Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, Apple
An Apple in your kitchen
"Welcome to Audrey." With those three words, I experienced my first Internet appliance. 3Com's Audrey was meant to deliver lightweight "internet snacking" from a user's kitchen, and offered email and internet access, a calendar and contacts database, plus synchronization of up to two Palm devices. It had a touch-sensitive screen, wireless keyboard and a clear plastic stylus that would glow green when new mail arrived.
Unfortunately for 3Com, the Audrey was launched immediately prior to the dot-com collapse, and was discontinued just seven months into its initial run. I picked one up on eBay a few weeks ago for ten bucks, and it's been fun to play with. I can't help but wonder what would have become of it if 3Com had received user feedback and time to develop a second version. We'll never know, but perhaps the Chumby holds hints.
My experience with the Audrey has got me thinking about the inevitable synergy between computers, household appliances and many of the tools we use every day. For instance, my car told me that one of its tires needed air recently. A friend's refrigerator has been beeping to get her attention since Monday (she's a very patient person).
TiVo has completely changed the way I consume TV shows, as the Apple TV has for others. How many of the shows you watch are "time-shifted?" For me it's at least half. As we said in a recent talkcast, the computer and television will eventually merge into a single device. The process has begun for sure, but I don't think it's complete.
But let's get back to the kitchen. Like many of you, that's where my day begins. Upon waking, the first thing I do is make breakfast for myself and the kids. Then I glance at the calendar on the refrigerator, as well as any flyers, etc. that have been posted there. As the pancakes are sizzling, I'll wander over to the computer to give the morning's email a cursory glance, and maybe hop on Newsvine. Then it's back to the stove to flip the pancakes.
Click below to read more....
There are problems with my current system. The first is clutter. The refrigerator is covered with notices from school, flyers, a calendar, notes of all sorts and photos. Also, none of this stuff is shared. Write an appointment on the paper calendar, and my iPhone has no idea what just happened. It just sits there like an idiot.
The second is my pancake batter-encrusted hands. I don't want to be touching a screen, mouse or keyboard with that mess. Also, I've got to be sure that any electronics are kept far away from water, etc., which tends to be everywhere in a hoppin' kitchen.
The fact is, I do want a device of some kind in my kitchen, as it really is my home's communication hub. Who else to build it other than the company that I love? I'm not talking about a tiny netbook, a MacBook Air or even a mini. I'm after a totally new device. Let's call it "iKitchen" for lack of a better term. Here's what I want out of my iKitchen.
- An eye-level device. I'm 6 feet tall, and bending over to squint at a screen or type on a keyboard is annoying, since I'm usually standing in the kitchen. Ideally, the iKitchen would hang on the 'fridge. That way, it could replace the paper calendar, flyers from the library and notices from school held in place with ugly magnets. Also, counter space is at a premium in my kitchen, so I don't want another thing taking up space. Especially one that can't get wet.
- It must have a touch screen or voice activation, as there's no room for a keyboard or mouse on the 'fridge. I'd like to be able to ask the room, "What's today's weather?", "Today's events" or "Latest emails" (subject/sender only). Mac OS X does have support for speakable items.
- Hands-free cooking. The Nintendo DS offers voice-activated recipe navigation with Personal Trainer: Cooking.
- Shared calendar that receives push updates from my other devices. MobileMe sync seems perfect here. I can enter an item on my iPhone, Mac or iKitchen and it's pushed to all three.
- Email, even if it's read-only. I just want to know what's up as the day begins. If I could do triage from the fridge, like delete unwanted emails and leave the rest -- or maybe flag the super important ones -- that'd be fine. But it's not a deal breaker.
- Weather for the day
- Music
Another neat trick would be a way to project a recipe onto a wall or other surface. Additionally, imagine flipping through pages with "air gestures," similar to what the folks at Majic Jungle Software are doing with FluidTunes.
Now that we've covered the "Do's," let's look at the "Don'ts." I don't need the "the real Internet." Just simple access to some news sites, weather sites or maybe a sort of MobileMe hub that displays what's going on with all of the iKitchen's registered users.
I don't need movies or television. Sure, it might be fun to watch a morning news show while I'm working, but I'd only glance at it as I did other things. For that reason, support for movies would be a total waste. I'm not going to lean against the sink to watch The Dark Knight.
I don't need tons of apps. No iMovie, iPhoto, etc. Just the simple functionality described above.
So, should, would or could Apple design the iKitchen? Well, they certainly could, so the only questions are should or would they?
For years now, there has been much longing for a tablet computer from Apple. Think of a touch-screen machine about the size of a 15" MacBook Pro display, but a little thicker. Give it this basic functionality and wall-mounting hardware and you'd have something worth considering. Since it would lack an optical drive, hard drive (flash, anyone?) as well as a lot of software, it could be relatively inexpensive. The Audrey sold for $499US.
What would be very awesome is if the iKitchen could be removed from its mount and paired with a wireless keyboard and mouse, or stream iTunes elsewhere. Maybe then it would be better to call it the iHome?
Get a WordPress.com Blog
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Peter C said 4:07PM on 12-09-2008
I have an iMac G4 in my kitchen, runs Safari and iTunes. Couldnt live without out it.
Photo: http://cli.gs/EBdTnT
Reply
Carlos said 4:40PM on 12-09-2008
Actually the term "time-shifting" has existed since the advent of the VCR.
Reply
Rich said 3:59PM on 12-09-2008
Actually, the term became common over twenty years ago, when people used Beta to do it.
OED has a citation from 1990.
Reply
Rick A said 12:47PM on 12-10-2008
Which term?
racco said 4:01PM on 12-09-2008
17" G5 in my kitchen, runs whatever I need it to. Wouldn't want to live without it.
Photo: http://xrl.in/17lp
Reply
Rich said 4:02PM on 12-09-2008
Seem to have misplaced this quote:
"How many of the shows you watch are "time-shifted" (a term that didn't even exist five years ago)?"
Reply
Ax said 4:02PM on 12-09-2008
I love the Audrey, it was a great concept that was way ahead of it's time, well sort of... but I completely agree it's time for Apple to capitalize on this idea, after-all HP has their touchscreen PC that they are targeting in this very way.
Reply
Bob S. said 4:02PM on 12-09-2008
You kids are so funny. The term "time-shifting" predates Sony v. Universal. The court would not have used the term in its decision if that term did not have a precise, well-defined, and commonly understood meaning at that time.
Reply
veedow said 4:23PM on 12-09-2008
Pretty cool! Reminds me of this guys setup.
http://www.kitchenmac.com/Photos.html
Reply
Steve said 4:32PM on 12-09-2008
Our kitchen is actually the only place we have a Mac. I bought it as a "switcher" experiment and to tackle some of the points you raise about "daily info" management... I think a kitchen computer makes a lot of sense, but not hanging it on the fridge. The kitchen is becoming a family room; your family needs to be able to write e-mails, do web searches, play WebKinz, get map directions, etc. in addition to having a "sync and media center." I agree that there's no big draw to movies, etc. but a device that hangs and only has a touchscreen interface to today's schedule just won't be valuable enough to justify the cost of a full machine. Build an iPod Touch app for that and hang that on the fridge ;)
Moreover, I doubt such a device will really work until Apple figures out its multi-user story. Support for each family member having an account -seems- to be well supported, until you actually try it. Your music & photos etc. get scattered among different iPhoto/iTunes libraries, important apps refuse to run on two accounts at once, and when you drop a CD in the device 3 iTunes instances decide to simultaneously rip it. Not to mention that our iMac is a slow beast unsuitable for heavy multi-tasking; I see beachballs & 10-second pauses all the time (thank god I learned the Force-Quit key command, but my wife will never figure that out.) Because of its better parental controls & protection from viruses, It's still the only way I'd let kids on a computer without constant over-the-shoulder monitoring, but I'm definitely not happy with the Mac experience so far. I love my iPhone, though!
Reply
Rob said 4:33PM on 12-09-2008
I've considered rigging up my mini with a smaller LCD display (13/15/17") that can be mounted on a wall or under a cabinet and flipped down, although it would lack the touchscreen features mentioned above.
I think audio streaming (plus radio?!) would be required, as lots of people like to listen to music in the kitchen.
Another nice feature would be for it to display photos of your choosing (or album slideshows) while it's in standby mode, thereby doubling as a digital picture frame (more MobileMe integration).
Reply
Steve said 4:36PM on 12-09-2008
I think I saw this in a show about microsoft's "future house", but the best implementation i have seen of a kitchen computer is projecting the image onto a kitchen counter top (from below in the case I saw, much like the surface, but this was a few years before that was announced). This would be a useful tool for the kitchen, not so much a way to keep track of other aspects of your life (weather, mail news etc.) while in the kitchen. While making pizza dough, it could project a circle of the appropriate size and you could roll the dough out on the projection, or a recipe could have you get the ingredients out at the begining and put them on certain parts of the screen, and then animate the recipe by showing arrows from where the ingredients are to the correct bowl or mixer that are also on the surface. I understand right now this would be way to expensive for mass consumption, but this seems like the long term direction for computing in the kitchen to me.
Reply
Kelly Spongberg said 7:02PM on 12-09-2008
I love this idea, but we may have grown past it already.
In my home everyone drags their laptops to the table when we gather.
My iphone is on a lanyard around my neck at all times, how much more connectivity do I need?
Reply
Evan Doyle said 5:08PM on 12-09-2008
I have an Audrey, but haven't used it in years. It is my dad's he got it form his boss at work who buys everything and then finds that he has no use ofr it and gives it to my dad. No complaints here. It was awesome when I used it. And yes it was in my kitchen!
Reply
YodaMac said 7:19PM on 12-09-2008
Guess I'm in the minority here as I don't spend much time at all in the kitchen.
My wife and I rarely eat together because of work schedules, so neither of us cooks much.
All my kitchen needs is a Microwave and I'm good, cause I can be in front of my computer or AppleTV in 30 seconds flat. :)
Reply
Tristan said 7:38PM on 12-09-2008
Presenting the iKitchen, comes with everything INCLUDING the kitchen sync...
(Sorry, I had to do it!)
Reply
Berklie said 11:49PM on 12-09-2008
Damn... I thought that maybe this post was going to be about throwing OSX onto an Audrey or something like that (headline + pic). I still search for what to do with the 3 that I own.
Reply
anthony said 1:12AM on 12-10-2008
Same on both fronts here Berklie! I just may bring one out of hiding and see what I can do with it.
the old man said 2:17AM on 12-10-2008
"Write an appointment on the paper calendar, and my iPhone has no idea what just happened. It just sits there like an idiot."
Hahahahaha! :)
Reply
Sam said 4:54AM on 12-10-2008
I tried to make my own version of this in Photoshop - I was bored =)
http://i34.tinypic.com/30swpko.jpg
Reply