Salton's Westinghouse-brand Beyond microwave oven can scan bar codes on packaged food.
Salton has developed a web-enabled line with its new Westinghouse-branded Beyond products, which include a microwave oven complete with scanning wand preprogrammed to read over 4,000 bar codes, a breadmaker also able to scan packaged foods, a coffeemaker, the flip-screen Icebox, and a Home Hub-in the form of a clock radio/CD player or countertop Icebox-that links them to each other and the Internet through standard electrical wiring.

Bosch's Integra Limited dishwasher with Appex technology senses how dirty your dishes are.
According to René Kan, product manager for dishwashers at Bosch, advanced sensors in the company's new Integra Limited and Integrated dishwashers determine just how dirty the dishes are. Push the Auto Wash, Auto Super Wash or Auto Delicate buttons and the Appex wash technology takes care of the rest-water level, cycle, temperature and time.

Whirlpool's Polara refrigerated range can cook and cool your meals
A time and effort-saving range that combines the high heat of an oven with the low temperatures of a refrigerator for ultimate cooking performance and convenience. Just program it to heat or cool your food and it does the rest.
"We have added a network interface card inside the Polara for the pilot so it could be accessed remotely through the Internet, a web tablet or even a cell phone," says Joanne Belanger, product development manager for Whirlpool's Connected Home Group.

Samsung HomePAD Internet Refrigerator
The Internet refrigerator is taking control of the kitchen. The Samsung HomePAD Internet refrigerator will challenge the most uncompromising aesthete with its state-of-the-art fusion of technology, function, and design.

This 27-cubic-foot side-by-side refrigerator/freezer ($8,000) might become the kitchen status symbol of the decade. Its sleek, ribbed aluminum doors not only house an advanced digital display that controls all of its chill functions; the doors also double as a docking station for the pièce de résistance-a mobile 11-by- 9-inch web tablet (aka HomePAD).

The HomePAD is wired and ready for connection to high-speed ISPs as well as satellite and cable services. External inputs allow for hookup to DVD players and VCRs, which means that you can read and send e-mail (pop-up keyboard and stylus provided), surf the web, watch TV or movies on its 10.4-inch TFT-LCD screen, and leave text or video messages for family and friends. A schedule manager and phone directory will keep you organized, and for a futuristic take on the fridge magnet it boasts a built-in video camera and digital album. Countless images can be stored, shared over the Internet, or programmed as screen savers.

New Fat-Busting Microwave Oven Unveiled
Eyeing up that juicy steak but worried about your waistline? Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corp. says it has developed a new fat-busting microwave oven that can melt some of your worries away.

Unveiling its invention to media on Monday, Sharp said the microwave generates "superheated steam" at a temperature of about 572 degrees Fahrenheit, hot enough to melt fat and reduce oil and salt from steak, chicken, fish and other foods.
Osaka-based Sharp said the product was developed to address a growing awareness among consumers about the need for a healthier diet, especially with obesity rates climbing to worrisome levels in many countries around the world.
"Obesity is becoming a global problem," said Itsuro Kato, a director that heads up Sharp's home appliances division.
Sharp said the machine's fat-zapping power derives from a steam generating unit that produces a combination of convective heat and condensation heat so hot that fat liquefies and flows out of the food in a very short period of time.
The company said the new oven can remove eight times more fat off a 200 gram beefsteak than if prepared in a frying pan, leading to a 13 percent reduction in calories.
It can cut nearly 19 percent of the fat off a 100 gram serving of mackerel, compared with about 12 percent reduction when using a gas grill, Sharp said.
Scheduled to go on sale in Japan next month and to be gradually introduced after that in overseas markets, Sharp's new oven can also reduce salt content in fish and limit the loss of vitamin C in vegetables, the company said.
But reducing the fat and calories of your meals will come at a price. Sharp said it expected the "AX-HC1" to sell for about $1,150, or several times the price of a typical microwave oven that might retail in Japan for around $185.
Sharp said it would continue to make conventional microwave ovens and market the "AX-HC1" as a high-end model for health-conscious consumers.

For proof that the Italians are still on the cutting edge of kitchen design, look no further than Boffi. The company was founded in 1934 outside Milan by brothers Dino, Pier Ugo, and Paolo Boffi, and it has maintained its edge over the years by collaborating with some of Italy's top designers, including Piero Lissoni and Antonio Citterio. Boffi has recently expanded its U.S. presence with high- style showrooms in New York and Los Angeles.

Boffi's advanced manufacturing and experimental designs have resulted in a great deal of flexibility in its industrial-style kitchen systems. Last year it introduced Lissoni's Case System 5.0, an ultralean group of stainless steel cabinets with integrated appliances. This year Boffi is adding the Case System 2.3 (the numbers represent the thickness of the cabinet doors in centimeters), which is also offered in a white Pral finish, a material similar to Corian. "There is a tactile benefit to the thickness of the doors," says Steven Salt, manager of Boffi USA. "They feel reassuringly solid, the same feeling of quality as the doors of a luxury car." The new LT kitchen, unveiled at the Salone del Mobile furniture fair in Milan and also designed by Lissoni, offers lacquered honeycomb doors, recessed handles, and a variety of wood finishes.