 Welcome to the world of tomorrow. Just look at how much this dishwasher holds. Get city dialed and walk away. Cook a roast by electronics. To pick up the dirt you never knew you had. So home appliances have been a big part of CES over the past four decades or so. Right back to the time when they were aspirational devices that made a big difference to people's lifestyles. And that's not going away. You'd think that in the 21st century we'd have solved the problems of how to chill your beer or wash your clothes. But that's not going away. We're going to be a part of the future. We're going to be a part of the future. We're going to be a part of the future. We're going to be a part of the future. We're going to be a part of the future, we're going to be a part of the future. But that's not stopping companies trying to infuse these products with new ideas. And somewhat inevitably this tends to be inspired by mobile. We're seeing companies making major announcements for so-called smart appliances that integrate functionality such as touch screens, a phone controlled wi-fi remote and a whole bunch of other features that frankly, it probably never occurred to you to ask for. The question is, are these companies doing anything to actually improve the core functionality of these appliances? Like, will sticking a touchscreen on your fridge keep your food fresh for longer? Will NFC tagging help you cook better food? Samsung and LG say it will. You can do things like keep track of what's in your fridge and get recommendations on what to cook. The memo app for these touchscreen fridges lets you write notes on the fridge, so leaving sticky notes on the door is a thing of the past. I'm pretty unconvinced by a lot of this functionality, though. Are people really willing to put in the time to catalogue every last detail of the stock in their fridge? Is it really more convenient to look up a recipe on your phone and then tag your oven with NFC instead of just entering in the timing yourself? So these hyper-expensive fridges, washing machines, and dryers and so on, they're undoubtedly really good at what they do. And the companies do talk in terms of trademark names like their Speed Spray, Power Wash, and TrueStream technology, but really, they're not the headline feature. We went to Haier, on the other hand, and although they did show off a wireless charging blender, they showed off some other things which prove that the company is focusing on improving their core appliance technology in areas such as energy usage, speed, and noise performance. Their 3D washing prototype, for example, has a ridiculous name, but it shows the company has its priorities in order. And when I'm buying my next washing machine, I think that's the kind of thing I'll be looking for rather than whether I can turn it off with Wi-Fi or not.