Xiaomi unveils smartphone-controlled rice cooker, and it’s everything we hoped for

Image from Xiaomi’s official Weibo.

Throw away your laptop. Get rid of your internet TV. Chuck that hoverboard in the trash. There is only one smart device that we need now, and it’s Xiaomi’s web-connected rice cooker.

We’ve all been there. You’re about to cook some rice, but you forget exactly how much water to pour into the rice cooker. “If only I could scan the barcode on my bag of rice with my phone, send it to the cloud, and sync it with my cooker,” you probably thought. Xiaomi heard your pleas, and delivered unto you a rice cooker.

The smartly-named MIJIA Induction Heating Pressure Rice Cooker allows users to change the softness of their rice via an app that offers “2,450 different heating methods,” or about 2,349 more than your standard cooker.

You’re just a scan away from perfectly cooked rice. Image from Xiaomi’s official Weibo.

The device costs US$154 – a small price to pay for a device that will so drastically change the way we live. The company says its device can compete with high-end Japanese rice cookers that cost four times as much.

“There’s no excuse for China not to make good rice cookers with so many electronics companies out there,” one Chinese tech CEO lamented while attending China’s parlimentary meetings earlier this month. China’s long, humiliating history of buying Japanese rice cookers has come to an end – we’re in a new era now.

Xiaomi’s rice cooker was announced today as the company rolled out its new Mi Ecosystem brand that focuses on the many other home appliances it makes. The company’s smartphone dominance may be slipping, but that was yesterday’s story. Today, we have the rice cooker.