The Smartphone-Controlled Mr. Coffee Sounds Cooler Than It Actually Is

I hate the morning. I’ve long dreamt that cherubic angels would deliver me a steaming hot cup of coffee in bed as soon as the alarm goes off.
Most coffee makers aren’t quite at that level yet, but they’re trying. The Mr. Coffee Smart Coffeemaker, which is available for purchase today, enables you to automatically brew a cup from anywhere, with the push of a button on your smartphone. Meaning that you can turn on the coffeemaker in bed from the other side of your house, watch it brew on your phone or tablet, and know when it’s ready.
It’s a convenient device that cuts out the most annoying step of every morning coffee-making ritual: summoning the power to unhinge yourself from bed. That being said, its capabilities are sadly limited, and it fails to reach the preparation-free coffee nirvana about which everyone fantasizes.
This review comes with a disclaimer: If we’re talking about actual equipment, the Smart Coffeemaker is not for snobs (for that, I will refer you to the coffee-obsessive Matt Buchanan’s excellent recommendations). The device itself is a basic auto-brewer that requires you to grind your own beans or sacrilegiously buy pre-ground coffee powder. On its left side, there’s a slot that can be filled with up to 10 cups of water. On the right, a compartment pops out where you must insert a filter and then the coffee grounds. The whole setup measures about 14½ inches tall and 8½ inches wide, which I found to translate to an appalling amount of counter space