Do you have your internet ready fridge on order yet? Check those stock prices, while you get a snack.
koreaherald.co.kr
LG Electronics to release refrigerator with
Internet link
LG Electronics has developed a new digital refrigerator that communicates over
the Internet allowing users to make face-to-face calls and order groceries online.
The new freezer, slated for June release, marks the first rollout in LG's
Web-ready appliances line for a networked home.
The company hopes to get a leg up on rivals like Samsung Electronics, Sharp
and Whirlpool, jumping in on the fast growing market. Samsung plans to release
Internet refrigerators in May and others are still at the stage of sample production.
LG said its new product is the world's first refrigerator to integrate a technology
to transmit moving images over the Internet.
The "Internet Digital Dios Refrigerator," installed with a LAN port for Internet
link, offers nine state-of-the-art digital functions.
Family members can talk face-to-face and exchange video messages on a
15.1-inch TFT-LCD screen on the gadget. They also can watch TV, listen to
music, exchange e-mails, and look for information of prices of groceries and stock
markets as well as buy food online.
For housewives not accustomed to computers, the Web browser adopts a
special graphic user interface (GUI) and all programs are made to operate by
touching screen.
"Refrigerator will not be just a food-storing box," a company spokesman said.
"It will serve as a communications and entertainment tool for housewives as they do
kitchen work." It will also offer a variety of information of food stored in the
refrigerator such as cooking method, nutrition contents and validity period.
When the filter should be changed, a message comes out automatically while a
self-checking program will send an alert online to the cyber maintenance center
when it needs serving, the company said.
It isn't still clear how quickly the market for smart appliance will take off and
whether consumers are willing to pay extra for Internet functions that are already
available with their home computers.
LG's Internet refrigerator will be priced at 9.9 million won, multi-fold higher than
conventional freezer.
The company said the price will be lowered with related technology improves
and it plans to offer more Internet services to make the refrigerator popular. It will
open an Internet portal site, "Dreamlog" for housewives, jointly with Dreamwiz, a
local Web service firm.
Updated: 06/21/2000
by Hwang Jang-jin Staff reporter |
