It was only a matter of time when my toaster would want to try our a new social network. My Toaster is Now on TikTok.

TikTok is beta testing three minute videos. That was good timing for my toaster. Most of my toasting sessions are around two minutes long. The most interesting video that you are going to watch on TikTok is my toaster toasting two slices of white bread. If you do find this video, you will be surprised by the ending. It is worth watching and it is worth sharing the video with all of your friends.

MyToaster has been famous for a while and had demands when moving to TikTok. The toaster wanted great lighting and be shown in their best light. And, every content creator on TikTok uses a ring light. Becky walked into the kitchen, saw what I was doing, and then walked out. I spent some time last night figuring out the angels by positing the ring light and camera.

Follow MyToaster’s journey on Twitter and now TikTok.

They listed that MyToaster from 2008 was a significant event that shaped Connected Appliance and the Consumer Internet of Things Products.

2008 – @mytoaster joins Twitter. It’s a toaster that Tweets. Hans Scharler rigged up his toaster to his Twitter so the appliance Tweets one of two things: Toasting or Done Toasting.

My Tweeting Toaster is a step in the self-aware direction for appliances. This Ziggy cartoon made me smile, but it also made me realize the inevitability of social objects and the Internet of Things and then Skynet. Hmm, and Ziggy was the name of the computer in Quantum Leap…

[via gocomics.com]

Aux Etats-Unis, un petit génie a eu l’idée de lier son grille-pain à un compte Twitter pour que celui-ci publie des status comme « Toasting » ou « done toasting », lorsque son propriétaire prépare son petit-déjeuner.

A Pittsburgh man has wired up his toaster to his Twitter so that the appliance automatically tweets “Toasting” and “Done Toasting”—and nothing but that—every morning.

MyToaster boasts an impressive number of followers (almost 1,500) for merely tweeting “Toasting” and “Done Toasting” every morning, and each tweet gets retweeted by at least a handful of followers. For many people, these tweets comprise the best two minutes of the day.

[via Mashable]

Check out this article on ABC.es.

You might be hearing this new buzz phrase, “Internet of Things” quite a bit lately. You might be wondering what it’s all about. Let me try to explain.

A “thing” could be a lot of things, but it’s not people (and definitely not places). That leaves everything else. Now according to the Internet, there are 6,767,805,208 people on Earth and of those 6,767,805,208 people 1,802,330,457 have used the Internet. That’s (only) 26%. So, that means one out of four people do not know what Numa Numa is all about. This also means there are a lot more things than people. A thing could be a camera, mobile device, sensors, your air conditioner, a river, and even a toaster.

The trick to the “Internet of Things” or the “Web of Things” will be providing connectivity to all of those things. Once we do, we will be able to gain access to a lot of information. The next challenge will be making that data useful in our everyday lives. We are just at the start of this, that’s why we are just starting to hear about it (with some help with IBM commercials).

I have been fascinated by this concept since I first joined the Internet, back where GeoCities and L’Hotel Chat were the hip spots. For me, the interest started off by controlling things over the web. Then, I started wondering what are my things doing. What temperature is it at my house? What’s going on with my freezer? Is it time to refill my humidor? How much power is my computer using?

Over a year and a half ago, I placed my toaster on Twitter (@mytoaster). Since then, my toaster started using other social networks and discovered online dating all by itself. That is a weird thought, “What if things get smarter and smarter?” Things will eventually be able to socialize with other things. My (sentient) toaster might even find another compatible toaster using eHarmony.

I am not saying that this is the best example of the Internet of Things, but what I am saying is that it’s a start. I believe in a future of connected things so strongly that I joined a start-up company that enabled my toaster way back when I was more interesting than my things.

For a good primer on the Internet of Things, check the recent article on Silicon.com called, “Cheat Sheet: The internet of things”. My toaster even gets a tongue-in-cheek reference. Actually, there are lots of great sites that are covering the Internet of Things and making things happen in this emerging industry – Singularity Hub, ReadWriteWeb, Wired.com to name a few.

My guess is that you will hear more and more about The Internet of Things until it hits Smart Grid proportions, then you will hear about the next big thing – the smart internet of things grid perhaps.