Style: January 05, 2018
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24 STYLE | home<br />
ADVANCING WITH<br />
TECHNOLOGY<br />
Whether it’s WiFi, apps or simply clever machines, embracing<br />
modern-day living is about making life easier. Words Kate Preece<br />
MOW NO MORE<br />
If mowing lawns tops the list of outdoor chores you consistently avoid, there is a solution<br />
– a robotic lawnmower. Following the same principles as automatic vacuum cleaners, these<br />
mowers will quietly go about their business, manicuring your lawn so you don’t have to.<br />
Models by Gardena and Husqvarna do the rounds of your backyard, circumnavigating garden<br />
obstacles, and even tackling gradients of up to 25 degrees, discretely and quietly.<br />
Gardena Robotic Lawnmower<br />
Drop kitchen scales<br />
August Smart Lock<br />
CONNECTED KITCHEN<br />
WiFi is going to change the way you work in the kitchen. There’s the Drop kitchen scales that<br />
link with your tablet to automatically adjust full recipes if you find yourself short of one ingredient,<br />
and fridges that provide full recipe options. You can set the iKettle to boil on command and the<br />
Mr Coffee to start brewing via WiFi. Taking things further, WiFi connectivity ensures you needn’t<br />
be chained to the oven when you could instead be preheating, adjusting cooking temperatures<br />
or setting timings all through your smartphone. Some, such as the Samsung Gourmet Vapour<br />
Technology electric oven, have pre-set recipes that not only ensure settings are at optimal levels,<br />
but it will guide your cooking step-by-step via an LCD control panel.<br />
KEYLESS & FANCY FREE<br />
You don’t need keys to enter modern-day cars, so why should you need them for your house?<br />
Such gadgets as the August Smart Lock will provide keyless entry that you control through an app.<br />
In fact, the only people able to open your doors are those specified by you! Its clever technology<br />
also means you can check on your phone as to whether the doors are both closed and locked so<br />
you’ll never have to turn the car around for fear you’ve left the front door wide open. This type of<br />
technology has seen Amazon selling its own ‘smartlock’, which enables purchasers to authorise the<br />
entry of courier drivers into their home, to deliver their parcels and avoid either waiting around<br />
or that annoying (yet helpful) calling card. This service hasn’t reached our shores yet, and is only<br />
available to Amazon’s Prime members, but it could be no more than a matter of time.
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