IoT oven?

[Halcyon]

https://www.tovala.com

I didn't know whether to put this here, or in Dodgy Technology, but seriously? Is this how lazy people have become now? You buy their specific foods, scan the QR code and the toaster oven thingy cooks to a program.

I guess at least you can also use it manually if you desire (unlike the Juicero).

What I don't get is, why do so many American products only include 2.4 GHz WiFi radios? It's hardly used anymore. The only reason I have a separate 2.4 GHz network is so I can use my damn Roomba and Dyson fans.

[Whales]

I suspect 2.4GHz radios are cheaper and easier to get.  Eg ESP8266.

It's part of a bigger business plan to get you to pay for food subscription services.  Even at the standalone price the oven is probably not profitable on its own once they factor in their shipping & warehousing (normally whitegoods are done by dedicated retailers & suppliers).

[themadhippy]

You buy their specific foods, scan the QR code and the toaster oven thingy cooks to a program.

Theres a short story somewhere out in the internet,were certain members of sociality can only buy food from  certain vendors and cooked in said vendors oven,seems its  not so far fetched after all.

[Halcyon]

You buy their specific foods, scan the QR code and the toaster oven thingy cooks to a program.

Theres a short story somewhere out in the internet,were certain members of sociality can only buy food from  certain vendors and cooked in said vendors oven,seems its  not so far fetched after all.

I'll stick with plain old cooking utensils and a gas stove top. Works even when the power is off/internet is down.

[bdunham7]

I didn't know whether to put this here, or in Dodgy Technology, but seriously? Is this how lazy people have become now? You buy their specific foods, scan the QR code and the toaster oven thingy cooks to a program.

And, of course, the toaster oven has to connect to the server to look up the correct toasting parameters. 

What I don't get is, why do so many American products only include 2.4 GHz WiFi radios? It's hardly used anymore. The only reason I have a separate 2.4 GHz network is so I can use my damn Roomba and Dyson fans.

I imagine they're dirt cheap and may have better range in many cases.  I still have a lot of stuff at 2.4GHz.  Up until recently I had a Belkin B/G router going to run some really old relics, but now it has been relegated to a closet 'just in case'.

[james_s]

What I don't get is, why do so many American products only include 2.4 GHz WiFi radios? It's hardly used anymore. The only reason I have a separate 2.4 GHz network is so I can use my damn Roomba and Dyson fans.

That's easy, the ESP8266, ESP32 and similar chipsets only support 2.4GHz. I've never seen a WiFi access point that didn't support 2.4GHz though so it's never really been an issue for me. Is dual band not standard worldwide? 2.4 is ideal for low bandwidth devices because it offers longer range and better penetration through objects than 5GHz and the extra bandwidth that offers is unnecessary.

[Ed.Kloonk]

You buy their specific foods, scan the QR code and the toaster oven thingy cooks to a program.

Theres a short story somewhere out in the internet,were certain members of sociality can only buy food from  certain vendors and cooked in said vendors oven,seems its  not so far fetched after all.

I'll stick with plain old cooking utensils and a gas stove top. Works even when the power is off/internet is down.

I watched a comedy show where the comic complained about his lazy step children. Their mother said she's was going out, heat up these meals. Well, they were so lazy they just ordered a pizza. Mother was furious.

Then it happened again. She said, heat this up! Don't order Pizza! They ordered Chinese.

I know comedians embellish but I highly suspect a fair bit of the story was true.

[PlainName]

When our old microwave got replaced I missed the feature of being able to program sequences. Typically you'd heat for so many minutes, pause for a minute, heat for some number more. Maybe the first and second sessions would be different powers (can't remember that long ago). Frozen meals came with those sort of instructions and the microwave just had a feature to easily do them (the meals weren't designed for that microwave, just generic heating isntructions).

I don't recall anyone acting superior because we didn't stand there operating the controls in real time!

Seems to me that this air fryer is just an extension of that. The meals could be supplied with instructions printed, and then you program those into the air fryer. Would that be more acceptable? Using a QR code to do that just seems to be keeping up with the times.

The thing that would be dodgy are making the meals and oven dependent on each other (a la juicero). I imagine it could be argued that knowing exactly the oven spec allows better instructions, but everyone else seems to manage with '2.5 mins 900W, 3 mins 800W' so timing isn't that critical. Of course, the oven would need to understand the QR code, but if that was a known format that anyone else could use I think that would be fine. Locked format is just the Gillette and razor blades thing all over again.

[coppice]

What I don't get is, why do so many American products only include 2.4 GHz WiFi radios? It's hardly used anymore. The only reason I have a separate 2.4 GHz network is so I can use my damn Roomba and Dyson fans.

That's easy, the ESP8266, ESP32 and similar chipsets only support 2.4GHz.

Not just that. Even if the core chip you buy is dual band, you need additional external parts to enable dual band operation, and 5GHz only products are pretty useless.

I've never seen a WiFi access point that didn't support 2.4GHz

I assume you mean a recent product. Its not so many years since most access points were 2.4GHz only, and huge numbers of those are still in use. A lot of dual band access points only have 2.4GHz enabled out of the box, and need extra configuration to get 5GHz working. Most people aren't going to deal with that. Most places I go that offer free wi-fi only seem to have 2.4GHz enabled. I think a lot of these extender gadgets are still made 2.4GHz only, as the poor coverage of 5GHz doesn't make a lot of sense in an extender.

2.4 is ideal for low bandwidth devices because it offers longer range and better penetration through objects than 5GHz and the extra bandwidth that offers is unnecessary.

Agreed. 2.4GHz is lower power too, which is good for anything portable.

[themadhippy]

Using a QR code to do that just seems to be keeping up with the times.

video plus for the microwave,not that for fetched after all
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TrueCookPlus

[james_s]

Using a QR code to do that just seems to be keeping up with the times.

video plus for the microwave,not that for fetched after all
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TrueCookPlus

It's not a terrible idea on the surface, although I can see how it might be difficult to get it to catch on, which apparently it was.

My grandmother had a VCR that had VCR Plus, it really worked quite well as I recall, although being some 25+ years ago my memory is a bit hazy.

[coppice]

What I don't get is, why do so many American products only include 2.4 GHz WiFi radios? It's hardly used anymore. The only reason I have a separate 2.4 GHz network is so I can use my damn Roomba and Dyson fans.

That sounds like its very much based on your own personal cirumstances. In a typical UK brick build home I get some use of 5GHz when I am near a router, but its limited. Most of the time dual band devices are connected by 2.4GHz. When I lived in a steel and concrete tower in HK, 2.4GHz reflected around our apartment pretty well and a single well placed access point covered the whole apartment. 5GHz was absolutely pure line of sight, and of limited value.

[james_s]

I assume you mean a recent product. Its not so many years since most access points were 2.4GHz only, and huge numbers of those are still in use. A lot of dual band access points only have 2.4GHz enabled out of the box, and need extra configuration to get 5GHz working. Most people aren't going to deal with that. Most places I go that offer free wi-fi only seem to have 2.4GHz enabled. I think a lot of these extender gadgets are still made 2.4GHz only, as the poor coverage of 5GHz doesn't make a lot of sense in an extender.

I'm not sure I get what you're saying. I don't recall seeing an access point that doesn't support 2.4GHz, IE every access point I can recall seeing, whether old or new supports 2.4. Many modern ones also support 5 but I don't think I've ever seen a 5GHz-only AP. It seems like we're both saying the same thing.

[coppice]

I assume you mean a recent product. Its not so many years since most access points were 2.4GHz only, and huge numbers of those are still in use. A lot of dual band access points only have 2.4GHz enabled out of the box, and need extra configuration to get 5GHz working. Most people aren't going to deal with that. Most places I go that offer free wi-fi only seem to have 2.4GHz enabled. I think a lot of these extender gadgets are still made 2.4GHz only, as the poor coverage of 5GHz doesn't make a lot of sense in an extender.

I'm not sure I get what you're saying. I don't recall seeing an access point that doesn't support 2.4GHz, IE every access point I can recall seeing, whether old or new supports 2.4. Many modern ones also support 5 but I don't think I've ever seen a 5GHz-only AP. It seems like we're both saying the same thing.

Did anything I wrote suggest that there are access points which are 5GHz only? I've seen a few USB dongles which are 5GHz only. I bought one by accident. I have seen a few client devices which are 5GHz only. They aren't great choices, as 5GHz is so limiting for coverage.

[james_s]

Did anything I wrote suggest that there are access points which are 5GHz only? I've seen a few USB dongles which are 5GHz only. I bought one by accident. I have seen a few client devices which are 5GHz only. They aren't great choices, as 5GHz is so limiting for coverage.

Yes, at least the way I read it.

I've never seen a WiFi access point that didn't support 2.4GHz

I assume you mean a recent product.

That sounded to me like you were disagreeing when I said that 2.4GHz is essentially universal and supported by everything. Recent product or early, they almost all support 2.4, that's what I was saying. Maybe I read it wrong.

[coppice]

Did anything I wrote suggest that there are access points which are 5GHz only? I've seen a few USB dongles which are 5GHz only. I bought one by accident. I have seen a few client devices which are 5GHz only. They aren't great choices, as 5GHz is so limiting for coverage.

Yes, at least the way I read it.

I've never seen a WiFi access point that didn't support 2.4GHz

I assume you mean a recent product.

That sounded to me like you were disagreeing when I said that 2.4GHz is essentially universal and supported by everything. Recent product or early, they almost all support 2.4, that's what I was saying. Maybe I read it wrong.

Oh, sorry. I chopped up your text incorrectly.

[Marco]

Using a QR code to do that just seems to be keeping up with the times.

video plus for the microwave,not that for fetched after all
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TrueCookPlus

If they remade something like that with an app cross compatible with major brand IoT ovens, I could see it getting some traction in a couple years as those ovens proliferate. Free App, but sell licenses to ready meal manufacturers to use the QR codes, probably free for a year or two to build a market.