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By first impressions, I thought this was a hands-on impression. Sad to read that its just reiterating whats been announced a couple months back.

dawnerd 7y ago
And posts like these make it hard to trust any of the "review" sites out there when all they do is rehash press releases.
- trevin 7y ago
  Yeah this is clearly a thin affiliate site churning out content optimized for "robot mowers" and not somebody with any real expertise on the subject.
- colejohnson66 7y ago
  The domain name was a big flag for me that it may not be genuine.
- scrooched_moose 7y ago
  They admittedly aren't perfect, but Consumer Reports is the only one I remotely trust. So many "review sites" basically just look at the highest rated items on Amazon and create an article out of it. I needed a new beard trimmer recently and it was just page after page of spam. Amazon reviews are so manipulated they're nearly useless now. Reddit isn't too bad, at least for the most part they are real people.
  - elandrum 7y ago
    Check out Tech Gear Lab and Outdoor Gear Lab. They’re based in Tahoe and the company purchases every single item they test. When they’re done with testing, they often put the gear up for raffles locally to support mountain bike trails and outdoor non-profits. The folks who run it are all really great people.
  - ghaff 7y ago
    Wirecutter is pretty good in my experience. I have the same caveat as for Consumer Reports--you're probably not the audience if you have a lot of experience with and definite opinions about a category--but I've had good luck with them overall.
    - Deinos 7y ago
      I don't always agree with their conclusions, but I can't argue with Wirecutter's methodology; their write-ups are well researched, documented, and overall fairly exhaustive in detail.
    - gumby 7y ago
      Indeed, often the needs of the experienced person are quite different from the needs of the “tyro”. So even though I often disagree with consumer reports on, say, laptops, the very reasons I disagree made me confident when buying a toaster oven or glucose meter.
  - DennisP 7y ago
    Fwiw about a year ago I got the Peanut, a professional plug-in trimmer that costs $45. It works way better than any battery-powered trimmer I've tried. Only drawback is that you change the length by replacing the guard instead of just sliding it to a different position; one day I didn't notice the guard was off and with one swipe it was too late to salvage my beard. I removed the rest and started over; luckily I keep it short anyway.
    - hanniabu 7y ago
      Corded products are underrated. It's a hassle to deal with the cord, but it's worth it when not needing to worry about if the battery is charged when you start, the battery running out mid-task, or plugging in the battery to charge after and remembering to unplug it later. The issue with the cord can be greatly improved by having a nice retractible extension cord. Easy to take out, easy to put back, easy to move, easy to store.
    - scrooched_moose 7y ago
      That's actually the one I ended up getting! Thanks for the recommendation though.
    - jjeaff 7y ago
      I did the same thing maybe 7 years ago and the peanut still just works. I got tired of needing to buy replaceable blades or forgetting to charge it or the unreplaceable batteries just crapping out. I don't even keep a beard. I just use the peanut without a blade guard and it cuts close enough for me. No razor burn or pulled hairs ever.
  - asdff 7y ago
    It's only a matter of time before bots that automatically write somewhat convincing comments and post threads start hitting reddit, if they haven't already.
    - kube-system 7y ago
      A lot of review manipulation, especially the more effective manipulation, is done by humans. The reason it doesn't happen as much elsewhere is because it those are very low ROI compared to manipulating directly in the list of search results.
  - marcusverus 7y ago
    Check out Fakespot.com. you plug in an Amazon URL and the site will analyze the reviews/reviewers and give the product trustworthiness score and an adjusted 5 star rating. I've had pretty good results with this. I started using it after I bought a couple of VERY highly rated books that were just unreadably bad. I checked them on FakeSpot and they all had abysmal ratings when the fake reviews were removed.
ajcourtney 7y ago
Hi Syntaxing I'm the owner of myrobotmower.com Although not a hands on, I wrote this article due to the significance of the announcement. As a robot lawnmower enthusiast for 20 years, the imminent arrival of robot mowers without perimeter wire is a paradigm shift in the industry. I'm actively involved with a number of companies developing competing products. I have hands on experience with most of the current robot mowers on the market, and robot mowers like the irobot terra are going to make a big impact when they launch. I wish I had more info for the article that I can publicly share. Best wishes Andrew

dawnerd 7y ago

And posts like these make it hard to trust any of the "review" sites out there when all they do is rehash press releases.

trevin 7y ago
Yeah this is clearly a thin affiliate site churning out content optimized for "robot mowers" and not somebody with any real expertise on the subject.
colejohnson66 7y ago
The domain name was a big flag for me that it may not be genuine.
scrooched_moose 7y ago
They admittedly aren't perfect, but Consumer Reports is the only one I remotely trust. So many "review sites" basically just look at the highest rated items on Amazon and create an article out of it. I needed a new beard trimmer recently and it was just page after page of spam. Amazon reviews are so manipulated they're nearly useless now. Reddit isn't too bad, at least for the most part they are real people.
- elandrum 7y ago
  Check out Tech Gear Lab and Outdoor Gear Lab. They’re based in Tahoe and the company purchases every single item they test. When they’re done with testing, they often put the gear up for raffles locally to support mountain bike trails and outdoor non-profits. The folks who run it are all really great people.
- ghaff 7y ago
  Wirecutter is pretty good in my experience. I have the same caveat as for Consumer Reports--you're probably not the audience if you have a lot of experience with and definite opinions about a category--but I've had good luck with them overall.
  - Deinos 7y ago
    I don't always agree with their conclusions, but I can't argue with Wirecutter's methodology; their write-ups are well researched, documented, and overall fairly exhaustive in detail.
  - gumby 7y ago
    Indeed, often the needs of the experienced person are quite different from the needs of the “tyro”. So even though I often disagree with consumer reports on, say, laptops, the very reasons I disagree made me confident when buying a toaster oven or glucose meter.
- DennisP 7y ago
  Fwiw about a year ago I got the Peanut, a professional plug-in trimmer that costs $45. It works way better than any battery-powered trimmer I've tried. Only drawback is that you change the length by replacing the guard instead of just sliding it to a different position; one day I didn't notice the guard was off and with one swipe it was too late to salvage my beard. I removed the rest and started over; luckily I keep it short anyway.
  - hanniabu 7y ago
    Corded products are underrated. It's a hassle to deal with the cord, but it's worth it when not needing to worry about if the battery is charged when you start, the battery running out mid-task, or plugging in the battery to charge after and remembering to unplug it later. The issue with the cord can be greatly improved by having a nice retractible extension cord. Easy to take out, easy to put back, easy to move, easy to store.
  - scrooched_moose 7y ago
    That's actually the one I ended up getting! Thanks for the recommendation though.
  - jjeaff 7y ago
    I did the same thing maybe 7 years ago and the peanut still just works. I got tired of needing to buy replaceable blades or forgetting to charge it or the unreplaceable batteries just crapping out. I don't even keep a beard. I just use the peanut without a blade guard and it cuts close enough for me. No razor burn or pulled hairs ever.
- asdff 7y ago
  It's only a matter of time before bots that automatically write somewhat convincing comments and post threads start hitting reddit, if they haven't already.
  - kube-system 7y ago
    A lot of review manipulation, especially the more effective manipulation, is done by humans. The reason it doesn't happen as much elsewhere is because it those are very low ROI compared to manipulating directly in the list of search results.
- marcusverus 7y ago
  Check out Fakespot.com. you plug in an Amazon URL and the site will analyze the reviews/reviewers and give the product trustworthiness score and an adjusted 5 star rating. I've had pretty good results with this. I started using it after I bought a couple of VERY highly rated books that were just unreadably bad. I checked them on FakeSpot and they all had abysmal ratings when the fake reviews were removed.

ajcourtney 7y ago

Hi Syntaxing I'm the owner of myrobotmower.com Although not a hands on, I wrote this article due to the significance of the announcement. As a robot lawnmower enthusiast for 20 years, the imminent arrival of robot mowers without perimeter wire is a paradigm shift in the industry. I'm actively involved with a number of companies developing competing products. I have hands on experience with most of the current robot mowers on the market, and robot mowers like the irobot terra are going to make a big impact when they launch. I wish I had more info for the article that I can publicly share. Best wishes Andrew