at some point during the ad they said 'Alexa what is the weather for tomorrow'. next thing I hear is our Amazon Echo upstairs telling me 'the weather for Cambridge tomorrow....'. It would also explain why I keep getting sent sado masochistic magazines with pictures of Sam Winnall being bug*ered on the front cover
I have a fancy fridge it tells me when I run out of milk I think cheers otherwise I would have just been staring puzzled at the empty carton not knowing whether it was full or empty. It cost me 5 times more than my first car. I think I want a little cry now.
And the have to boil it again just to be sure the water was boiling..... All of these things are TOTALLY UNNECESSARY. Furthermore they are DANGEROUS, some time ago some Chinese hackers managed to get into such devices in the States and used them to mount an attack on some servers which became overloaded and crashed. If you really want a telly in your kitchen, BUY A TELLY.
No TV and no smartphone either? I don't know which amazes me more, that you can live without these things or that you married a man who works with technology
It's really not a hardship, I have books! Will has a smartphone and isn't bothered about TV because he likes to spend his evenings playing computer games and/or watching videos of other people playing computer games. Edit: I do actually have a TV licence at the minute! We get one every 4 years for the Olympics (and bonus of the Euros this time too). I use it so rarely I'd actually forgot that we have one.
