The automatic garage door opener is one of those under-appreciated gadgets that—as far as I can tell—hasn’t gotten a serious upgrade since the mid 70s. Seriously. You show me a cellphone, I can give you a rough idea of how old it is. You show me a garage door opener, and I’d have a hard time knowing if you installed it yesterday, or 30 years ago. So it’s nice to see Craftsman bringing their AssureLink Garage Door Opener into the 21st century, allowing you to open and close it from an app on your smartphone. Instead of a giant, clunky remote that looks like it predates even the VCR.
From what I can glean from the Craftsman website, the AssureLink opener connects to your home’s wireless network using their “MyQ Technology” which appears to provide similar connectivity to other devices around your home. So not only can you use your smartphone to open or close the door, but you can remotely monitor its status, and close or open it while away. If a friend was stopping by to borrow a ladder, you could even program it to open and close the door for a set amount of time. Handy! It’s also got the requisite safety sensors so it won’t come down on something or someone when being closed from afar. So as a tool for tomfoolery, it seems limited. The Craftsman Garage Door app is of course free, while the actual opener is slightly less free, at $275.49.
[ Craftsman AssureLink Chain Drive Garage Door Opener ] VIA [ SlashGear ]
