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8510085100Roomba Combo j9+ review: The ideal robot vacuum and mop
The Roomba Combo j9+ is the ideal robotic vacuum and mop. It can easily suck up dirt while also wiping down your floors, and now it’s smart enough to refill its own water tank.
Dyson’s V15 Detect vacuum hunts dust with a laser 'blade'
There's also a bigger stick vacuum for bigger messes and a new Omni-glide model for smaller living spaces.
Samsung's smart home vision includes more intelligent fridges and vacuums
CES wouldn't be CES if Samsung didn't have a slew of new appliances to announce, and the longer the company invests in its vision of a connected home, the more we at Engadget wind up writing about refrigerators and vacuums. Samsung's smart Family Hub fridge, for instance, packs all of the same nifty storage options found in the company's Bespoke refrigerators, and once again lets you peek inside the fridge with a camera. There are also new tools here for the novice cook or nutritionist -- you can plot out a week's worth of family meal on a calendar for all to see, and a tie-in with a Samsung cooking app provides meal inspiration, automated ingredient ordering, and guided cooking instructions piped through the refrigerator's 25W speaker.
The Roomba i7+ is the robot vacuum I’ve been waiting for
Adulting is hard. But over the past 12 years, iRobot's Roomba made it just a bit easier for me by keeping my floors clean, no matter how lazy I felt. But while the company has steadily improved its robot vacuums over the years -- by making them more powerful, adding sturdy rubber rollers and integrating room mapping -- they're still very similar to the first model that debuted in 2002. That's why the $949 Roomba i7+ is such a huge deal: It can not only vacuum your floors better than before but also empty its dust bin into a Clean Base. It's the epitome of lazy cleaning technology: something that can do its dirty work without making you leave your couch.
Dyson's $1,200 robotic vacuum is expensive, but also the best
Dyson is very confident about its new vacuum. Then again, with this price, it has to be. On sale now in Japan for just shy of 150,000 yen ($1,200), the 360 Eye is the company's first robotic model -- although it's not for lack of trying. It might be worth the wait, though: It actually cleans like you always hoped a robot vacuum would. It's so good, in fact, that I might have to fire my Roomba.
Dyson plans big R&D expansion, starting with a new 3,000-person tech campus
One in every three Dyson employees is an engineer. That's roughly 1,700 of them and the UK-based company is looking to increase that number. It's announced plans to build a new technology campus in Wiltshire, UK, focused on science and technology research and development. The plan includes four different facilities within a single one leafy compound in Wiltshire, UK. It'll cost £250 million to build it, and could create around 3,000 new tech and science jobs. Dyson will scale up its R&D efforts from here, with collaborative topics like its recently-announced robot research lab expanded and "strengthened" with help from over 10 UK universities -- the company has already cooperated with Cambridge, Imperial and Newcastle while it developed its existing products. Finely-engineered robots, new motors (and probably a few high-end vacuums) are likely just a few years away. Better watch yourself, Roomba. Image Credit: Getty
iRobot Roomba 790 with Wireless Command Center hands-on (video)
What to get the homeowner who has everything? Perhaps a robotic vacuum styled in the fashion of an RC toy will fit the bill. Here at a gdgt event in New York City we happened upon iRobot's Roomba 790, which comes with a touchscreen remote for manually controlling where the bot goes. The controller -- make that the "Wireless Command Center" -- has an interface matching the one on the 790 itself, so there's no second set of menus to master here. In addition to deciding where it moves, you can also schedule daily cleanings or tap a "Clean" button to push the robot into action.Though this isn't the first time iRobot's dabbled in remote-controlled vacuum cleaners, previous models tended to rely on infrared sensors, meaning you could only control the Roomba if it was in your line of sight. This guy, though, uses a proprietary technology that allows you to program that 4pm scrubbing from up to 25 meters away. As for battery life, it runs on four AA cells, and is rated for three to six months of runtime, depending on how compulsively you plan on cleaning. Interestingly, despite the change in wireless standards, the 790 is compatible with older 700-series Roombas, though it's not as is the controller would be sold separately. If you happen to be the kind of fabulously wealthy family who can afford (and has a need) for multiple Roomba cleaners, you can only pair the remote with one robot at a time anyway. Don't have the budget for a $700 robotic vacuum kit? We've got hands-on photos below and a demo video after the break. %Gallery-159094%
IRL: Kirby Sentria, Sony bloggie-MHS-FS1 and the OLPC XO laptop
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. Let's just cut to the chase: this week's IRL is a little schizophrenic. On the one hand, you've got Andy singing his bloggie's praises, Terrence waxing philosophical about his unused OLPC XO and Darren ranting about his grandmother's vacuum cleaner. Do you like camcorders that are not a smartphone? Do you despise door-to-door Sentria salesmen? Good. Let's hit it, then.
IRL: Kingston Wi-Drive, Dyson DC35 and being an Ubuntu fanboy
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. The lively comments in yesterday's Nest thermostat post got us thinking: for all our talk of smartphones and Ultrabooks, it's the mundane, not-glamorous stuff that we're spending most of our money on. Take Brad, for instance, who had to make room in his iTunes library for the Aladdin soundtrack and had to get creative after maxing out his iPhone's (non-expandable) storage. Or Zach, who felt not one, but two vacuum cleaners were necessary in his bachelor pad. And at least one of us avoids paying anything by choosing to tinker around in Ubuntu. How'd Brad make do with his 16GB of fixed storage? Why is Zach such a compulsive cleaner? And who's the Linux fanboy on staff? Meet us after the break to find out.
LG Hom-Bot 2.0 Smart Robot Vacuum Cleaner hands-on (video)
Smile, you're on Vacucam! LG's Hom-Bot (RoboKing in the US) was zipping around its own special playpen on the stage at the company's IFA booth today, picking up the occasional speck of dust and using its dual cams to spy on bloggers and Germans, while also diligently avoiding a plastic family dog along its ten-square-foot cube of real estate. The bot's Smart ThinQ technology enables it to interact with an Android or iPhone app, which you'll use to watch a live video feed from its built-in cam, send it rolling to a specific point in the house in "Patrol" mode, or adjust settings. You can also log in remotely, assuming your Hom-Bot is powered up and has a WiFi connection. Official US and Euro pricing and availability hasn't been announced yet, but an LG rep suggested we'll see it in the €500-700 range (about $710-995 US). Cameras and interactivity are nice and all, but that's a lot to spend on any vacuum cleaner. Today's trade show sneak peek is probably the closest we'll be getting to this pricey little vac, so roll past the break for some super action footage.%Gallery-132520%
LG launches 'RoboKing Triple Eye' smartphone-controlled vacuuming robot
You won't have to leave your post on the couch, but you will have to lift a finger to your smartphone in order to tidy up with LG's 'RoboKing Triple Eye' VR6180VMNV robot vacuum. Unlike it's purple cousin who spends his time looking inwards, this little guy is always looking outward with its three cameras, capturing video and sending it to your smartphone or PC over WiFi. The robot uses sensors to create a plan of attack map of your home, allowing you to move it around by clicking the filthiest parts. Like a well-trained puppy, the dust buster also responds to voice commands from up to 5 feet away and it doesn't even bark -- only emitting 48dB of sound while sucking up dust. Of course, laziness of this caliber doesn't come cheap, as it costs 899,000 Korean won, or around $840 bones.
Little Spiderman uses vacuum cleaners to climb buildings, win the hearts of the ladies
The enterprising youngster you see above had a dream. A dream to become like his superhero, Spiderman, who isn't real. Nobody really believed him or thought his ideas about how to achieve his goals were very good, but, as you can see from the photo, he's got the last laugh. Hibiki Kono, using two cheap, 1,400 watt vacuum cleaners he bought at a grocery store to begin scaling walls of local buildings, and impressing all of his new friends. His mother's not that into him doing it in the house -- she's afraid he'll destroy the walls and ceiling -- but as you can see from the video below, the sight is pretty impressive.
Korean carrier KTF launches mobile phone-controlled vacuum cleaner
South Korean telecom firm KTF has just announced a cleaning robot which can be controlled by a 3G cellphone. The robot -- called the CW100 -- was built in collaboration with Microbot, and is a "smart" vacuum (much like a Roomba). The CW100 uses an onboard video camera to send live images of what it's "seeing" to the mobile phone, and the user can then remotely control it using the keypad. The bot will be sold for KRW 500,000 (about $370) in conjunction with a data plan that runs KRW 5,000 (about $3.70) per month. Sounds pretty affordable and awesome to us -- as long as it doesn't run over the family cat. Check out another photo after the break.[Via Unwired View]
IBM apes Mother Nature for faster, more efficient chips
Someone should seriously tell IBM's research and development team to take a much-deserved vacation, as these folks have been cranking out the goods at an alarming rate of late. Most recently, the company has announced the "world's first application of self assembly used to create a vacuum around nanowires for next-generation microprocessors," which just so happens to mimic the natural pattern-creating process that forms seashells, snowflakes, and enamel on teeth. Essentially, the process forms "trillions of holes to create insulating vacuums around the miles of nano-scale wires packed next to each other inside each computer chip," which should aid electrical current in flowing around 35-percent faster while it eats up about 15-percent less energy. This newfangled approach to insulation, dubbed airgaps, creates vacuums that enable the substantial boost in speed, and the self assembling process is reportedly "already integrated" into IBM's manufacturing line in New York. The chips will initially be used in the firm's server lineup sometime near 2009, and shortly thereafter, we can expect IBM to start cranking these out for other companies that rely on its CPUs.[Via BBC, thanks Josh]
Obsessed kid collects, names and dreams of vacuums
Just like your average five-year-old, Aidan Adkins is obsessed with robots, bubblegum and most of all, vacuums. He's been into the suckers ever since he could walk, and has amassed a collection of eleven various vacs, ranging from toys to pro models. For his birthday and Christmas he asks for money to buy more to add to his collection, and then carefully researches the options to spend his hard-earned allowance on the latest and greatest. Naturally, he's got names for all of them, like "Shoppy" the Shop Vac; "Scrubby," a Bissell Pro Heat 2X; and "Kitchy" for the kitchens. Bissell recently sent him a Healthy Home vac for his birthday, which he named "Sucky." We would poke fun at the peculiar hobby, but about half our Engadget Mobile editors have a similar basement phone collection, and our own Evan Blass opens his home for nursing abandoned and abused Pocket PC devices back to life. Sure, you won't see Paris Hilton at a vacuum launch any time soon, but we're sure Aidan has plans to change all that -- once he scores the dream job Dyson internship and single-handedly revolutionizes the industry with slim n' sexy vacs.[Thanks, Brian P]
iRobot's Dirt Dog: Roomba gets a 'tude
So you've got Roomba on carpet duty and a couple Scoobas taking care of the kitchen and bathrooms, but who's cleaning up that mess of a workshop where you spend most of your time getting your hacks and mods on? Well up until now you had to rely on your own prowess with a shopvac (meaning that nothing ever actually got tidied up), but thanks to the good folks at iRobot, the bad-ass Dirt Dog is coming to get your back. The same size and shape as the more timid Roomba -- meaning all your current batteries, remotes, and charging bases are compatible -- Dirt Dog comes equipped with a 40% larger debris bin along with specially designed brushes to sweep up caked-on dirt, heavy debris, and other messes that are "too dirty for a regular vacuum." This new $130 dog will be taking a bite out of some of your toughest cleaning chores starting on Friday, but you gotta make sure that it doesn't wander out of your workspace and into the rest of the house -- it probably won't pee on your couch, but those 1,000 RPM brushes will shred your shag carpets, scratch the hell out of your polished hardwood, and -- if you have a significant other -- get you confined to the garage for the rest of your natural life.Update: So it looks like the vicious Dirt Dog isn't the only upcoming member of the iRobot family. A Cnet article tipped us off to a new military bot that the company is working on -- called the NEO Mover -- and a little digging around turned up a few solid deets. Touted as the PackBot's big brother, NEO is apparently a 200-pound robot that can haul cargo Big Dog-style, and interestingly enough, is also said to be able to "move like a soldier" -- not sure what that means, but we won't make any snarky comments for fear of a swift and deadly reprisal. Like PackBot, the NEO Mover will also serve as a demolition expert of sorts, detecting explosives and presumably sacrificing its own well-being so that its human overlords can remain safely packed into their Hummers.[Via The Raw Feed]
