New Dacor Oven Packs 7” Android-Powered Touchscreen

To those who like their kitchens to be as technologically advanced as possible, Dacor is offering their new ninth-gen Discovery 30” wall oven, which allows users to control parameters through a Google Android app – an app that runs on the oven's built-in 7” touchscreen display. Indeed, what may seem to be at first glance an exercise in excess may turn into pure convenience with the app, which Dacor calls Discovery IQ, allowing a number of built-in features for cooking prowess even by amateurs, and WiFi access for control of the oven through your smartphone.

Discovery IQ gives users things like interactive cooking guides, which are pre-programmed for automated cooking of a variety of dishes, as well as a recipe storage feature. If that weren't enough, seemingly unrestricted access to the Google Play storage and the internet allow for downloading and viewing of other cooking-related applications and recipes.

The whole thing runs on a 1Ghz Samsung CPU, 512MB of RAM, a PowerVR SGX 540 graphics core and Android 4.0.3, meaning non-recipe-related apps can potentially be downloaded and run properly as well. Can you imagine being hunched in front of the oven, playing Angry Birds during an automated slow-roast?

Provided you have an Android phone (iOS support coming in the summer), though, that will not be necessary, as the Discovery IQ application apparently can be accessed remotely through the oven's WiFi connectivity. Push notifications let one know when their meal is done – or when there's been an error of some sort. One could also set the Discovery oven to cook from another room as well, though of course the oven does not automatically load food on its own. That potential aspect of kitchen furniture is not within our grasp just yet.

Hopefully the Dacor Discovery has built-in safeguards for that unfortunate but surely inevitable time when the Android controller freezes while cooking. All computers will crash eventually, especially those managed by a multitasking-capable operating system like Android. In any case, Dacor will be offering its oven as a double-unit for $7499 and a single for $4499, both available in three different finishes. A release date of this summer is given, where kitchen appliance retailers in the US and distributors in Canada and Mexico will offer the ovens for sale. (Via Engadget)