June
- A small number of June Oven owners have reported that their devices have turned on unknowingly in the middle of the night or early morning, according to reports from The Spoon and The Verge.
- The issue was caused by errors in the way the oven received commands from connected devices like smartphones.
- The company is issuing an update that should address the malfunction by allowing users to disable the feature that lets them remotely preheat their oven from their phone.
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At least three people have reported that their smart countertop ovens have turned on overnight without their knowledge, according to reports from The Spoon and The Verge.
June, the company behind the smart ovens that turned on unknowingly, said it plans to release a software update in the near future that will let owners disable the feature that lets them preheat the oven from their smartphone, which could remedy the issue. Errors related to the way the user’s devices communicated with the oven were to blame for the accidental preheats, the company said.
In one scenario, an owner’s oven turned on unknowingly at around 2:30 a.m. and broiled at 400 degrees, The Verge’s report says. The owner only noticed hours later when he woke up.
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Two other June owners are said to have posted about similar experiences in a private Facebook group for June oven owners.
One member wrote about an instance in which his oven turned on at 1:20 a.m. and baked at 425 degrees for more than four hours. Another use wrote that her phone woke her up at 6:30 a.m. with a push notification indicating that the oven had preheated to 400 degrees.
The June Oven is a countertop device that uses a combination of sensors and cameras to identify food and cook it accordingly. The first version was priced at nearly $1,500 when it was released in 2016, but the latest model starts at $700. The company was founded by former Path executive Matt Van Horn and ex-Apple engineer Nikhil Bhogal.
"Safety of our product is June’s No. 1 priority, and the company took a number of precautions in the production of the June oven," a June spokesperson said in a statement to Business Insider. "We have had ovens deployed in the market for four years now and have a large, passionate community. These instances are concerning for sure, but we have a team of engineers working to ensure user error can be avoided in the future. The best-case scenario is hearing from customers in real-time, like June does, to address any issues as they arise."
Van Horn also said the company takes "accidental preheating seriously" in a post in the June oven owners Facebook group, adding that the company is working on safeguards to prevent such instances from occurring in the future. In addition to disabling the remote preheat feature, the firm will also add a feature to its ovens that uses the device’s sensors and cameras to detect when there isn’t any food in the oven so that it can shut off the heating elements after a certain period of time.
It’s not the first time a smart home gadget has malfunctioned and resulted in a situation that could potentially cause harm. Back in 2016, a glitch caused some Nest Learning Thermostats to turn off during the winter, as The New York Times reported, leaving some owners with very cold homes.
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Source: Business Insider – leadicicco@businessinsider.com (Lisa Eadicicco)