Like someone pointed out before, the life of a fridge is very long, so the iPod dock would probably become obsolete down the line. I also don't see the point of having your fridge acting as your amplifier: as you can see in the video, you can connect extra speakers to it. The Wi-Fi connection and iGorenje program makes a lot more sense, as it can be expanded in the future to accommodate new appliances and functionality. Plus, it is device independent. Although you can use any device, however, the interface has clearly been optimized for the iPod touch and the iPhone, which is the handheld they were using for their demos. According to them, they have some kind of collaboration contract with Apple, so Steve or someone else in Cupertino must be a fan of the brand.

The iGorenje system works quite well. It uses the Wi-Fi network in your home to connect your web-browsing device to your oven and washing machine, and when it's released later this year you will be able to control all Gorenje appliances.

iGorenje's interface is very easy to work out. Just touch the function, select the options you want and click Start. The appliance will get the parameters, start working and give you feedback in realtime, back to your iPod. For the oven, you can start from a recipe, a wizard that allows you to set the oven according to the kind of food and weight, and a custom program, which can be easily created in iGorenje and then stored. The process is fully automatic, so if you have something that needs to be cooked first slowly, then a really high heat in the last minutes, it will handle it for you.

For the washing machine, it's exactly the same thing. This time you have different programs according to the clothes you put in, making it very easy to operate. At last, because washing machine user interface seem to be developed by sadists.

But while the whole thing seems polished and works well, do we really need this kind of sophistication in our kitchens? I may be too old school, but I like too cook in the kitchen, not by remote control. I like the idea of programming the oven in an easy way, although I will still be controlling it myself. What do you think? Is this the kind of evolution everyday home tasks need? [More IFA 2008 Coverage]

• It's Friday. You arrive home. You are drunk, like always. You have a Great Idea that, most probably, you will repent about the next morning. Knowing that you will spend the whole day in bed next Saturday, you think about bringing the Qube foldable hob next to your bed, along with some bacon and eggs. You know, for brunch. You wake up on Saturday with your face and chest covered with eggs, bacon in your underpants, olive oil on your hands, and a strange tingling sensation up your pooper. You repent. You don't want to know. You vow it will never happen again.

• It's Friday. The next Friday. You arrive home and you are drunk again. And hungry. You feel like banana pancakes. But you also feel like having a bath because you stink like a skunk dead from an overdose of MDMA and caipirinhas. Not knowing what to do, you go to the kitchen to get your Qube foldable hob, some bananas, pancake mix, maple syrup, and whipped cream to the bathtub. You wake up in the cold water next morning, two dozen pancakes floating on a mixture of water, maple syrup, and whipped cream. You can see last week's underpants lying on the floor, still with bacon in them. You notice the same tingling sensation, but you can't find any sign of the bananas. You repent again. A lot.

So maybe, the foldable hob to go thing is not such a good idea. Hanging it on the wall of a small kitchen, however, is a brilliant idea.

Gorenje Qube Fridge and Oven

They also had three beautiful stand-alone kitchen appliances in the same line—fridge and ovens—that are designed to be placed anywhere in your kitchen and easily moved around, like any piece of furniture. See them in video after the jump.

Gorenje Qube Top Oven

Unfortunately, these four kitchen appliances are still just prototypes. We were told the products will come to the market, but maybe not soon enough for me to install the wall-mounted Qube in my new apartment in New York. That if I can find an apartment before I leave at the end of this month. [More IFA 2008 Coverage]

The Good: The LG X110 felt solid and compact in my hands, heavier than I expected for such size. Good hard plastic finish outside. Fast operation under Windows and fast rendering and access to the web, although unfortunately I was only able to try it with the Wi-Fi connection. Good set of ports, although I wish all these computers implemented HDMI video output, rather than VGA.

The Bad: I was disappointed the interior wasn't real aluminum but painted plastic. The keyboard didn't feel good to me, too bland and not enough clickety-clack action, but that's just my personal taste.

Bottom line: For those looking for a good Windows- or Linux-based netbook with no-fuss internet access at all times, my first impression is that they will be happy with this one.

The Good: Very good quality. The interface is simple, straightforward, and so is the device itself. They really nailed this one. As they told me, they are looking into the past to get some inspiration for their products, bypassing the whole let's-copy-Apple theme that dominates the MP3 industry. Good move, because they nailed it with this one.

The Bad: The AMOLED screen didn't seem to me like the best thing ever.

Bottom line: Great digital audio and movie player. While I couldn't try the synching with the computer—which it's crucial to get a good overall experience with this type of devices—it feels like a winner.

According to iRiver, it will arrive to the US in September, but they couldn't tell me the price. In the European market, it will arrive in October for 220 euros. [More IFA 2008 Coverage]

The Good: It has Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, if that's your thing.

The Bad: All the rest. It felt slow and buggy. I found the stuttering interface particularly bad. The side bar widgets, which need to be dragged and dropped onto the screen to make them appear as tiny little programs, is an atrocious, gimmicky interface design. Wastes space and requires a motion that is simply not needed. Samsung designers should learn that a telephone is not a desktop computer, and replicating the Mac OS X Dashboard doesn't work in a tiny screen at all.

Bottom line: After 45 minutes poking and getting frustrated by it, my verdict is to avoid it like the pest. As a consumer, my first impression is clearly one of horror and frustration. I would rather get an HTC. Or a Sony. Or a Nokia.

Argument Número Uno: apparently this gestures-in-the-air control requires real magic powers. Watch Helga and myself getting frustrated, trying to control the pointer on the screen.

Argument Two: I can't think of any really useful application except having the ability to control your computer without having to touch your keyboard or screen at any time—and therefore, keeping them clean of any crumbles and/or fluids.

The idea is good. The implementation is bad. Unfortunately, the whole experience is quite frustrating, and while they are showing the same technology in an experimental TV—which has greater potential—it doesn't really work well there either.

I asked the german Kirsten Dunst and she told me an example of this being useful: if you are "cooking" and have your hands dirty, you wouldn't like to touch the keyboard or the mousepad, so you can use gestures to control de computer. Fair enough, that's one market right there: "dirty hands chefs who use their computers while they are cooking".

I can see this being useful in TVs, however, replacing the remote completely. And maybe in computers too, but not for pointer dragging and clicking. That's just useless. This technology needs a completely new graphic user interface to be really successful—like the simple Wii interface or the stuff shown in Minority Report. An interface that will allow to intuitively point at something or doing a hand gesture to trigger an action.

As it is now, it just doesn't fly. What do you think? Do you think this is useful? Is there any else to this than its "wow!-what?-why?" factor? [More IFA 2008 coverage]