Does anyone know any details about the Auroma coffee brewer? It's now available via a "pre-order."

http://www.auromabrewing.com (and its Kickstarter)

The Auroma features a built in scale and conductivity meter for monitoring brew (TDS); an app lets you dial in your preferences and then the system adjusts required brewing parameters. Another model even sports a built-in grinder.....

I just saw the Kickstarter ad for this product. It seems interesting, although perhaps it may be trying to do too many different things in one package. Still, the concept is intriguing since it combines a grinder, scale, and precise temp control in one sleek package. A lot of its success will depend on whether the grinder is good quality, and how accurate the scale is in weighing ground coffee and water precisely. If they get those things right, it could be quite a good coffee maker.

I think this is really neat. I'm happy with my manual methods, but I'd LOVE to see more stuff like this available to the mass market (and at more reasonable prices).

The reason pod-type machines are popular is that for many people, convenience trumps just about everything. I'm glad that machines like this one are working toward convenience without the material waste that pod machines encourage. Plus, the coffee is almost certainly better.

I went back to using my Chemex for the last week, and I'd forgotten how simple the cleanup is with filtered coffee brewing.