GE’s new Kitchen Hub plants a smart screen above your range

By Lulu Chang Updated December 14, 2020

We may have turned up our noses at the thought of televisions in our kitchens not so long ago — who, after all, has the nerve to watch football during family dinner — but now, GE is hoping to put another type of screen in one of the most central rooms of our homes. Called the Kitchen Hub, this new 27-inch smart screen is far more interactive than any television set, featuring voice and gesture commands to help make your time in front of the stove more productive (and fun). Stationed over your GE range, the Kitchen Hub lives at what GE calls “a comfortable viewing level … above the one appliance family and friends gather around while making dinner and conversation at the end of the day.”

Making its debut at CES, the smart Kitchen Hub is powered by the Haier U + Smart Life Platform, and will allow you to engage in live video chats with multiple camera angles, thanks to a forward-facing lens; access recipes that can be displayed directly on the screen so you’re not constantly looking between a book and the stove; and access calendars and schedules so you can see what else you need to prepare (in addition to dinner).

Moreover, the Kitchen Hub can be connected to your smart video doorbell, so if your dinner guests arrive early, you can see their eager faces at your doorstep from your range (and tell someone else to let them in). It’s not just video doorbells that are Kitchen Hub compatible, of course — the 27-inch screen will also be able to communicate with GE connected appliances like washers, dryers, dishwashers, refrigerators, wall ovens, and of course, ranges.

“The kitchen is the heart of the home, and the range is the heart of the kitchen,” said Shawn Stover, vice president of GE Appliances’ SmartHome Solutions team. “The original concept was conceived by FirstBuild, GE Appliances’ co-creation community. With the vision of a lot of creative, smart people, we now have the Kitchen Hub, over the range so owners have the convenience to enjoy the many smart features we have to offer now and in the future.”

The Kitchen Hub is slated to make its official debut on the market in the second half of 2018. Pricing information has not yet been made available, but we’ll keep you updated as more information comes our way.

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Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…

Smart Home

How to build a smart kitchen

A smart kitchen.

Planning a kitchen remodel or renovation is a big step. Along with thinking about what material to use for new counters and cabinet colors, it’s a good time to consider what technology you want in your kitchen, too. A renovation is the perfect time to build a smart kitchen with all the connected technology that you’ve been wanting. Interested? Here’s what to consider and why.
Think about what you cook in the kitchen
Smart technology works best when it's applied to something that you’re already doing every day. Before you start looking at appliances (and they all don't have to be from the same brand), think about how you use your kitchen. What sort of meals do you cook most often? Do you use the stovetop the most, or the oven for baking, or the microwave? Are you more of a slow cooker chef? Considering these things now will help you make the right decisions later. Once you know what you use the most, use that information to inform your budget and how you'll spend it. Then, we can move on to the fun stuff!
Choose a smart home platform you like

You may also want to take a look at the apps offered by major kitchen brands like LG, Samsung, and others to see if there’s a particular app design or compatibility feature you want. For example, you may want to make sure that your appliances work with a certain voice assistant like Alexa. We also suggest getting appliances that are sure to work with the new universal smart home protocol Matter, which makes it easier to control them with an app of your choice.
Shop for a connected smart oven

Smart Home

Ikea launches Matter-enabled Dirigera smart hub and app

The new IKEA DIRIGERA hub sitting on books in front of a mirror next to a plant.

Ikea announced a new smart hub and app that will be coming out later this year. The hub is called Dirigera and will be Matter-ready. The hub will be accompanied by the release of the company's new Ikea Home smart app.

In 2014, Ikea launched its Trådfri smart hub, which handles the smart products that Ikea sells now. According to user feedback, the hub is limited in the products it supports, and the app that pairs with it isn’t the easiest to use. The Trådfri is the primary way to connect to Ikea’s line of lights, speakers, blinds, and an air purifier that are available now. With that feedback, Ikea began to work on a new smart home hub and companion app -- enter the Dirigera.
Slim design, more connections

Smart Home

There’s no new Nest Hub, but that’s OK

Hosting a Zoom conference through Nest Hub Max.

Google held its I/O 2022 event yesterday, but one much-rumored device was noticeably absent: The Nest Hub. Rumors had originally stated that there would be a Nest Hub with a detachable front screen that would work as a sort of "smart tablet." These were based off leaks that most likely pointed to the newly announced Pixel Tablet, releasing sometime in 2023. While there is some disappointment among Nest fans, it's not the right time for an update for several reasons.
The 2nd Gen Nest Hub released last year
The 2nd Gen Nest Hub released on March 30, 2021. That means it's been just over a year since new hardware entered the market. The previous iteration of the Nest Hub released three years before that, and even with those three years to develop for it, the hardware didn't change that much. The biggest changes were sleep-sensing capabilities and better audio quality. While a detachable screen could work as a sort of portable tablet, there's not much use for it -- not realistically. Anything a portable smart tablet could do can also be done on your phone, and probably faster.

The one hardware upgrade I can see Google pushing for is a significantly larger screen -- perhaps something to compete with the Echo Show 15. Right now, Alexa has cornered the market on smart displays. The Echo Show 15 is massive and feels like a true smart device, while the Echo Show 10 caters to those who use Amazon's communications features. Both of those devices have a specific purpose, but the Nest Hub has always felt vaguely like an afterthought.
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The only smart-home related announcement at Google I/O 2022 focused on new feature updates for the Nest Hub Max (not even the standard Nest Hub.) These updates relied on the Nest Hub Max's built-in camera to recognize when you're looking directly at the device, eliminating the need to say "Hey Google" repeatedly. This is a key feature that makes it more convenient to use; after all, wake words can sometimes be irritating. While watching the event, my own Nest devices triggered several times from the audio cues.