For the past six weeks, I’ve been conducting an experiment. At 5 p.m. twice a week, every house on the block has a different robot lawn mower that begins mowing the yard just as everyone in the neighborhood takes their nightly stroll. My neighbors’ willingness to loan me their lawns has been great for testing a variety of robots on a variety of lawns,...

Remembering to change the filters in your HVAC system can be harder than it sounds. In addition to changing them on a regular schedule, per manufacturer instructions, you might need to change filters more frequently if there’s an environmental factor that clogs them up faster. But knowing when to change your filters or keeping up on the date of your...

One of the more interesting and useful AI features recently introduced to Google and Samsung phones is Circle to Search: You just circle something on screen (or tap it, or scribble on it), and you get matching Google results back. It's perfect for getting details of a landmark or finding shopping links for something you're interested in.The underlying...

Virtual assistants can be quite handy. In fact, Alexa has proven to be an integral part of my smart home system. The fact that I can walk into my home and say “Alexa, turn on bedroom” and the lights in my bedroom will pop on is certainly convenient. But these virtual assistants also have a dark side, and we're not talking about them spying on you—sometimes...

Decades after going off the air, classic PBS kids' shows like Reading Rainbow and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood continue to occupy a place in the hearts of many children of the '70s, '80s, and '90s. f you grew up during this era, perhaps you've wished that there was a way you could share these shows with the kids in your life, without paying per episode...

Just a quick public service announcement: Mother’s Day is this Sunday. If this fantastic holiday snuck up on you again this year (I’m in the same boat), it’s not too late to grab a thoughtful gift. Here’s a list of gift ideas for the chef, baker, coffee connoisseur, and everyone in between. While you may not have time to get something engraved or monogrammed,...