Last Updated on: 2nd April 2014, 04:18 pm
A company called PG Tips has created what is probably the first, and hopefully the last,
SMS tea kettle,
a product that they hope will “revolutionize tea-time.”
The concept behind the kettle, which the company is calling ReadyWhenUR, is simple enough. Whenever you want to boil some water, all you need to do is send a text message to the kettle’s phone number that says “switch on,” and it will do so.
But though the concept is simple, I don’t see how the execution could possibly be the same way for a number of reasons.
First of all, you have to fill the thing with water yourself, which means you would have to go to the kitchen and lay your hands on it before you could even consider using the “convenient” texting feature. At that point, why wouldn’t you just plug it in? It would probably take less time.
Then you still have to grab the mug and ingredients and make the tea yourself, and you also have to watch for the kettle to boil because it isn’t capable of messaging you back when its done, nor does it have a whistle, which is one of the most basic tea kettle features in history.
So lets recap. It doesn’t fill itself, it doesn’t make tea, and it doesn’t let you know when it’s finished, but it does have a phone number and an understanding of the English language that consists of an amazingly impressive and astounding 2 words, and it probably comes with an inflated price tag too. I’m sure that at this point I’m not the only one who’s thinking wow, I can’t wait until next year when these things go on sale. I’ll be buying one for everyone I know. But seriously, if this is what our so-called “wired world” is going to be like, count me out.
