Kitchen Tech: What's Useful and What's Not

These days, kitchens are getting smarter with appliances that connect to Wi-Fi, update themselves, and respond to voice commands. There are refrigerators that track your food and ovens you can preheat from your phone. Even coffee makers can be scheduled to brew at just the right time. But not all these features are worth the hype. Some are just there to look good on the spec sheet and don't add much value. Let's talk about the ones that aren't so great. Take subscriptions, for example. Many smart appliances come with subscriptions that you have to pay for. But do you really need to pay extra just to have your coffee maker tell you when to refill your beans? Probably not.Then there are the features that seem cool in theory but aren't very practical. Like the oven that lets you see what's cooking through your phone. Sure, it's neat, but how often do you really need to check on your food while you're away from home? And let's not forget about the updates. While it's great that your appliances can update themselves, do you really want to deal with the hassle of a software update when you're in the middle of cooking dinner?