Thursday, June 25th, 2026 – 3:51 pm
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Smart TVs, refrigerators and other home appliances may pester you with marketing and perhaps even check your presence in the room using a front-facing camera. But at least the hardware is cheap!
That’s the promise. Some companies, like the TV manufacturing startup Telly, take it to the logical extreme by offering free televisions in exchange for agreeing to data collection and advertising. Although Telly remains in a years-long pre-order phase.
Another startup taking a different approach to the same theory is Tovala, which was founded in 2015 and combines a standalone countertop oven appliance with a weekly meal kit subscription.
