The promise of modern technology is to make everyday tasks easier. Sure, your smartphone can enable you access to information more conveniently than ever before, but can it help you simplify your household chores? Maybe it soon can.
At CES, Samsung announced that basically everything it makes has Wi-Fi. Naturally its notebooks, smartphones, tablets, computers and even smart TVs have wireless internet, but now so do its home appliances. New for CES is – believe it or not – a Wi-Fi-packing washer and dryer (yes, the kind that cleans and fluffs your clothes).
On demo on the show floor is a 5.2 cu. ft. capacity WF457 front-loading washer that has what Samsung calls a Smart Control system, which allows consumers to stay connected to the washer cycle without having to remain close by the machine. Consumers can, via a smart phone application, monitor cycle selections, remaining time and finishing alerts, as well as remotely start or pause the washer from anywhere in the house.
Samsung demonstrated this to us via an Android app running on a Galaxy S II. Check it out in the video below:
Samsung has also done away with old fashion knobs and dials and has put in an 8-inch color LCD touch screen in case you wanted to control the washer right in front of it.
Aside from the networking technology, Samsung boasts that the WF457 washer is the first from the company to feature Water Shot Technology, which delivers a cleansing shot of water with dissolved detergent and then a rinsing shot for dual rinse performance. The result is a cycle time that is up to 25 percent shorter compared with conventional washers.
All Samsung has to figure out now is how to move the clothes from the washer to the dryer without human intervention. Maybe for CES 2013?
The WF457 Washer and matching dryer will be available in Charcoal at major retailers in Spring 2012.
