BotvacConnected
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Control Neato's robot vacuum with Amazon Alexa voice commands
Getting your robotic vacuum to clean the house is usually a matter of setting a timer or pressing a start button -- but what if you could just ask it to get to work? If you happen to own an Amazon Echo and a Neato Botvac Connected robot vacuum, now you can. Today the company announced that its Wifi-connected vacuum cleaner will take commands from Amazon Alexa. The feature is extremely straightforward, and features just two commands: start and stop.
Neato's robot vacuum is the first with smartwatch control
We're not sure how useful controlling a robotic vacuum from a smartwatch is, but there's no debating the bragging rights. Neato has revealed that its $699/£550 Botvac Connected is the first robotic vacuum you can control with an Apple Watch or Android Wear device. As long as you're connected to the same WiFi network, you can start and stop the cleaning program and receive status notifications from your wrist, without even needing to set down your drink.
Neato's new vacuum is cheaper than Roomba, but more trouble
In the robot vacuum wars, Neato has made a name for itself by developing cheaper, laser-guided devices that are just as effective as iRobot's Roombas. In fact, while Roombas have been bouncing around walls for years with no real intelligence (something that's finally changed with the camera-equipped Roomba 980), Neato's lasers have helped its devices wisely navigate your floors since they debuted in 2010. Now with the BotVac Connected ($700), Neato also has a robot vacuum that's controlled by a mobile app. But while it does a decent job of cleaning floors, I found it to be much more trouble than Roomba's latest entry.
