> Your comment:  I can't think of a compelling reason why any simple
> appliance would need to talk directly to anything on the Internet
>
How about connecting to the Internet something as simple and dump as a
"picture frame"?  If it was powered and connected to the Internet, in the
future you could take the family down to the photo studio for a family
portrait.  Then, by the time you got back home, your "Internet connected"
picture frame would have downloaded that portrait and would be there hanging
on the wall before you got home.  Even be possible to have animated pictures
- your wife could be winking at you in her picture portrait :-)  This is all
possible because we all expect TV's to soon utilize flat-panel screens
making those possible for ordinary and common picture frame.