Because that’s totally something that I want and is related to the core functionality of a refrigerator.
I’m going to take a crack at this (not having read TFA and also not being in this fridge’s target market of people who want a fridge with access to their google calendar):
Lots of people have a paper calendar magneted to their fridge, but what they write there doesn’t automatically go on their phones and computers. But if we create a google account for our fridge, and let it read the calendars of everyone in the house and vice versa, then when my wife checks her phone at work to see if she’s free on Friday evening, she can see that I just wrote “Shane and the kids over for dinner” on the fridge for that day.
I’m sure that’s close to what the designers were thinking. On the other hand, touchscreen typing on a vertical surface? Why wouldn’t you just use your phone?
I guess that I could see a use for it as public display of a calendar in an office, but that too seems better handled by something dedicated.
A stylus and handwriting recognition maybe? I wouldn’t buy it either, but I’d probably try one out for laughs if I saw it in a store…
Well. Fails to protect user’s credentials and personal information; but resistant to injection of 3rd party firmware? Sounds like the future to me!
A quick way to see who’s going to be home for dinner that night, maybe. In theory that could work, but in my house people either fail to update their calendar, or don’t sync their own calendars.
I suspect you’re very close to the actual feature description. But if Samsung asked me for a marketing response, I’d have to tell them this is really dumb. You can already share calendars (either have a group calendar, or let other people see when you are free/busy). Any family member who is old enough to check a calendar probably already has access to a computer or mobile device with which to check said calendar.
Near as I can tell, by the time we had technology to do such a thing, it was already obsolete. Why check the fridge door when your phone is probably handier?
Such displays can be pretty useful. The question is, why integrating them to fridges and closing them up and making them unhackable, when we have other options - e.g. a decommissioned (or extra-cheap) tablet, or even a Kindle with e-ink display and low power consumption; these can be rooted and hacked fairly easily, and even the ones with cracked display can live on, assuming enough of display real estate is left functional. I got one with about 5/8 ok and it is now my bedside clock.
Because the phone is in the pocket or bag or on the charger while you walk around the fridge. Because the list on the display is already shown and you don’t have to bother to run the app.
Speech recog could be useful here.
A note-taking interface that’s always on hand when manipulating the fridge can be pretty useful.
“Todo: buy milk.”
That’s the problem with technology like that, there’s always doubt - so it doesn’t end up solving the problem at all.
@shaddack I skipped past many of the posts and read yours bottom-up as it’s above my reply. I knew it was you way before I got to your avatar! 
But to add more substance:
The question is, why integrating them to fridges and closing them up and making them unhackable, when we have other options - e.g. a decommissioned (or extra-cheap) tablet, or even a Kindle with e-ink display and low power consumption
You’re bang-on-the-money here. They’re just adding something else to an already vaguely unreliable device that’s likely to fail. Modularise it. (This is clearly your influence…)
Well, I wouldn’t want to buy one of these. Just expect a fridge to keep my food cold so it doesn’t spoil.
AND YOU KIDS KEEP THA HELL OFF MY LAWN OR I’LL RELEASE TH’ ATTACK FERRETS!!!
Glad to see Samsung are upholding their tradition of making poorly thought out mediocre devices. I think the only Samsung stuff I’ve had that has been any good is RAM and an SSD.
I heard bad experiences with the SSDs. Not so much with the RAMs, though.
Gonna be a lot more of this. Welcome to the Internet of Insecure Things. They Just Don’t Care ™.
Such as the magnetic dry-erase board on the front of my fridge. It’s faster to write “milk” on such a device than to type it on a touchscreen, and we can sketch on it and leave silly little jokes. Of course, hackers could read it if they climbed on the fence opposite the kitchen window with binoculars.
Yes, and it is all useful. However, it also requires physical attendance to read.
Thought: add a webcam and a raspi, and a button to push the “screen” to family members’ devices. Voila, Samsung smart fridge, or almost there.
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