LG Wants To Make The Smart Home Happen For Real This Time


Smart home integration has been something of a pipe-dream for years now. LG wants to make the dream a reality, without dropping you into a nightmare.

LG is pushing for the world Stephen Conroy dreams of: internet connected appliances. You want a connected dishwasher, washing machine, dryer and a fridge complete with your Google Calendar? You got it.

LG is bringing out 100 different appliances this year and all will feature some sort of smart connectivity.

See a list of what’s in your fridge while you’re at the supermarket, live stream footage from your floor via the cameras on your robot vacuum or just tell your washing machine to get started without you.

All of this is controlled via your smartphone and its often overlooked NFC chip. Download an app for your Optimus G, for example, and scroll through a few different washing machine cycles. When you find a cycle you want, select it, tap your washing machine and the device gets the job done.

Also, the concept of an internet-connected fridge ain’t dead yet. LG is giving its smart line of fridges a version of Android so that it can run apps from your Google Calendar, right through to a Food Monitor app that knows what’s in your fridge to make shopping easier.

From there you can log into any of your smart appliances when you’re not home to check on them.

Also from LG’s press conference:

• LG is shipping its OLED TV in early January. It’s as thin as a pencil and it’ll cost you $US12,000. It goes on sale in the US in March, no word yet on Australian pricing or release date.

• The LG remote for TVs is now like a Wiimote: you can draw a channel number or even just point and click with a finger. It also builds voice control into the remote so it knows what you’re saying from the couch.

• LG is promising a 100-inch screen with the power of laser projection. No word on pricing yet but it goes on sale in Korea this month and then in the US in March. Expect it to be more expensive than your car.

• Expect a whole bunch of new, hero LG handsets at Mobile World Congress next month.

• LG’s new TVs come with an interesting version of porn-mode. It’s called “Private Sound Mode”, and it streams sound to your smartphone so only you can hear the Blu-ray 3D porn…erm…movie you’re watching.


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