Android powering refrigerators and rice cookers at CES

[yleedice]

Android's already used to control cars, stereos and TV, but companies at CES were demonstrating rice cookers and refrigerators running the OS. It could help Google collect more search data and expand its lead over Microsoft and Apple in this area.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-08/google-android-baked-into-rice-cookers-in-move-past-phones-...

[Mgreenlee]

I see you spotted that headline today too. The Internet of Things is really here.  The best part about an Android-powered appliance is it's ease in communicating with other such devices. If this becomes a regular feature, we'll most certainly see fragmentation among appliance manufacturers just as we've seen from handset and tablet makers. Until we know more about such smart appliances, we just have to hope everything really will work well with other devices.

[yleedice]

So, will people need to know about embedded systems to write programs for and build Android powered devices?

[Mgreenlee]

Right now, I suspect they will have to learn a great number of development platforms to accomodate all the appliances. There are no standards or actual development platforms available yet so it's really up to appliance manufacturers in the future.