CES 2018: And teach you to cook while it's hanging out
GE Appliances sees your puny smart display home hubs and raises you a 27-inch smart screen that sits over your oven. So far GE’s connected appliances has been playing nice with almost all the ecosystems – including Alexa, Google Assistant, IFTTT, Works with Nest – but the new Kitchen Hub is designed to be the centre of its own system.
The screen will display the usual including family calendars and schedules, recipes and video from connected doorbells plus you’ll be able to control music too. There’s also a camera with multiple angles for video chats and also, apparently, so that you can point it at the hob and with “ample task lighting” to help you take A++ food photos for Instagram. We’re getting strong entertaining vibes from GE’s vision for this.
Read this: Smart home ecosystems explained
The Kitchen Hub can also talk to (and we assume control) connected GE ovens, fridges, dishwashers, washing machines and dryers plus there’s a hint it will connect to other devices too. It’s powered by Haier’s U+ Smart Life Platform – the Chinese company Haier owns GE Appliances – and it’s also worth noting that it is attached to an actual extractor hood over your oven.
Design wise, GE says its prototypes at CES include a black slate finish and that the Kitchen Hub will be released in the second half of 2018. No details on price yet.
Just last week its C by GE series got a couple of new additions in the form of an Alexa-powered smart ceiling light, that is also a speaker, and a voice controlled, connected wall switch that lets you turn lights on and off as well as change the dimming and temperature. Plus Haier proper announced a series of Android TVs, with Google Assistant voice controls built in, at CES.
