(NC) Technological innovation is spilling out of the smartphone and into the home. But what is worth the investment? Tech expert and author Amber Mac shares her picks for the top five kitchen tech innovations worth checking out this season.
- Voice assistants.From the highly anticipated Google Home to the Amazon Echo, today’s voice-controlled devices are so much more than a speaker. These hands-free tools are smart digital assistants with ability to provide recipe ideas, control devices in your home and help you plan your next shopping trip. It’s the virtual assistant you didn’t know you needed.
- App-controlled appliances.Handy downloads allow you to control your appliances through your phone. GE Appliances, a leader in connected appliances, just introduced their Wi-Fi Connect app, and it promises to change the way you interact with your kitchen. Want to start preheating the oven for dinner on your drive home from work or get your cup of coffee brewing before you get out of bed? Not sure if you left the stove on when you headed to work this morning? Now there’s an app for that. These smart appliances are also compatible with other smart home apps.
- Healthy gadgets.Drop Scale is a wireless kitchen scale and recipe app that makes it easy to take your cooking skills to the next level. The innovative platform intuitively guides you through finding, making and sharing a variety of delicious dishes. And by placing your cooking bowl on the Drop scale, you can use the app to monitor the ingredients you’re adding, ensuring you don’t use too much or too little of anything and allowing you to adjust the recipe along the way if needed.
- Smart indoor gardens.Indoor herb gardens make it easy to automatically grow year-round herbs right in your kitchen. Lack a green thumb? Not to worry — these tools automatically adjust watering and lighting for optimal growth. Some models even use an HD camera to capture time-lapse videos and track plant growth and health.
- Robotic in the kitchen.Shaken or stirred? Making a cocktail has never been easier. The Somabar is the world’s first app-controlled robotic bartending appliance. With its streamlined design, you can order a cocktail through the app’s menu or customize your own based on ingredients you already have. By simply pressing a button you can even infuse bitters and make the perfect cocktail in seconds.
