For a long time, the "appliance-ation" of the internet has been represented by the toaster. When Java first came out, people were saying that even your toaster could run Java. The backlash came when others started to question it. Why would you want that? Why would you want your toaster to be connected to the net? What would that get you?

Not much, but here is the compelling reason to connect your toaster to the net: because if it's not connected, it won't be able to give you your daily weather forecast with your breakfast.

Would you want your toaster to predict the weather? For me, I don't know. I guess it's more a question of "why not" than of "why", if it can be done cheaply. But here we see that it can be done.