Samsung only launched its Siri and Cortana rival, Bixby, on the Samsung Galaxy S8 in March this year, but it's already fulfilling its promise to give the virtual assistant a home inside home appliances, too. Its first target? A fridge, naturally.
The South Korean company has just announced that it is now pre-loading its new virtual assistant on its Family Hub 2.0 fridge, and is rolling out a software update to all units that have already shipped to make them Bixby-compatible, according to a report by SamMobile.
Following the announcement, a Samsung representative said that Bixby-equipped fridges will provide completely different services from any other refrigerator. And they're not wrong...
The smart fridge, which hit the UK in November last year, already comes with a 21.5-inch touchscreen and its own apps, internal cameras and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to boot. But the addition of Bixby will mean users can now use voice commands to access extra features, such as searching for recipes and weather information with voice commands.
Bixby's learning algorithms will also enable the Family Hub to control temperature automatically, and also recall recipes based on users' eating habits.
There's no telling where Bixby will show up next, but if Samsung has smart appliances on the brain, our money's on something like its pricey Wi-Fi washing machine, the Samsung WW900.
