Whirlpool’s Kitchen Docking Station

We’ve talked about the Whirlpool refrigerator with the docking station before, and how you can put this Ceiva digital picture frame on it. This has been available for a while now at Best Buy.

The kitchen is the most-used room in any house, and it was just a matter of time before someone would think of using the refrigerator for even more things. After all, someone is almost always in the kitchen, and if someone is in the kitchen, that someone is almost always utilizing the refrigerator in some way.

Well, Whirlpoolnow has even more fantastic ways to use the docking station. You can power-up your iPod; you can charge your tablet PC.

Check out this video from CES 2008 just a few weeks ago. It’s incredible!

From Picture Business Mag: Digital Frame Market Continues to Innovate!

From the October 24, 2007 Picture Business Mag.com comes this fantastic article about wireless/digital picture frames. I can’t improve on it, so here it is in its entirety, straight from the source.

“We absolutely love the amazing evolution, along with the sudden impressive emergence, of the digital picture frame category. What can’t these things do today? Stills, video, music, wireless sharing capability, changeable frames, increasing internal memory - incredible.

Seeing as these units have added such a wide variety of functionality, several manufacturers have begun offering this product in unique sizes. Digital Foci recently announced a keychain model to their one featuring a 1.5-inch LCD screen and 8MB of internal memory. An included Li-on battery offers up 9 hours of battery life.

PhotoVu has gone in the other direction, recently announcing a 22-inch widescreen display model. The PV2265W lists for $1,299.00 and features a 16:10 aspect ratio and a 1,680 x 1,050 res screen. This model also features built-in Wi-Fi for networking and can stream images directly from photo Web sites via RSS.

Continuing on the “On the Wi-Fi Front” for a moment. . . Digital Spectrum and MediaStreet have all recently come to market with wireless frames in a variety of sizes, so a product that screamed for wireless now has plenty of models to choose from, all offering a variety of features within the Wi-Fi set-up.

Lastly, and again on the decidedly high-end, comes Ceiva’s new 8-inch Wi-Fi model that can actually dock with Whirlpool’s new centralpark Connection refrigerators - the idea here being to enable consumers to display hundreds of images without using hundreds of magnets. The eventual marriage of digital photography and the kitchen fridge is finally here.

We have just one thing to ask of these manufacturers - please remember to offer one, relatively inexpensive model that simply displays pictures, in slideshow form, when you stick a card in it. Don’t forget the non-techies among us that will jump at that product. We understand from chatting with a few of the manufacturers in this market that the cost of LCD alone makes hitting a really low price point a challenge. Hopefully those costs come inline a bit more as the popularity of the device continues to grow and perhaps a $50.00 4-5 inch unit will someday soon be possible.”

I completely agree!

Whirlpool and CEIVA: The CentralPark Connection

My refrigerator door is covered with tiny picture frames, magnets, magazine articles, coupons, recipes, and more tiny picture frames. I wasn’t going to be one of those women with ’stuff’ on the refrigerator door, oh no. My refrigerator was always going to be clean, uncluttered, and classic.

Then I had kids.

The thing is, I want to be able to LOOK AT my kids, and my cats, and my summer vacations, and my parents all the time, without clutter. Before the invention of the wireless digital picture frame, this just wasn’t possible. Now, it is.

The Whirlpool centralpark ™ is here to grant my every wish. I love this and I want one. Desperately.

Say and think what you will, and politically correct or not, most families spend a LOT of time in the kitchen. You know, where the refrigerator is? How appropriate would it be to make the refrigerator door the focal point of the kitchen WITHOUT covering it with clutter? Why not slideshow those pictures across the screen of a wireless digital picture frame, attached to the ’fridge door?

Thanks to this unusual yet amazingly practical marriage of Whirlpool and CEIVA, we can have the best of both worlds.

According to Lisa Smith, vice president of appliances for Best Buy, "Our customers are looking for innovative and meaningful ways to utilize technology in the kitchen. The centralpark ™ connection is a great example of form and function coming together to solve a real need for the consumer."

The Ceiva frame provides functionality, including the ability to automatically receive pictures wirelessly. The centralpark ™connection also allows consumers to update almost any electronic ’gadget’ at any time; multiple devices can be used interchangeably! The plug and play platform on the refrigerator adds functionality for today’s digital consumer.

Mark Hamilton, director of centralpark’s ™ new business development, says that "With the CEIVA Digital Photo Frame, consumers can have fresh pictures AND food each day, while keeping the refrigerator door free of clutter. The new centralpark ™ connection plug and play platform is the ultimate choice for consumers who want devices integrated with appliances and the flexibility to use the refrigerator with or without them."

Dean Schiller, CEO of CEIVA Logic, says, "Partnering with Whirlpool allows CEIVA to expand beyond the office and living room, and into the most popular family meeting place, the kitchen. We feel privileged to help families share their keepsake moments."

The Whirlpool Refrigerator with centralpark ™ connection is a monochromatic stainless steel side-by-side refrigerator with Fast Fill water filtration and In-Door Ice system. The centralpark ™ port is built right into the refrigerator door. The port can handle satellite radio, a Web tablet with interactive message board and family calendar, a wireless/digital picture frame, a DVD/Cd player, and more. The port can also charge up your Mp3 player, your cell phone, your iPod, and almost any other electronic trinket.

With the centralpark ™ port right in your refrigerator door, think of all that nice clean space on your countertops!

David Swift, president of Whirlpool North America, says that "The centralpark ™ port is an innovative idea that will be most welcome in the multi-functional kitchens of modern homes."

I agree. The kitchen has always been, and is supposed to be, the heart of the home. Why not make it the hub of the home as well?

The CEIVA wireless digital photo frame and the Whirlpool refrigerator are sold separately. The wireless frame is available at Best Buy for $249.00, and the side-by-side ’fridge can be had for $1999.00.