June updates smart oven that recognizes food

Smart oven company June has released its second-generation appliance, which uses sensors and artificial intelligence to recognize your food and cook it for you.

The company said Tuesday that the appliance is seven-in-one, serving as a convection oven, warming drawer, air fryer, toaster, dehydrator, broiler and slow cooker. Co-founder and CEO Matt Van Horn hinted that an eighth function, rice cooker, is coming soon.

“We see this in data: When you have a June oven in your life, you’re cooking much more,” Van Horn said.

The company cited data that from December 2016 to February 2018, 45 percent of users ate

out more than three times per week before owning a June oven. After getting the smart oven, 60 percent eat out less than twice per week, saving an estimated $160 per month

Smart components include an HD camera and AI technology that together can recognize over 50 common foods, from which the oven can program an automatic cooking time and temperature on its touch-screen, and the user confirms the food and starts the oven. There are more than 100 programs, developed by chefs, for meals from duck breast to leftover pizza. A June app allows users to control the oven from anywhere and receive notifications about the progress of their meal. June’s digital cookbook can also be accessed from the app.

The June oven uses carbon fiber heating elements, which get to full power within three seconds, effectively eliminating preheating time. The secondgeneration appliance is even more efficient in its cook times than the first generation; for example, it took 13 minutes to cook salmon in the first-generation oven, and the company says it takes just nine minutes in the new one.

Other second-generation updates include a stainless steel interior and streamlined touchscreen.

June, which boasts investors from Amazon to Ashton Kutcher, has been developing its second-generation oven for over a year and a half.

The initial ovens were sold out by September, just nine months after its late 2016 release.

Van Horn says June stopped making the first-generation oven because it was quickly moving ahead with the second.

The second-generation oven is available exclusively on the June website. The company hopes it will be carried by Amazon soon.

The second-generation oven represents a significant price drop, selling at just one third of the cost of the original. Generation one June ovens cost $1,500, while the new version, with a release discount, cost $499. At full price, the second-generation June is available for $599, or $799 with an extended warranty, extra accessories and a three-year subscription to a digital cookbook.

Who uses June? Van Horn was surprised to find out.

“We expected a bit more of an early-adopter, predominately male audience on our first product,” Van Horn said. “We were actually wrong. It’s a lot of busy working professionals, especially women, especially moms.”

Co-founder and Chief Technical Officer Nikhil Bhogal added that users tend to be small families cooking for two to four people.

Van Horn and Bhogal are privy to this data because more than 95 percent of oven users opt in to sharing, with the understanding that June uses the data to work on improving the oven.

“The best feature of the oven is the fact that it’s the first appliance that gets better over time and not worse,” Van Horn said. “We’ll make the product better because we can learn from using the product.”

The product’s software also can be updated automatically.