The Audrey web appliance by 3Com

The Audrey is a delightful web appliance made and sold by 3Com in the 2000-2001 time frame of the immediate post dotcom crash era. Meant to be the proverbial "kitchen computer" the Audrey is easy to use, comes on by touching anything (keyboard, screen, knobs) and is instantly on the net. Despite an auspicious introduction to the world on the Oprah Winfrey show by 2001 the Audrey was discontinued. From the Wikipedia's entry on the Audrey:

Audrey was the brainchild of Don Fotsch (formerly of Apple Computer and U.S. Robotics) and Ray Winninger. Don and Ray had a vision for a family of appliances, each designed for a specific room in the house. The brand Ergo was meant to convey that intent, as in "it's in the kitchen, ergo it's designed that way". There were plans to serve other rooms in the house as well. They considered the kitchen to be the heart of the home and the control room for the home manager. Don coined the phrase "Internet Snacking" to describe the lightweight web browsing done in this environment.

The name Audrey was given to this first product to honor Audrey Hepburn. It was meant to deliver the elegance that she exuded. The project codename was "Kojak", named after the Telly Savalas character. The follow-on product targeted for the family room was code named "Mannix".

We hope that someone will be brave enough to create an Audrey for the rest of use sometime in this century!

Thanks to Greg Gavutis for this wonderful donation (of the white Audrey) and all of your efforts in getting it up and running on our network! Thanks Greg Miller and Terry Beaubois for the donation of the black Audrey below.

Our Audrey all in White!

A "jetscons" design	Image40.jpg
The clear pen is used to touch screen surfing the DigiBarn site!	Knobs on the side make for easy access to services
Main splash screen	Web surfing mode
Datebook	Address book
Audrey book.. all you need!	Pen with book

Our Audrey in Black with Documentation!

Thanks to Greg Miller and Terry Beaubois this lovely pristine black Audrey in its original box with all the cool documenation!

CIMG3076.JPG	CIMG3077.JPG	CIMG3078.JPG
CIMG3079.JPG	CIMG3080.JPG	CIMG3081.JPG
CIMG3082.JPG	CIMG3083.JPG	CIMG3084.JPG
CIMG3086.JPG	CIMG3087.JPG	CIMG3089.JPG
CIMG3091.JPG	CIMG3093.JPG	CIMG3094.JPG
CIMG3096.JPG	CIMG3097.JPG	CIMG3098.JPG
CIMG3099.JPG	CIMG3101.JPG	CIMG3102.JPG
CIMG3103.JPG	CIMG3104.JPG	CIMG3105.JPG
CIMG3106.JPG	CIMG3108.JPG	CIMG3109.JPG

Know anything more about the Audrey? Contact Us!

Also on the Audrey:

Greg Gavutis gives us a quick start video tour of how to set up and run the Audrey

See other shows on DigiBarn TV!

Audron
Kiel Bryant Hosier's whimsical treatment of the Audrey and other Compubots