I'm still wondering why Bill wants to talk to his fridge. I mean, turning on the porch light, and adjusting the thermostat, I get that. But what are people remotely toggling their fridges to do? 
Ohkay, how to keep this simple...
It allows you to keep track of the temperature inside, as opposed to 'set and forget'.
The next step is basically giving you a handy spot to build your shopping list up(need more milk!), with the option that if you have a grocery delivery service, that said list is sent to them automatically.
If you care to input it and keep it up to date it can automatically expire stuff and add replacements to the list. Let's say you always want something that's semi-perishable in your fridge, but you don't normally use all of it before it goes bad. It'll remind you to toss out the old one and buy a new one.
Advanced future versions could theoretically do things like continuously monitor the temperature profile of your milk and tell you when it's
really unsafe/no longer suitable to drink, as opposed to the 'guesstamite' printed on the container. Also, detect as you add/remove product, keeping track of each item. That would require something on each item, such as an RFID chip though, and methods to determine fluid level cheaply/accurately enough still need to be developed. An IR camera would work, for example.
Right now it's a race between convenience and the tracking, and 'convenience' is winning - it's a LOT of work to keep the system up, and commercial kitchens just do it with sticky labels and daily checks.
On the other hand, my habit of only buying what I'll use in the next week or so, combined with buying containers that I'll use up before expiration does me well.
