Speaking in Tech: Windows is coming to smart refrigerators

WHY

for the love of sanity. We can't keep the stuff on the internet that's supposed to be on the internet secure, why the fuck are we connecting fridges?

I wonder what the past would think of the future.

I mean there's the usual "you call that music" nonsense that is just a matter of tastes changing and older people not changing with it, but then you get something like this. We have smart thermostats that learn when you'll be home, when you get up, etc. We have Google learning what you buy to filter what things you're offered, we have Facebook learning what your political bias is so that you can only be fed stories that confirm your world view rather than anything that might upset it and cause cognitive dissonance... And now smart fridges that will learn what you like to eat and order it in for you, almost certainly there will be programs that "suggest" meals and send them over...

I imagine people of fifty years ago would look at us over the next decade and consider us the most helpless generation in the history of humanity.

My fridge works. Why would I want to put windows 10 anywhere near it ?

Smart fridge

I have a smart fridge. It's smart enough to turn the light on when I open the door and off when I close it. An LED lamp mind you, it even has one in the top freezer. That will be all the fridge innovation I need for the next 15 years, thank you.

Windows on a fridge? I think that's been done.

Okay, haven't listened to the podcast, personally I'd prefer to read a transcript. But I'm pretty certain I recall hearing about LG releasing an "internet fridge" when I was in high-school (so, late 90s) which ran Windows CE.

It was about as successful as you'd imagine.

It is all about advertising revenue. A rolling screen of W10 ads. This is Windows as a Service.

Will Windows Defender issue a security alert if fur is detected growing on the carrots. Will Outlook send you email messages for what other people also bought when they purchased the product you just loaded into your fridge? Will the Windows Store carry grocery items? Will you be presented with an Excel spreadsheet to scrutinize your grocery purchases on a weekly basis? Hopefully not.

If Samsung does it, Microsoft follows suit. Windows 10 IoT Core has its application, but why follow a lost leader like this one.

My fridge contains about 10% of the food in my house, monitoring this small portion of the total has zero value. I suspect there will be a few people that will purchase a smart fridge, just as there are a few people who will replace a $3 light bulb with a $95 net-connected bulb that will burn out just as quickly. I had a bunch of X-10 devices installed in my home about 20 years ago. Realizing that I was replacing $1 switches with a multi-decade life with $20 devices that lasted about 3 years, cured me.

But if it was linux it still would be crap. I don't want any OS running on my fridge. Will the smart fridge be like the smart TVs were they remove features ? Oh and you can bet regardless of the OS there will be endless streams of ads.

What fridges really need.

IMHO a fridge needs 2 things and 2 things alone.

1. Electricity to power them (crucially the pump within)

2. Food to keep chilled (frozen if it has a freezer compartment)

I apologise in advance to anyone that my opinion may upset (and anticipate lots of down votes)

Why do manufacturers feel the need to put the word "SMART" with appliances (yes I am including phones in this statement - as I've used a number of them and found them all to be absolute SHIT - hence why I used a bog standard 3g phone that just phones and texts).

SMART seems to used with appliances to mask the fact that it's user is anything but (if they had any intelligence they would realise that the appliance is just a hyper-priced useless novelty).

"Windows is coming to smart refrigerators"

I doubt it. If the fridge is so smart, it would never allow Windows in.