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Husqvarna lawnmower remote for iOS: a lot less fun than we'd hoped
Sure, we've been living in a series of safe houses and seedy motels since 1968, but that doesn't mean that you can't have nice things. A two-car garage, white picket fence, and a healthy lawn: that's the American Dream, right there. But with all that middle class comfort comes responsibility -- and how are you going to find the time to keep the grass under control when you're working three jobs to keep up with the mortgage on your McMansion? Friends, that's where Husqvarna's My Automower app comes in. That's right: rather than sending SMS messages to your GPS-enabled Automower, all of its functions (starting, stopping, tracking the thing's progress via GPS) can now be handled from the safety of your iOS device. What it will not do, however, is transform your robot lawnmower into a semi-autonomous, blade-wielding backyard defender (hopefully the company addresses that in a software update). PR after the break.
Husqvarna's SMS-enabled Automower 260 ACX: ur lawnz mowed kk?
Good news for unmanned lawnmower enthusiasts (we know there are at least two of you out there). Husqvarna's latest, the Automower 260 ACX, can be programmed to send you an SMS text message if something should interrupt the mow job -- because sometimes looking outside to see if your robot is still tending to the lawn is just too much to ask. This bad boy gets an hour on a single charge -- which should be plenty of time to take down about half an acre of lawn -- and upon returning to its docking station, the battery is recharged in roughly forty minutes. Recommended retail price: €4,000 (that's over $5,200). No word yet on a stateside release.[Via News Market]
SmartMow mows the lawn but won't accept a glass of lemonade
The unmanned lawnmower is nothing new, but we still think there's something downright iffy about arming a Roomba with sharp metal blades. That said, if you've been dying to get in on the action, SmartMow might be worth checking out. Set to hit the stores in Spring '09 for $749 (much cheaper than some other robo-mowers), the thing weighs 17 pounds, features three cutting blades, will cut around a sixth of an acre on a single charge (about 2-3 hours), and is auto-docking. As far as knowing where to mow, SmartMow eschews sci-fi grass detection algorithms and rudimentary artificial intelligence in favor of the tried but true method of marking off your mowable yard with an edge wire. The best thing about the bot, however, may be its educational value -- not only will it teach your kids about robotics, it will also show them how people with money can buy their way out of doing chores. Video after the break.[Via Robot Stock News]
Robot lawnmower kills Danish man
In what we surely hope isn't the opening salvo of the robot insurrection, a 45-year old Danish municipal worker was tragically killed by an industrial robotic lawnmower this afternoon, after the unit tumbled off a slope and onto the poor fellow doing his job. Although we've seen quite a few robotic lawnmowers, we're not too familiar with the RC-controlled Dvorak Spider 01 unit the man was using; our only hope is that this is, of course, an isolated incident.
