All Household Appliances Should Be Made By Apple | Hacker News Reader

All Household Appliances Should Be Made By Apple

techcrunch.com

10 pointsdave161911 comments

The author uses coffeemakers and alarm clocks as examples of how household appliances are difficult to use. On the other hand, she lauds Dieter Rams for his designs.

Apparently, the author doesn't know that Dieter Rams designed coffee makers and alarm clocks for Braun, and they're still being sold. They're very easy to use and they last forever. (My Braun alarm clock and coffeemaker are 20 years old, and I wouldn't replace them for anything else. They still work perfectly.)

Coffeemaker: http://www.kitchen-apex.com/Braun-KF400-BLK-Aromaster-10-Cup...

Alarm clock: http://www.connox.com/categories/accessories/alarm-table-clo...

Yes, this is exactly what we need.

Beautiful refrigerators that reject food items without explanation that don't meet Apple's secret standards of nutrition and aesthetics.

Coffeemakers that are works of art but only brew coffee bought from Apple.

Toasters that have to download 120 megabytes of bug fixes, DRM, Quicktime and Safari before they'll toast your bread.

Dishwashers that allow you to purchase a special, DRM'd version of dishware that will only clean in Apple(tm) dishwashers using Apple(tm) detergent.

Cameras that require you to download, install, update, and maintain iTunes before they'll give up their precious cargo of pictures of you doing tequila shots off your girlfriend's...oh wait, you're an Apple geek, nevermind.

Slate-gray $4 Apple trashbags that don't resize except when you grab them in the bottom right corner and pull diagonally, and which are equipped with random LEDs to let you know the bag's status. Yay.

Gorgeously designed hybrid induction stoves that can cook anything -- but only if you get your power through Acme Power co, or root the damn thing, voiding your warranty.

And the list goes on.

So when the little light in my fridge dies I have to send the entire thing away to get repaired?

Perhaps it is a shoddy kitchen product that could be improved, but you shouldn't use that criticism to support a corporate (design) philosophy.

There is nothing unique about apple except the sheer amount of effort they put into refining their products.

> There is nothing unique about apple except the sheer amount of effort they put into refining their products.

And even that is not so unique: Every manufacturer of high-end products does the same (e.g. Miele, which is famous for the quality of their household appliances - and for their price).

I think the thought should just be rephrased as "household appliances should be better designed, see Apple for examples of good design"

The microwave example is spot on however, I don't think I've ever used the "food specific" buttons, who does? When I use a microwave I pop the food in, set the heating level (high/medium/defrost) and the time. That's it.

I suspect most people do the same

Personally, I find myself using only one button ("start") most of time, with each press adding 30 seconds (on default power level). There are cases where this is wrong, but for simple everyday heating tasks it works perfectly.

One button would, certainly, be very Apple-like.

Are the extra buttons on your microwave that confusing for you?

White Problems.

They're not confusing, they're just primary examples of feature creep that are largely unused/unnecessary.

Horrible article. The whole thing is just a plug for a bunch of kitchen products. Why would you post this?

The only kitchen product that's being plugged is a Cuisinart coffeemaker, the other products mentioned are being called out for their bad design. I agree that it's not a good article, but that's because it doesn't mention any good products. The Cuisinart coffeemaker has far too many buttons, it doesn't look easy to use at all.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com