Carnegie Mellon’s Free Smartphones + Service + $1700 Deal

If you live in or within 10 minutes of the Pittsburgh area, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) has a deal for you:

They’ll give you free smartphones for each member of the family, wireless service, unlimited text and data plans, and $1700 US dollars ($200 + $50 bonus per month if you meet the condition). All this for six months.

The catch is - you have to let the researchers at CMU invade your life - well, sort of. The deal is actually part of a study that involves smart home technology, which in my mind equates to talking fridges and coffee-makers with wi-fi. There’s two parts to the study - the first, lasting six months, revolves around planning activites for each day, while the second is actually testing the smart home tech that can “automatically detect and notify you when for life doesn’t match your plans.”

If your family is accepted for the study, you’ll need to meet with researchers for interviews (3 hours each) and biweekly home visits (30 minutes), and talk to a researcher every night (discussing plans for the next day, 10 minutes).

Catch #2 is that you’ll have to a take a long survey to see if you qualify.

Carnegie Mellon: Dual Income Family Research Study

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