"intelligent" news and stories

It's been a busy past four days as I perused about a million technologies at the CES conference. Sadly, there weren't too many food-related items. However, Microsoft had set up a portable home at the conference showing off their networked and smart appliances. I was hoping to see their smart countertop technology, but, alas, they were more focused on the big plasma displays and their media center products.

One appliance that caught my eye was their intelligent oven that can be programmed to cook at a certain time over the internet. So, I suppose you could put in your roast and leave to go somewhere, and then suddenly remember you had a roast in the oven, but forgot to turn on the oven. Then, you could simply use your PDA to turn on the oven. Practical? Perhaps not. But this oven can also act as a refrigerator after it cooks. Therefore, you could simply leave that pork roast in the oven instead of taking up room in the fridge.

As always, the idea of intelligent products might theoretically be a good one, but I don't think it's mature enough to really be that useful for the average consumer. Who needs a blender that connects to the internet to get drink recipes? I'm sure we all already know how to make our own favorite drinks.