The Internet of Things

There is a lot of talk about the Internet of Things (IoT) about how everything is going to be connected to the internet. For some reason the archetypal example is a refrigerator that knows what you are nearly out of and puts it on your shopping list. Or orders it from the store. Or something. This seems like pretty high on the list of things I don’t need. If my self-driving car would go and gas itself up without me, that would be great, but I don’t need a special delivery of milk and bacon. Well, OK, who wouldn’t want a delivery of bacon.

Here’s one of those little incremental steps on the way that seems neat. How about a fridge magnet. Boring. From a pizza company. A little less boring. With a button on it. When you press the button, the magnet (well, the electronics inside) links by bluetooth to your cell-phone and orders a pizza. It is all confirmed by text in case you want to change anything about the order. And the pizza shows up in 30 minutes.

Of course it isn’t available everywhere yet. Silicon valley? Forget it, it is only available in Dubai, which wouldn’t have been the first place I’d have picked. It has been so popular that they ran out of them and there is a six week delay while they manufacture more.

See a video showing how it works (1½ minutes).