By File this one firmly under the “I never thought I wanted or needed this until I saw it” category. Germany KFC restaurants have started a limited trial run of new food trays. Big deal, right? Who cares about a food tray that you’re only going to be using for 20 minutes while you stuff your face with food?
Except these food trays have Bluetooth keyboards built inside. The keyboards are thin enough to fit under the microfilm slit such as an advertisement would. You pair it with your smartphone or tablet, and continue typing away or doing whatever it is you need to do on your phone or tablet, all the while avoiding a greasy, disgusting mess on the display.
What’s not to love? Open letter to all fast food establishments: copy this idea, and put it into all of your food trays as standard. It might be expensive, but the coolness and convenience factors will more than make up for that.
[via Engadget]
Most of the time, if my mouth is consuming so is my eyes. The likely hood of me typing and eating at the same time is null.
I am eating cereal and typing right this moment.
I’m eating a steak with a knife and fork and texting simultaneously right now. Problem? ?
Great, just what I need. Another excuse to be in KFC. ?
Thank goodness Starbucks don’t use food trays they’d never leave ?
Oh ‘Emm Gee! Cool concept…and you can take it home? Even cooler! What’ll they think of next? lol
Seriously? Is it really that hard for people to spend some time without a smartphone and just enjoy some food.
Surprised no one mentioned the possibility of the keyboard capturing data.
Too busy licking fingers to type.
^^THIS! ^^
People that eat at KFC can afford Android phones…. OH POWWWW
Massive piles of missing Bluetooth food trays in 3…
I’m a restaurant manager and this is a bad idea! Cell phones have already interrupted meal time as it is. You rarely see a family enjoying their company anymore. All you see anymore are overly demanding self absorbed diners who have inadvertently slow their own service down taking pics of themselves and their food! Then they wonder why their food is cold after they wait 10 minutes to take their first bite because texting is more important. Obviously there are still amazing people out there that can take an hour out of their day to focus on family and what’s important but the masses have become side tracked… So sad. Don’t believe me, next time you are in a restaurant look around and count how many phones you see out and see how many don’t.
My favorites are: watching people out on a “date”, completely disconnected from each other as they converse with their “real” friends; and, the “Dad’s got the kids for the weekend”-guy, who spends the entire dinner saying nothing to his kids, but talking to and texting his girlfriend. This is society we get when we shove kids into the back of a minivan with an electronic pacifier and a pair of headphones. Oh, well, at least they’re quiet!
Incorrect. People take pics of food because they like the food. Nothing wrong with that. People use devices at fast food places because thos eplaces are multi-purpose now. Businesspeople doing office work (especially if they are always on the move), students studying (especially in Japan), etc.
This is simply a fact of life.
While you may be correct that SOME people use them legitimately, study after study shows that service times have gone down significantly because of electronics, and it’s entirely because of what Jeffrey has mentioned. People don’t look at their menus when they get them, they don’t eat their food when it is served, and they don’t vacate the place when they are done. Restaurants need turnover to survive and the devices have clearly hindered that.
Every place that’s tried this has had every keyboard stolen.
This is one of those things that will turn out way to expensive due to theft and damage.
Haha they let them take them homeart the end of the video. …I.e. Customer has to figure out how the hell to wash ulit
Three thoughts.
0. I’m not sure I want to pair my device with an untrusted keyboard. The device could also impersonate a keyboard / mouse combination and then inject bad operations into your device.
1. How many customers know what Bluetooth is? Will understand how to pair their device?
2. When pairing your device, won’t you get the greasy mess on your screen anyway?