Some of those chairs are vaguely 1950s retro, especially the one in the foreground.
That appears to be a huge space. Given actual trends, a more realistic rendering would be something with just about enough room for a microwave, a 2-burner stove, and a 9 cubic foot fridge. But what the hell, people can dream, can't they?
What I'd like to see is a fridge that's evenly divided between "refrigerator" and "freezer" space. At this very moment, my freezer is crammed and my fridge is about half full.
Re. the CookTek MagnaWave: just don't get near it with your hard drive or your cardiac pacemaker.
That Cuisinart griddle thing looks kinda' cool; but will it do waffles..?
The scale that's connected to a database: right, and then your phone rings and your health insurer tells you your coverage is going to be canceled if you make *that* recipe more than once a month. And the internet-enabled fridge could also rat you out to the Calorie Patrol. "Police state" is out, "Control state" is in...
Polara range with refrigeration & heating capability: now that's a way cool idea. Set up the ingredients and put the unit on "refrigerate" to keep them fresh all day, then get home, press a button, and dinner cooks itself in an hour so it's ready when you are. Probably uses electricity like crazy (expensive to run), but it still scores "cool" points. Nice external design too, except the knobs should be on the front vertical surface rather than right on the cooktop where they could collect liquids from spills. One possible drawback (aside from the energy usage): keeping certain foods refrigerated without being wrapped or enclosed in a small container, could suck all the moisture out and render them rather dry and tough.
One helpful use I can see for a networkable fridge, or any other networkable high-wattage appliance, is to communicate with a power-management system to keep your overall load low during peak usage hours (high rate hours). But the way this should work is: the power company sends a signal telling you how much power you can draw at the moment without incurring the over-peak charge, and then your home network figures out what to do about it. The power company doesn't get to find out how you're using your power, but does see the changes in overall current consumption on the grid.
When I get around to building a house (a small one!) in the next couple of years, one thing it's definitely going to have in it is a set of large analog meters for voltage and current on the power panel, so I can tell at a glance exactly how much power the entire house is using at any given moment. A resettable digital KWH meter would also be cool, and more convenient than trying to read the power company's meter outside.
