While the Roomba is stuck inside your home picking up dust (literally), the Robomower model RL1000 mows your backyard ? up to 5,400 square feet per charge. This essentially frees your lazy butt to sip a pina colada while the Robomower does all the dirty work of giving your backyard a sexy new grass cut. Think of all the weekend time you can now have for your family or all to yourself? This workhouse can be programmed to fit your grass cutting lifestyle, which makes the using the machine easy. Simply set the time and day (and how many times) you want the Robomower to go out and cut grass and the machine will depart its charge station, perform its duties and return to home base to charge for the next round.

That's not to say that there are not a couple of setbacks. The machine takes about 20 hours to reach a full charge so you can imagine how much juice this baby will suck up each time it goes out to mow the lawn. However, the convenience this product can provide might be worth it. Besides, think about the bragging rights?

The product retails for approximately $1,600.

Leading up to the 2006 hurricane season, Service Villa will be showcasing some of the must-have tools and gadgets to make preparing and surving all aspects of a hurricane easier.

Tool #1: Echo CS 360T Chain Saw
The Echo CS 360T Chain saw from Echo USA is a compact, gas-powered chain saw that you can easily carry when trimming your trees before a hurricane. The chain saw weighs only 8lbs yet manages to power the chain at 55 mph. This will allow you to cut through tree limbs at record time (be VERY careful not to cut yourself or someone else).

If this chain saw isn't your cup of tea, when looking for a new chain saw for hurricane season keep the following in mind:

• Is the chain saw gas-powered? you will not have electricity after a hurricane to perform any necessary clean up.


• Is the chain saw easy to carry? a heavy and clunky chain saw will become uncomfortable no matter how strong you are.


• Is it safe? Does the chain saw contain any vibration reducers? Remember, vibration can cause muscle fatigue that could lead to damaging effects on your nerves in the future.

No one likes to clean. And as much as I like to see my car clean, it takes a great deal of effort for me to actually get all my tools and actually clean it. The predicament? I really dislike the gas station car washes and the hand-clean car washes are generally too rich for my blood. So I end up having to do it anyway. At least now with The Power Sidekick, cleaning the car can be a little bit easier.

The tool looks like a trimmer you would find at your hardware store, but it doesn't trim anything off your car (except dirt, dust, and bird poop). Instead, The Power Sidekick helps you wash, wax, polish and vacuum your car until it is spotless. We are not talking about the car-version of Rumba here, but it does make the process a lot easier.

Again, as with some of our most recent product posts, the greatest thing about this tools is that it allows you to do all of the things you would generally have to do with 4 different tools, with just one. Just like a regular vacuum, you swap out different parts to get different features.

The Power Sidekick is powered by a Ni-CD 12v 2500mAh battery pack so it packs a quite a bit of juice and within one-a-half hours it is ready to go again.

The Bullseye Auto-Leveling Laser and Stud Sensor from Black and Decker is certainly not the only one of its kind on the market. However, for the sake of simplicity, we are just going to talk about this particular product.

The days of having to put the manual leveling tool on top of your picture frame as you hang for dear life on the ladder are finally gone. You simply attach the tool to the wall and it will automatically project a laser light to guide you as you place picture frames, shelves and other decorative items on the wall. The Bullseye Auto Leveling Laser also finds wood, metal studs and live A/C wires as you scroll it across the wall — this comes in handy when you want to hang those heavy art pieces on the wall.

There are many versions of these: some calculate distances (laser tape measure); others give you both a horizontal and vertical level; while others even help you space out your picture frames to the millimeter.

Check out the Black and Decker web site for more details on these very useful tools. Their retail prices vary.

Slice through limbs and brush with Black & Decker's Alligator Lopper innovative cutting tool. The Alligator Lopper is essentially a pair of shears with a the top blade replaced by a mini chainsaw. Yeah you read correctly! It's a chainsaw! It gets its power from a 4.5 amp electric motor. It weighs only 6.5 pounds so anyone will be able to use them with ease. The weight is bout half the weight of most chainsaws which will help when cutting overhead.The Lopper's rugged metal jaws clamp onto logs and thick branches, as well as smaller limbs and vines, and then saws through them with ease. The Alligator Lopper goes for about $99 and you can get it at most home improvement stores.