No Need for Directions With This Alexa-Powered GE Microwave

Heads up, college students. GE wants to eliminate a job from your life: reading the directions on frozen foods.

The company has a new Alexa-powered microwave with a "scan-to-melt" characteristic designed to help you lot more easily rut that frozen pizza, burrito, or mac and cheese to perfection. Using the GE Appliances Kitchen app, you scan the barcode on your food packaging. The app then sends your microwave "exact instructions for cooking times and power levels," GE wrote in a news release.

No need to read the instructions or mess effectually with your microwave's power level. The stainless steel GE Smart Countertop Microwave comes preprogrammed with more than 3,000 frozen, refrigerated, and self-stable foods.

"GE Appliances' inquiry shows consumers don't apply the total capabilities of their microwaves and stick to a few buttons and Fourth dimension Cook," Shawn Stover, vice president of GE Appliances' SmartHome Solutions team, said in a statement. "With our new GE microwave scan-to-cook applied science, your son or girl tin can head off to college and melt food with the help of their phone instead of relying on mom."

The microwave is as well compatible with Amazon'due south virtual assistant Alexa, so you lot tin can control it with your vocalism from any Alexa-enabled device, like the Echo or Repeat Dot.

"Easily covered in flour? Just say, 'Alexa, add 30 seconds to the microwave,'" GE wrote. "See oatmeal humid over from across the room? 'Alexa, stop the microwave!'"

The GE Smart Countertop Microwave costs $139. Starting tomorrow for a limited time, GE will exist offering a package that includes the microwave and an Echo Dot for $154.98. Echo Dot usually costs $50.

About Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo is PCMag's expert on fitness and smart abode products. Education yoga for nearly 10 years has helped her in evaluating a range of connected health products including fitness trackers, heart rate monitors, rowers, smart scales, stationary bikes, strength preparation machines, treadmills, and more. Angela likewise tests smart home devices from her ranch in Florida, including air purifiers, kitchen appliances, and robot vacuums, merely to name a few.