Cook Smarter With New Wi-Fi Kitchen Gadgets

A century ago universal access to electrical power began to transform just about every manual kitchen chore as electric versions of them were created. Hand mixers became blenders. Wood-fired ovens were replaced by electric ones. Toasters and waffle irons were made possible by functional electrical outlets in the kitchen.

Today another revolution is dawning — this time the catalyst is wireless connectivity. Wi-Fi enables kitchen devices to be more intelligent, automatic and remote controllable — usually with a smart phone.

Here are three new categories of kitchen device greatly improved by Wi-Fi connectivity.

The Chop-Syc is an interactive touch-screen cutting board, an idea that's more practical than it sounds. It was invented by Siobhán Andrews, who won Sharp’s #GetItDownOnPaper design contest with it.

The device functions as an ordinary chopping block. Hilariously, while you're cutting up vegetables and whatnot, the screen shows a wood-grain image by default. (You can change it.) But when you look up recipes, the cutting board becomes an Internet-connected touch screen and interactive cookbook. It also doubles as a kitchen scale.

Some of the innovation is in the software. The device emphasizes portion control. So you can bring up a recipe for five people and specify that only three will be eating, and the software will recalculate all the ingredient measurements. It will even display a circle on the screen to show you how much dry spaghetti you'd need.

The reason an interactive touch screen is practical is that kitchens are great places for big-screen, interactive computers. But countertop space is often scarce. The Chop-Syc combines the cutting board with the computer, giving you a nice big surface for both.

Sharp has hinted about its intention to bring the Chop-Syc to market.


If you’re like me, you get your tea water going, then forget about it. By the time it’s screaming, you have to do the sprint of shame across the house to turn it off in time. Help is on the way in the form of a product called the iKettle, a smart-phone-controlled teakettle. It works with both iPhone and Android phones.

The device connects to the Internet via a home Wi-Fi network. You can turn it on — or it can turn you on. An alarm function can wake you up in the smart-phone app with the option to turn the iKettle on. Hit the Yes button, which acts like a snooze button, and go back to sleep. The app will wake or alert you when the water is boiling. Another phone-controlled option lets you put that hot water on hold — it will keep it hot for you for as long as you like.

You can also set precise temperatures with the app — different temperatures for different types of tea or coffee.

The iKettle is expected to ship in late November 2013.


Still available only in Korea, two ovens enable the use of a smart phone as an oven remote control.

One, LG's Lightwave Oven, enables users to set cooking times and temperatures by phone — Android only. The oven itself offers multiple ways to cook food, including halogen light technology, a microwave, a grill and a convection feature.

LG plans to sell the oven outside of Korea at some unspecified time in the future, at an unannounced price.


The second smart oven, Samsung's Zipel Oven, connects via Wi-Fi to an Android smart phone. The oven bakes, steams and even microwaves food.

The app that comes with the Zipel has 160 dishes preprogrammed for one-button cooking. You can also control some features by voice command. And it will even read out recipes as step-by-step instructions.

The Zipel Oven is not yet available outside of Korea.

More: Turn Your Kitchen Counter Into a Touch Screen

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