Connected coffee makers definitely aren’t a new idea at this point, but despite the fact that the concept has been floating around for the past few years, there still aren’t all that many of them out on the market. That’s about to change, though, as Smarter (the company behind the iKettle) has just joined the fray and announced a network-connected coffee machine.
Set to be on display at CES 2015 in Vegas next week, the machine is pretty much exactly what you’d expect from an app-enabled bean brewer. It can be remotely activated with your smartphone, send you alerts when your brew is ready, and even detect when you’ve returned home and ask if you’d like a fresh cup.
That might not be particularly groundbreaking, but networking tech aside, Smarter’s new coffee maker does bring a few new features into the mix — including a built-in grinder, which is a pretty big deal. On-demand bean grinding basically translates to fresher, tastier cups of joe; not to mention the fact that it saves you the trouble of grinding the beans yourself.
It’s also worth mentioning that the Smarter Wi-Fi Coffee Machine only brews one cup at a time. This might be music to your ears if you’re a singe-serving enthusiast, but if you’re the type who needs an entire carafe of caffeine to wake up in the morning, it could be a big drawback.
Smarter’s Wi-Fi coffee maker isn’t set to hit stores until March, but will be available for viewing (and hopefully making coffee) at CES next week, so be sure to circle back for details — we’ll definitely be stopping by.