Three spring gadgets worth every penny (and one privacy tip nobody mentions)

April 17, 2026

By Kim Komando

Spring is here. Your lawn is judging you. And this year, there are three gadgets worth knowing about before you spend another Saturday pushing a mower in the heat.

🌿 Your yard can now run itself

The old robotic mowers required you to bury a boundary wire around your entire yard before they’d do a thing. Like an invisible dog fence. Digging, staking, hoping you didn’t hit a sprinkler line. Most people gave up before they started.

The new ones skip all of that. The Anthbot M5 ($679 to $829) uses RTK GPS. That’s the same satellite tech in self-driving cars, to map your yard with high accuracy. No wires. No digging.

• Draws virtual boundaries in the app, no physical markers needed.
• A dual-vision system and AI sensors help detect and avoid obstacles in real time.
• Designed for reliable navigation even in yards with trees or weak signals.
• Handles yards up to 1/8 acre and slopes up to 45%.

If your water bill is the bigger pain point, the Rachio 3 (7% off, $185) replaces your old sprinkler timer with a controller that automatically adjusts watering based on your zip code’s weather. Over 11,200 reviews!

• Many folks say they save 20%-50% on outdoor water costs.
• Installs in 30 minutes and works with most systems.
• Works with Alexa, Google Assistant and smart home devices.
• Skips watering cycles automatically before, during or after rain (and even in high wind or freeze conditions).

🐦 The bird feeder that texts you

This one surprises people. The Birdfy (39% off, $140) by Netvue is a bird feeder with a built-in solar-powered AI camera. I just bought this for myself for Mother’s Day.

• The wide-angle lens gives you a clear view of multiple birds at once.
• Identifies thousands of species, and more added with each update.
• Sends alerts right to your phone whenever a bird lands.
• Weather-resistant design is built for year-round use.

Here’s what nobody mentions in the unboxing videos. This is an outdoor camera. Depending on where you mount it, the lens can point anywhere. 

Open the Birdfy app > Settings > Privacy Zone and draw a mask over anything you don’t want recorded. Do this before you hang it outside. Your neighbor doesn’t need to be in your bird photo album.

Why did the smart mower stop mid-job? It heard there was going to be some lawn enforcement.

📩 Send this to someone who spends every weekend mowing, battles a water bill that spikes every summer or keeps asking what kind of bird that was. Use the amazing links below.