Behold, the LG i-@ble Internet connected microwave oven, a masterpiece of engineering we are told. What the advertising appears to avoid mentioning, however, until you go to the Web site, is the fact that you can’t connect this little beauty up directly, you need to connect it to a PC which is then hooked up to the Net.

So let me get this right. I am supposed to lug my PC (or maybe laptop?) into the kitchen, stick it down beside the oven, hook it up, search around for a phone socket next to the oven – or perhaps my broadband connection is already plumbed into the kitchen? – and then presto, I can download recipes into the oven’s memory to use at will? Really? How interesting.

Does anyone else smell a dead duck a l’orange around here? I hope this isn’t the consumer electronics industry’s idea of the future of the connected appliance.

Oh and a quick word in your shell-like LG. If you want to help promote your wonder network oven, don’t force your users – or prospective customers even – to go through a complicated online registration just to check out the recipes. Some folks might think that you have something to hide, or maybe even that….gasp….you don’t have that many recipes available for download after all.