Here’s the first oven with a built-in tablet. It sends you a text when the roast is done.
Every January, manufacturers launch their cutting edge phones, gizmos and other tech inventions at the behemoth Consumer Electronics show. While tech is not my wheelhouse, I’ve been lurking on the Android Central forums because I upgraded my cell phone last week. Imagine my surprise at finding Dacor’s new “android oven” causing a sensation among the hard-nosed tech set.
What makes Dacor’s new entry in their Discovery Wall Oven line notable is the 7-inch built in tablet that allows you to check email, download recipes from Google Play and surf the web – all while your rack of lamb is roasting. Running to the supermarket? There’s an app that will text you on cooking progress and allow you to adjust the oven temp while you’re putting groceries in your basket. When the recipe ends, the oven goes into auto-warming mode. Or so they claim. All you geeky readers out there may be interested to note the oven’s memory has 32 G of storage and runs on android 4.0.3, also known as Ice Cream sandwich, which seems so last year now that 4.1 (Jelly Bean) is on the latest phones. But the kitchens are notoriously conservative even with a price tag of $4500 for the single, and $7500 for the double ovens.
I can never resist seeing an oven in operation and couldn’t resist reposting this video (with thanks to Mr Video News who’s obviously not a foodie). The manufacturer’s rep explains how the oven works but she’s selling — not a word about performance over whizzyness or a whiff of food. I was fascinated to see the the food-driven “Guided Cooking” interface similar to the one used by Turbochef. Such an “Oven for Dummies” system allows you to enter rack of lamb, the weight, the desired finished cooking temperature. No need to know how to cook and nothing else to do until the oven sends a text telling you it’s ready. Love it or hate it, it’s here.
I’m afraid this makes me want to roast my skinned rabbit over an open fire Jane.
I agree Tricia. And one would think an oven manufacturer would be focused on how well the dang thing cooks, not on the gizmos. But, sadly, this is our world today. A focus on trivia and avoidance of the real issues that need so much work no one wants to tackle them.
I wondered who would want to stand and stare at the oven to read email, or even a recipe! But the ability to change the oven temp from the grocery store got me a little intrigued.
Plus, the Turbochefian bent with a much lesser price makes those ridiculous features at least a little more sane. For $10K+, I feel like you have to be serious about those options, but for $7500 maybe they can be for fun…
I’m clearly getting jaded (or is it numb?) about oven pricing!