Roomba Gets Overhaul

Grok Headline matches for Roomba Gets Overhaul

Roomba 0.12

Roomba 0.12 04/28/2004 11:49 AM
Room booking software for hotels.

Roomba

Roomba 04/10/2004 02:05 PM
0.11 released

I lust for a Roomba

I lust for a Roomba 02/10/2004 01:28 PM
I'm just listening to Helen Greiner's presentation of Roomba. She actually has one that she is running on the table, and the #etech -channel is filled with geeks declaring their instant love at the tiny little home robot.

Can't say I'm much different.

I seriously, seriously want one. Like now.

Update: Joi snapped a photo of me, relaxing outside :-)

Update2: I'm now a bit less enthusiastic. IRobot does in addition build the PackBot, which is a military bot. We were shown a cool video in which the PackBot? is thrown in through a window to a building, drives off the roof, and drives directly into a river; surviving all this stuff. It was apparently used during the Afghan war as well. It's just a matter of time before they strap it with guns.

Revenge of the Roomba

Revenge of the Roomba 07/13/2004 03:41 PM
The profesor sent us this about the new and improved Roomba robot vacuum cleaner: iRobot yesterday announced some new versions of our Roomba line of robotic vacuums. Cool new features include a recharging docking station and a dirt sensor, in addition to many changes to make it a more solid product. For more details see the iRobot press release. According to their website, the new version also includes a bigger dust bin that holds three times as much as the old Roomba. I've also heard that Roomba hackers may find some interesting new changes inside too. But can it still be used to deliver beer?

More Roomba hacking

More Roomba hacking 07/14/2004 10:00 AM
Another group of hardware hackers have at a Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner:

"For higher level control, we've attached a Virgin Webplayer. The Webplayer was sold as a loss leader for Virgin's internet service in the late 90s, and thus can be found on ebay for under $100. It has two serial ports, a 200MHz Geode processor, 64M ram, and a miniPCI port. Thus, we can give it an 802.11b card, a webcam, and a usb-serial adapter."

Link (via MetaFilter)

Roomba Discovery

Roomba Discovery 07/12/2004 07:39 AM

Oh hey, new Roomba! The Roomba Discovery is being pre-sold "exclusively [to] current Roomba owners" at the moment, but includes some much-needed improvements, like a self-charging Home Base which the Roomba will head to, automatically, when done cleaning (finally!), an "intense cleaning" feature (presumably detecting areas that need multiple passes, and a dust bin that's 3 times larger. Sounds like an all-around improvement, so good on them. The Discovery is currently being sold on the iRobot Store site for $250.
R ead - Product Page [NewRoomba]

Related
Australian Robot Vacuum Contender: Floorbotics [Gizmodo]
Trilobite Vs. Roomba: The Mystery Revealed [ArtOfSpeed]
Electrolux Trilobite Robotic Floor Vac Review (Bunny Not Included) [Gizmodo]

Roomba customer support

Roomba customer support 07/02/2004 04:35 PM
We have a Roomba at home to sweet our floor while we're out (it's really noisy). Yes, from iRobot makers of the "next step in unmanned tactical mobile robots". In other words: They are makers of robotic killing machines! Anyway, one of the evil cats ate the power supply some time ago, so it hasn't gotten much use lately. (Her cats, I usually say when they do things like that) I sent them an email through their online email form...

Back-door your Roomba

Back-door your Roomba 05/07/2004 03:35 AM
PT sez, "This week's "how to" article from Engadget shows how to put the Roomba Robot Vacuum in hardware check mode. This is a useful mode for Roomba hackers (and anyone else) to test the functions of the unit as well as see how the unit works, test the 'virtual walls,' clean specific parts and have some fun."

Pressing the L button for the 5th time (you'll hear 5 beeps) will put the Roomba in "bulldozer" mode, in other words it'll just roll forward no matter what, the sensors and bumpers and picking it up will not stop it. Be careful, don't let the Roomba damage you or itself.

Link (Thanks, PT!)

SmartCarpet Roomba Killer

SmartCarpet Roomba Killer 06/17/2005 06:15 PM

Foreign companies Vorwerk and Infineon are furthering the process of making Americans even more lazy. Research into the popular robot vacuum, Roomba, has shown the inefficiency of being able to cover all parts of the carpet. These foreigners are developing a robotic vacuum that interacts with RFID chips imbedded into the carpet. The robot uses the RFID transmission information to decipher whether or not it has actually covered all areas of the carpet.

Intelligent Robot Vacuum [Ohgizmo.com]

Hack-Friendly Roomba Scheduler

Hack-Friendly Roomba Scheduler 06/24/2005 04:01 PM

CNET News.com gets freaked out when we link to their stories and use their pictures, so thank god iRobot has a picture of their new Roomba Scheduler on their site already. The Schedular is pretty similar to the Discovery, except it includes a timer function that can be set to activate the robot on a schedule (hence...). It's sort of an obvious, if welcome, upgrade, so the additional news that iRobot will be encouraging tinkerers to hack in additional features into this model is great. A Roomba with a camera is cool, but I think it's time somebody figured out how to make a Roomba that's smart enough to not eat cords.

Catalog Page [iRobot]
Trick out your Roomba [News.com]

Two Timing Roomba Discovery Reviews

Two Timing Roomba Discovery Reviews 07/15/2004 06:58 AM

< img src="http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/images/roomba_discovery.jpg" alt="roomba_discovery.jpg image" width="200" height="200" class="borderyes" border="0" align="right" vspace="5" hspace="15"/>We're going to give this New York Times' Circuits section review of the new Roomba Discovery a passing grade, if only because author William Grimes (oh ho ho) talks about torturing robots. It's good to know that when robots rise up against their fleshy masters, we'll all be able to blame Circuits. The new Discovery does well enough -- it's clearly an improvement over the previous generations -- but its still, ultimately, an expensive distraction to getting real cleaning done. And that's why I love it.

More Roomba and links inside.

Roomba is Sucking up Christmas Dollars

Roomba is Sucking up Christmas Dollars 12/19/2004 03:41 PM
A new CNET article notes that the iRobot Roomba is a hot item among Christmas shoppers this season. Best Buy claims it's the most popular gift item at their stores this year and the Roomba 4100 has also recently reached the number four position on Amazon's Housewares top sellers list (it has since dropped to position six). The San Mateo Daily Journal recently picked the Roomba as number six on its list of the top ten holiday gadgets. So you better watch out, Santa may be bringing you an autonomous robot vacuum cleaner this year.

Trilobite Vs. Roomba: The Mystery
Revealed

Trilobite Vs. Roomba: The Mystery
Revealed 06/01/2004 01:53 PM

Ever wonder why the Trilobite 2.0 robotic vacuum is about $1,800 when you can get a good ol' American Roomba for as low as $160? Turns out, it's because the Roomba is, as robots are judged, pretty dumb. One of I4U's readers with a degree in human computer interaction and artificial intelligence wrote a nice piece about some of the major differences between the two robot vacuums, which he compares to the difference between a "Trabant versus a Rolls." Unfortunately, without one of them fancy AI degrees, the Roomba is the one I can afford.
Read [I4U]

Roomba Discover vs Sharper Image eVac

Roomba Discover vs Sharper Image eVac 08/10/2004 10:18 AM
Everyday Robots has posted a comparison of the Roomba Discovery and Sharper Image eVac robot vacuum cleaners. It's primarily a consumer-oriented review on points such as suction power and carpet types rather than more interesting things like hackability. But if you're thinking about buying a robot vacuum for its intended purpose, this could be a helpful review.

GCC gets an overhaul

GCC gets an overhaul 03/17/2005 03:42 AM
ZDNet Mar 15 2005 12:18PM GMT

Other News: ACN Overhaul

Other News: ACN Overhaul 04/09/2004 04:01 PM
The Apple Consultants Network is apparently undergoing an overhaul.

After I.B.M.'s Options Overhaul

After I.B.M.'s Options Overhaul 03/06/2004 01:53 AM
I.B.M. is to be congratulated for recognizing that options are a transfer of wealth from shareholders to management with not enough risks attached.

Microsoft to overhaul its MSN arm

Microsoft to overhaul its MSN arm 01/08/2004 08:26 PM
Microsoft executives said the company planned to revamp its Internet search service later this year to compete more effectively with Google, the Internet ...

Does the Patent System Need an Overhaul?

Does the Patent System Need an Overhaul? 09/27/2004 12:28 AM
Two professors argue that seemingly innocuous reforms have caused a shift away from encouraging innovation in favor of exploiting patents largely for lawsuits.

NetNewsWire RSS Client Getting an
Overhaul

NetNewsWire RSS Client Getting an
Overhaul 04/21/2004 11:38 AM
Browsing in place, an option that enables you to open links inside NetNewsWire instead of a Web browser; a tool for searching news items; Flagged items, which lets you flag items for later viewing; Per-feed refresh settings; and support for Atom feeds. Other enhancements expected in the updated NetNewsWire: support to synchronize subscription lists and the read/flagged status of news items between two copies of NetNewsWire; Smart feeds that show headlines from other feeds (similar to smart playlists in iTunes); a new feature that lets you write AppleScript scripts or shell/Perl/Python/etc. scripts that return RSS or Atom; Search engine feeds; an option that shows you feeds that haven't updated in a whil

NHS IT bodies get organisational
overhaul

NHS IT bodies get organisational
overhaul 07/22/2004 11:28 AM
Silicon.com Jul 22 2004 3:55PM GMT

NAB: DMOD WorkSpace gets OS X overhaul

NAB: DMOD WorkSpace gets OS X overhaul 04/20/2004 11:19 AM
Mac OS 9 support is no more in DMOD Inc.'s new version of WorkSpace, their digital asset management and distribution system. Also new with this release is support for Safari, e-mail notification, group support, optimized encryption algorithms for improved performance, drag-and-drop folder upload and download support, progress indicators, and streamlined address book support.

IBM to Overhaul Software Division

IBM to Overhaul Software Division 12/02/2003 01:25 AM
Angling for new enterprise customers, Big Blue will target 12 industry sectors.

Intel and HP want to overhaul Internet

Intel and HP want to overhaul Internet 09/10/2004 05:28 AM
San Jose Mercury News Sep 10 2004 10:11AM GMT

ChoicePoint overhaul falls behind

ChoicePoint overhaul falls behind 06/24/2005 06:50 PM
Changes at the data broker to prevent Americans' personal data from getting into the wrong hands are taking longer than planned.

Bush's tax overhaul may be incremental

Bush's tax overhaul may be incremental 12/22/2004 01:34 AM
President Bush's campaign to make the tax code simpler, fairer and more pro-growth is likely to involve incremental changes to the current system rather than a sweeping effort to scrap the venerable income tax for a radically new approach, such as a national sales tax.

IE Overhaul Part of Windows XP SP2

IE Overhaul Part of Windows XP SP2 12/16/2003 01:40 PM
Microsoft's service pack for XP has a host of goodies for improving the Internet Explorer experience.

Extreme Skiing May Cause Law Overhaul
(AP)

Extreme Skiing May Cause Law Overhaul
(AP) 04/16/2004 07:39 AM
AP - With expert trails no longer posing enough of a thrill for some skiers, Colorado lawmakers are considering whether to shield ski resorts from lawsuits by the growing number of people who get a rush out of riding cliffs and half-pipes.

Patent overhaul gets a boost

Patent overhaul gets a boost 10/30/2003 10:27 PM
Warning that patents of dubious legitimacy can slow innovation and stifle competition, the head of the Federal Trade Commission recommends new procedures for challenging patents.

Intel calls for Internet overhaul

Intel calls for Internet overhaul 09/09/2004 01:03 PM
The Net needs a new layer of abilities that will deal with imminent problems of capacity, security and reliability, Intel's CTO says.

Animal welfare overhaul planned

Animal welfare overhaul planned 07/10/2004 05:06 AM
People who abuse animals could be jailed for a year under proposed law changes, a newspaper reports.

Key open-source tool due for overhaul

Key open-source tool due for overhaul 03/14/2005 06:23 PM
ZDNet Mar 14 2005 10:09PM GMT

Overhaul for animal welfare laws

Overhaul for animal welfare laws 07/14/2004 01:47 AM
The biggest overhaul of animal cruelty laws for nearly a century is to be unveiled by the government.

Cybersecurity overhaul legislation DOA
in Congress

Cybersecurity overhaul legislation DOA
in Congress 09/23/2004 05:22 PM
A bill to transfer the nation's cybersecurity director from the Department of Homeland Security to the White House is "dead on arrival," according to sources.

Prostitution laws face overhaul

Prostitution laws face overhaul 07/15/2004 11:43 PM
The first consultation in generations on prostitution in England and Wales will be announced by ministers.

Jeeves gets functional, image overhaul

Jeeves gets functional, image overhaul 09/22/2004 02:52 PM
Computer Business Review Sep 22 2004 6:38PM GMT

9/11 panel suggests intelligence
overhaul

9/11 panel suggests intelligence
overhaul 07/22/2004 12:53 PM

iSeries overhaul looks to the long term

iSeries overhaul looks to the long term 08/09/2004 09:24 AM
ZDNet Aug 9 2004 2:20PM GMT

Contentious Overtime Overhaul to Start
(AP)

Contentious Overtime Overhaul to Start
(AP) 08/20/2004 02:29 AM
AP - In an unprecedented overhaul of the nation's overtime pay rules, the Bush administration is delivering to its business allies an election-year plum they've sought for decades.
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Roomba Gets Overhaul

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