Cream and sugar? Weather?
(Credit:
MSN Direct)
MSN Direct and Melitta released a whole-bean coffeemaker that displays the weather in real time Thursday. It is also an FM receiver that links to the MSN Direct data service.
The Melitta Smart Mill & Brew Coffee Maker with MSN Direct Region-Specific Weather displays the temperature, chance of rain, time of sunrise and sunset, and the daily forecast. Gadget freaks and caffeine addicts alike can buy the coffeemaker on Amazon.com and in Sharper Image stores for about $200.
The coffeemaker joins a series of smart objects on the market that act as widgets. MSN Direct also offers WeatherNow, a dedicated weather display with more details, and several watches from Fossil, Abacus, Tissot and Swatch. The watches, in addition to weather, can be programmed to receive news, sports scores, traffic updates, texts via MSN Messenger and Outlook calendar reminders.
Widget info served by household objects is a cool idea. But when it comes to weather, I'm fine with popping my head outside and seeing for myself.
In a software-driven world, it's easy to forget about the nuts and bolts. Whether it's cars, robots, personal gadgetry or industrial machines, Candace Lombardi examines the moving parts that keep our world rotating. A journalist who divides her time between the United States and the United Kingdom, Lombardi has written about technology for the sites of The New York Times, CNET, USA Today, MSN, ZDNet, Silicon.com, and GameSpot. E-mail her at candacelombardi@gmail.com. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET. 
