Ask Alexa to start this $180 RoboVac while you watch some football this fall

This price is good for a limited time.

Right now you can save $70 on the purchase of this Alexa-enabled Robovac at Amazon when you combine the on-page coupon with the existing discount, bringing it down to just $179.98. This normally sells for $250 and has only dropped as low as $200 in the past. The price drop is temporary, though.

The vacuum can be scheduled to clean at certain times, monitored through the free smartphone app, and even activated using just your voice through an Alexa device, like the Echo Dot. It provides just under two hours of cleaning per charge, and it is good to use on both hard surface floors and thin carpets.

See at Amazon

Samsung’s 2nd generation SmartThings hub has dropped to $57

Turn everything on and off with your voice.

The Samsung SmartThings smart home hub is down to $56.99 on Amazon. This is its lowest price of the year on Amazon and a huge chunk off its regular price between $90 and $100. It has been replaced by the 3rd generation SmartThings hub, but that new hub is $66 right now.

Hubs like this act as the “brain” of any smart home. As you start adding more smart features, like a motion sensor or smart plugs, you want to be able to control all of them at once. The hub lets you connect everything to it and then control them from one single place. The $142 home monitoring kit, for example, can use that hub to connect all of your appliances, monitor your home and notify you when anything unexpected happens. The SmartThings Hub works with Wi-Fi networks and wireless protocols like ZigBee and Z-Wave.

The Samsung SmartThings Hub is one of the best reviewed smart hubs out there. Tom’s Guide called it the Best Smart Home Hub in 2017 and 2018. PC Mag named it their Editor’s Choice, gave it 4.5 stars out of 5, and called it “one of the most versatile home automation hubs around.”

See on Amazon

Montblanc Summit 2 is the first Wear OS watch with the Snapdragon Wear 3100

You’ll be able to buy the watch this October for an unknown price.

Today at an event in San Francisco, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon Wear 3100 as its next-generation processor for Google’s Wear OS. A few partners have already been confirmed to be working on hardware with the new chip, including Fossil and Louis Vuitton, but Montblanc will be the very first company to release a 3100-powered watch.

Following up on the Summit that was released last year, Montblanc’s Snapdragon Wear 3100 smartwatch is the Summit 2.

The Montblanc Summit 2 is set to launch this October. In addition to the new processor, the Summit 2 will also ship with Wear OS’s all-new UI that puts a bigger focus on Google Fit, Google Assistant, and easier navigation.

The original Summit skipped out on NFC, GPS, and waterproofing despite its monstrous $890 price tag, so hopefully the Summit 2 offers these features. Pricing and other details for the new wearable are still a mystery, but they should be revealed soon.

Do you plan on getting the Summit 2?

Everything we know about battery improvements on the new Snapdragon Wear 3100

Google Wear OS

• The best Wear OS smartwatches
• Discuss Android Wear in the forums!

The best weather apps for Android! ⛈

Keep an eye on the weather with these apps!

In today’s world, we’ve gotten used to seeing the weather change with little notice — and sometime no notice at all. From flash floods and hurricanes to knowing precisely how hot — or cold — it is outside, having a trusty weather app on your side can make all the difference. There are plenty of weather apps available from Google Play, but we’ve got the best of the bunch for you here!

• Today Weather
• Yahoo Weather
• Dark Sky
• 1Weather
• Accuweather

Today Weather

TodayWeather is a relative newcomer to the weather app scene, but it has made quite the impression with its simple UI that’s easy to read as black as an abyss. The app will greet you by your name and then display weather information for your given locations from one of the user-selectable sources including AccuWeather, Dark Sky, and Yr.no, a Norwegian forecasting service that can produce more accurate forecasts for many parts of the world that aren’t America. If you’re looking for a weather app that’s black as night and will help you see what’s coming on a dark and stormy night, Today Weather is for you.

Free at Google Play

Yahoo Weather

Yahoo takes the honor in this humble writer’s eyes for being the prettiest weather app, and it’s powered by Weather Underground, so its forecasts and data have the accuracy of its nationwide network of personal weather stations. The background images for the app are pulled from Flickr, Yahoo’s picture service, so if you’re looking weather at picturesque locations like New York City or Walt Disney World, you’re likely to get a new and beautiful image every time to go into the app. The layout for Yahoo Weather is nice for checking multiple locations quickly, as you scroll up and down for the data about one location, then scroll side to side to switch between locations.

Free at Google Play

Dark Sky

Dark Sky is one of the most popular weather apps around. Its claim to fame is “hyperlocal” accuracy that can tell you within minutes of when it’s actually going to rain. Another standout feature is a global map view that shows you where the rain (and snow) is worldwide at any given time. Dark Sky also features a dedicated do not disturb mode so you can be assured it won’t wake you up in the middle of the night, but as someone living in Tornado Alley, I highly advise against it.

$3/year at Google Play

1Weather

1Weather has always been a beautiful weather app with a bounty of customization options and a dozen weather widgets that can be customized six ways to Sunday. Functionally, there are very few flaws we’ve found in our extended use of 1Weather, and most of them can be attributed to the horizontal, tabbed layout 1Weather uses, such having to tap an expand button before you can zoom or move the radar map. You can pay to ditch the ads in 1Weather via a one-time $1.99 in-app purchase.

Free/$2 at Google Play

AccuWeather

Many apps and widgets — including most preloaded manufacturer weather widgets — use Accuweather for the same reason you should: it’s dependable and damn accurate. Minutecast is scarily accurate, and it’s hard to leave Accuweather for another weather app without it. The app is smartly laid out, comes with a lovely dark theme option, and you can disable ads and expand your forecasts with a one-time $3.99 in-app purchase.

Free/$4 at Google Play

What’s your weather (app) like?

Do you have a favorite app for making sure you’ve got an accurate read on the weather? Is there an excellent app we should have included on this list? Let us know about it in the comments!

Updated September 2018: The weather is always changing, but these weather apps remain the best of the bunch on Android.