Oh wow… Just last April Fool’s day, I joked about this… and now it’s real!

From Crunchgear:

Two researchers from Japan’s Keio University (which yours truly attended just until recently by the way) have developed a kitchen appliance aimed at the total web geek in you, a YouTube-powered microwave. The so-called Castoven [JP] is based on a conventional, unbranded model of “good quality” but sports a 10.4-inch LCD screen in the door panel.

The main idea is to display a YouTube video whose length depends on the time you need to heat up what’s inside the Castoven. Say, you want to prepare a lunch box that takes 3.30 minutes to be ready. The Castoven would then automatically pull a video from YouTube with that length and display it on the screen until the meal is finished

The oven is powered by an AIR application that runs on your computer and gets YouTube videos through its API.

This is obviously just the tip of the iceberg. I’m sure you can imagine this with cooking videos, news broadcasts etc.

Ok… So I joked about this a while back and it became a reality. How’s this for the next crazy idea: An AIR/Flash Player powered fridge. The application will suggest recipes based on what’s in your fridge and will tell you when items in it have expired. In the morning it shows you the latest news and weather updates and it can even tell you how much power/money it is using and how to lower the cost. It also tracks your purchases so that it can alert you of promotions in your local supermarket… And obviously all presented in a nice, user-friendly UI. You have 6 months… Go!

Flash on!