Let's Welcome the "Made for iPod" Refrigerator

We're living in an ultra-connected world, with cross-licensing agreements flying in all directions, the results being all sorts of hybrid products that deliver certain functions nobody would have thought possible just a few years ago. And that's pretty much the case with the latest announcement from Gorenje (a Central-European manufacturer of consumer electronics in general and household appliances in particular), which has introduced at IFA 2008 a refrigerator that doubles as an... iPod docking station.

The Gorenje refrigerator has been specially designed and developed to work with Apple's iPod. For this reason, it incorporates a docking station that enables charging the iPod, playing back music and video through built-in speakers and connecting to the world-wide-web, if a wireless connection is available in the kitchen.

Furthermore, this kitchen media center/refrigerator comes equipped with a very innovative touch-based control interface. All of these features enable users to employ their own refrigerator for searching, browsing, or downloading content from the internet, and enjoying music, TV shows, movies, or video podcasts.

Practically, what this appliance does is confirm an ever growing trend on the CE market. In the near future, just about any product around the house will be connected to the Internet, so we'll be able to control it from a remote location, via a web browser.

Actually, Gorenje is preparing something in this field as well, namely the iGorenje web portal, which will allow users to access various functions of their home products (washing machines, refrigerators, microwave ovens) as well as to select washing programs for various types of laundry, while also providing them with special food recipes, household tips and lots of other pieces of information.

Gorenje has not provided any pricing or availability info regarding its upcoming product, but we're likely to see it arrive in stores at some point next year (if not earlier).  

We are just a few, but there are many of you, Softpedia users, out there. That's why we thought it would be a good idea to create an email address for you to help us a little in finding gadgets we missed. Interesting links are bound to be posted with recognition going mainly to those who submit. The address is .