The most popular platform for smartphones and tablets has been creeping into other devices. We can see the sense in an Android TV or laptop, and there’s nothing that odd about an Android gaming console like the OUYA, but Android doesn’t belong in everything. The market is all set to be flooded with Android watches, and glasses won’t be far behind, but it gets a whole lot weirder than that.
FRIDGE
Samsung’s first Android fridge can be yours for $3,700. It has an Android tablet embedded in the door. This Wi-Fi enabled LCD can display the time, the weather, even photos from your Picasa library, or entries from your Google Calendar. It will also run a handful of apps like Epicurious to provide recipes, a notepad for writing messages and reminders on the fridge door, and Twitter and an AP News app for the latest happenings. According to the consumer reviews there may be a few teething issues and design flaws. The idea of having to reboot your fridge to get it working properly just sounds wrong.
Bike
The Ford E-Bike is really just a concept right now. It’s a lightweight, unisex bicycle that has an electric motor in it. You can attach an Android smartphone to the handlebars and tap into the sensors to get a read out of the distance you’ve covered, your speed, and even diagnostic data related to the internals. The idea is that the E-Bike gives you a smooth ride by calculating how hard you have to pedal and then compensating for extra effort with the motor. Crazy or genius? We suspect the price tag might put it in crazy territory.
Oven
Who could resist Dacor’s Discovery IQ oven from just $4,500? It boasts a 1GHz Samsung processor, 512MB of RAM, Wi-Fi, and a 7-inch LCD. The Discovery IQ Controller is your cooking app and guide which can be accessed on any Android tablet or smartphone on the same Wi-Fi network. It’s filled with recipes and cooking instructions, but you can also download other cooking related apps direct to your oven. There’s no word on storage space and we can’t imagine working on a small panel on the front of your oven will be comfortable, but it does have stereo sound. Time to cook up some Angry Birds!
Car
There are loads of great Android car apps, but we’re also seeing more and more cars with deeper Android integration. Renault’s R-Link is the first move by a major manufacturer to include a built-in 7-inch Android tablet in its new line of cars. There are over twenty custom apps designed to work with the system and they cover multimedia, navigation, communication, and more. You can also buy third-party Android systems like Ca-Fi or Parrot Asteroid and fit them in any car.
Coffee machine
The unfortunately named Appresso is a music dock and espresso machine that you can dock your Android smartphone with. It takes coffee capsules with QR codes on them which trigger matching music. It popped up at Yanko Design and we were sad to find it’s just a concept. Just when we’d given up hope of an Android coffee maker, we spotted the Qualcomm Wi-Fi Coffee Machine which made an appearance as a working prototype at MWC earlier this year, as reported by CNET. It allows you to configure your perfect cup of coffee on your Android tablet. If it was capable of loading itself with water and coffee then we’d put our money down now…but it isn’t.
Washer/Dryer
Samsung is determined to invade your kitchen with Android compatible devices and it offers a washer and dryer range that can be remote controlled by your Android smartphone or tablet. The appliances themselves don’t really run Android, but they do have 8-inch touchscreen LCDs and you can control them via an Android app. The app allows you to start a new wash, but it’s really billed as a handy way to check on the progress of your laundry without physically looking. Panasonic is working on similar Android remote control functionality for its whole range of appliances.
A desktop phone
Touch Revolution is determined to put Android tablets in everything and they’ve been touting the NIM1000 module around to manufacturers for a while now. They showed it off embedded in a microwave, amongst other things, at CES over two years ago. One of the more revolutionary ideas was to use Android in a phone, a desk phone. This would be great for business users because they could experience a limited version of Android on a touchscreen attached to an old school phone instead of, y’know, taking the smartphone out of their pocket.
Home automation
Light switches, thermostats, door locks – the idea of home automation via Android was exciting when the Android@Home project was first discussed, but sadly progress has been slow. Belkin’s WeMo range offers light switches, power points, a baby monitor, and a motion sensor that you can remote control with your Android device. There are a few other options out there, but they’re generally pretty expensive to set up.
A button
Is Pressy – the Almighty Android Button one of the greatest ideas of our time, or not? It’s a button that will slide into the 3.5mm headphone jack on your Android smartphone. With the Pressy app you can then configure a function for the button. Your Android button could serve as an instant flashlight, camera shutter, or a Wi-Fi toggle control, there are loads of potential options. It has completely smashed its Kickstarter target and will be entering production soon.
Robot
We’ve saved the best for last. What could be better than your very own Android controlled robot? There are loads of projects out there to use Android to run robots, but our favorite is this little fella. The Arduinoid Mk I, featured on Let’s Make Robots, uses a Galaxy S3 as a brain. Sadly, the reality of commercially available Android controlled robots is more like Sphero the Robotic Ball.