This free TV comes with two screens

This free TV comes with two screens

There's a new kind of TV coming out from Samsung, LG and Vizio, and it's totally free if you don't count the cost of your attention — or data. Tele, the company created by Pluto TV co-founder Ilya Pozin, offers a TV that makes up for its non-existent price tag by constantly showing ads in a second, smaller display.

The company calls this thin strip of screen a "smart display," which is separated from the main TV by a soundbar. In addition to showing advertisements, it is also capable of displaying a variety of widgets, including sports scores, news tickers, weather, and stock prices. As shown in the embedded images in this article, ads can appear on the right side of a smart display, but can also appear as a sponsored news feed on the left side of the screen. Janko Roettgers first reported the rumors about the device earlier this month.

"When I co-founded Pluto TV, we created an entirely new model that offered viewers amazing TV content for free," Pozin said in a statement. "Now, with Telly, we are also providing original television for free."

While ads shouldn't interrupt whatever you're watching on the main display, Dallas Lawrence, the telly's chief strategy officer, told The Verge that ads can use both displays when you're not using the TV. . Can do. "When the theater display (top screen) is not in use, the ad unit can come to life by combining the two in a fun way," says Lawrence. "There are hundreds of things we're thinking of to create the most engaging ad experience ever." Lawrence also says that Telly is also working on "Tele Rewards," which would reward users with gift cards for services like Netflix or Starbucks for participating in things like on-screen polls.

As for the main display, it is a 55-inch 4K HDR panel that is connected to a secondary display via the company's operating system: TellyOS. Unlike most mainline smart TV operating systems, TeleOS currently does not support third-party streaming apps such as Netflix. That's why Tally comes with a free 4K Android TV dongle that you can use to watch whatever streaming service you want. It's also compatible with other streaming devices, including Roku, Amazon Fire Stick, and Apple TV, and has three HDMI inputs, 2 USB inputs, and a tuner that you can use to watch over-the-air broadcasts.

However, there is much more to a TV than just two displays. If you look closely, you can see a camera mounted smack-dab in the middle of the soundbar. This enables a "free advanced motion-tracking fitness program" that comes with the TV, along with Zoom integration, which also marks the launch of the telly. Lawrence tells The Verge that the TV comes with a privacy shutter (and with it the TV closes), so you can open and close it as you please.

Equipped with a camera and microphone and paid by brands to show you ads, having a tele in your home has obvious privacy implications given the tracking devices used by Vizio, Roku, LG, Samsung and other TV makers. can be beyond. Are. On its viewing and activity data policy, the telly says it may collect "information about the audio and video content you view, the channels you view, and the duration of your viewing session". With information about "how you communicate". This includes your search query, the buttons you selected, as well as "the physical presence of you and anyone else using the TV at any given time."

Oh, and if you choose to opt out of data collection, you'll either have to return the TV or pay the estimated cost of the dual-screen TV plus soundbar setup yourself: