SmartCarpet Roomba Killer

Grok Headline matches for SmartCarpet Roomba Killer

Killer Kangaroos! No comment from the
Killer Rabbit

Killer Kangaroos! No comment from the
Killer Rabbit 07/09/2004 03:03 AM
make sure you pack an extra boomerang .. quite aggressive

cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/07/07/australia.kangaroo.reut/ index.html
track this site | 5 links

Roomba

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

Roomba 0.12

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

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 Gets Overhaul

Roomba Gets Overhaul 07/13/2004 02:02 PM
Extreme Tech Jul 13 2004 5:46PM GMT

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)

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.

Killer Mobiles for Killer Apps

Killer Mobiles for Killer Apps 02/01/2005 08:35 PM

Continuing my series on mobile platforms, I now think killer mobile apps need mobile devices designed like game consoles, meaning that it has one or two slots for application cartridges.  Each cartridge contains one or more applications.  Cellphones would come with a built-in cartridge containing the phone app as well as others.

Adding a cartridge adds new apps.  Applications have two modes: running and stopped.  The Next-App button (aka Appy button) activates (brings to front) each running apps in turn.  Some apps can activate itself when an event fires (phone call received).  To see the list of available apps, keep the Next-App button pressed for a second.

Eventually, app cartridges will be advance to become platform cartridges, taking over the full functionality of the mobile device to offer better application platform services than the one that came with the device (i.e. easy to use app download service that auto-configures apps for your device).  If you don't like the built-in calender, just stop it and run a third-party calendar instead.

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!)

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]

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]

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 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.

A new killer app

A new killer app 03/25/2005 01:35 AM
Inspired by Abe Vigoda: The Terri Shiavo mortality-status Firefox plugin.

The Killer App

The Killer App 07/09/2004 10:24 AM
[Frank via Jim]...

Spy Killer v4.0

Spy Killer v4.0 09/24/2004 07:32 PM
Spy Killer is an award-winning spy software / spyware and adware detector, remover, and shield . Spy Killer also includes a stealth feature to hide its presence. The spy software / adware scan detects and eliminates over 200 hidden programs. Spy Killer's shield feature prevents certain spyware / adware from being installed on your PC. This unique feature works even while Spy Killer is running silently in the background in stealth mode. [Shareware $49.97 7 Days 4.2 MB]

The Next Mobile Killer App

The Next Mobile Killer App 02/01/2005 08:35 PM

The first killer-app for mobiles is the phone calls.  I believe static downloadable audio contents such as music, audio books, and podcasts will be the next killer-app. Only design problem is sharing one battery for both critical (phone calls) and casual (listening to audio) uses which calls for smarter power management and more powerful batteries.

Great user experience and clever hardware design is where Apple excels at so I expect Apple to introduce iPod phones within a year or two at the latest.

Unfortunately, screen-based applications and dynamic audio contents, driven by voice browser technologies, will continue to struggle in the near future due to tedious user experience.  Mobile killer apps must be available at the user's fingertip, not hidden behind a wall of patience.

Program Killer

Program Killer 06/17/2004 09:07 PM
Lack of Updates

The Linux Killer

The Linux Killer 07/28/2004 04:04 AM

The Gmail Killer

The Gmail Killer 06/02/2004 01:31 PM
Aventure Media is the Gmail killer. No more waiting for Gmail to be released, Aventure Media is already offering 2GB of storage. [via theregis ter]

Popup Killer v4.0

Popup Killer v4.0 06/19/2004 07:21 AM
PopUp Killer is a small program that can automatically close previously selected Windows. [Shareware $13.00 30 Days 3.4 MB]

A killer Web site

A killer Web site 02/12/2004 05:46 AM
USA Today Feb 12 2004 10:06AM GMT

Killer frozen out of will

Killer frozen out of will 02/13/2004 08:05 PM
Police use new powers to prevent a convicted murderer cashing in on her husband's will.

Killer UCAVs on the Way

Killer UCAVs on the Way 04/09/2004 04:01 PM
Noah Shachtman has written an interesting update on UCAVs (unmanned combat aerial vehicles) being developed by the US military such as the Boeing X-45 and Northrop Grumman X-47A that we've reported on quite a bit in the past. The article references a recent Wired story on UCAVs. In an amusing follow-up, Noah also mentions a Vietnam-era drone that saw some action over Baghdad.

Which One is the iPod Killer?

Which One is the iPod Killer? 09/17/2004 10:22 PM
G4 Tech TV Sep 18 2004 1:50AM GMT

An Appetite Killer for a Killer
Appetite? Not Yet

An Appetite Killer for a Killer
Appetite? Not Yet 04/18/2005 11:23 PM
Hoodia gordonii, a plant from Africa, is being touted as nature's hunger buster, but its effectiveness and safety is under question.

Hoi An, The Killer City

Hoi An, The Killer City 09/13/2004 08:40 PM
What's clear, at this late date, is that my girlfriend attempted to kill me in central Vietnam. What's unclear is why she chose the ancestral seat to the Cham people to make her fatal move. "What?" sez you. Your confusion is understandable - let me take you back to the beginning... Fog and Bus It started raining during our bus trip to Hoi An from Hue. So we whipped out the ...

Psycho Killer

Psycho Killer 03/06/2004 02:04 AM
A follow-up to this post about our sad Christmas tree: This past Sunday I decided that the tree had to go and I was the one to do it (since I'd put so much of a fuss over throwing it...

The Killer Library App?

The Killer Library App? 06/01/2004 11:22 PM

Ho w to Make Money with Digital Lifestyle Aggregators - Part I

"We call it digital lifestyle aggregation and it's based upon a number of assumptions - first and foremost being 'provide compelling experiences to your end-users.' That said - here's what you can do to deliver these oft sought after compelling experiences....

1. Integration. The secret to making things easy to use is in providing an integrated environment where built-in constructs (such as IM, image gallery or friends network) provide all the functionality end-users expect. We call these 'commodity features' and satisfying end-user's expectations as to what software should be - is what it's all about. These features have to be taken for granted and assumed to be there - everywhere - all the time. Even this nascent AO Zaibatsu system provides built-in friends networks to learn and leverage off of. And they have to be as easy to use as saving off a file or turning up the volume.

In the future ALL software products and services will have built-in digital camera support, cell phone gateways, universal messaging, real-time presence management, personal publishing, social networking and oh - did we forget to say - web services? But most will just patch-quilt on these functional modules, never thinking through how an integarted approach can not only make it easy to use and viable, but also achieve an elegant design result, which then causes all sorts of OTHER things to happen!

By providing an integrated environment with lots of great things for people to do, it becomes instantly more accessible and viral. By pre-wiring all of these applications and services - so that they work seamlessly together - OH MY GOD - you just may yet end up with a series of compelling experiences - 'cause heaven forbid - maybe not ALL of our end-users are the same....

2. Aggregation. Do you realize that the digital downloading universe expects end-users to listen to ONLY the songs they download from one vendor on their jukeboxes? That it's impossible to mix and match music you've bought from multiple vendors? That's like only being able to play CDs you bought from Tower Records on your CD player! Apple also prevents you from loading music from more than one machine at a time - so you're out of luck if you have two or more machines.

That's the world we're in today.

RSS News aggregators are becoming understood (you can subscribe to me here at AO Zaibatsu for instance or at my other blog - @ blog.canter.com) so what happens when we can start to aggregate other things as well? Like our digital identity or other forms of expression besides blogs?...

Aggregation is a killer app - that no one owns. It's public domain. Everyone benefits from it. So is integration as well.

3. Customization. So now let's combine Integration and Aggregation with end-users intense desire to have their software do what THEY want it to do. To have the software adapt to their appropriate usage level (beginner, average or advanced), their sex, age, demogarphics - even their location....

This is all happening - but it's all happening as SEPARATE web servcies or web apps....

I'm sorry to tell you this guys - but that doesn't work. You need more than just a single feature to acheive the oft sought after 'compelling experience" we started this post with. To start to reap the benefits of digital lifestyle aggregation - you need to get smart about architecting systems that rely upon XML, open standards and web services.

So personalization and customization find their destiny intermixed with Integration and Aggregation. The only way to produce compelling enough experiences is by integrating a wide range of built-in constructs, combining that with aggregated web servcies and content and topping it all off with unprecedented levels of control and customization. In one product or service." [AlwaysOn, via T he Doc Searls Weblog]

A long excerpt, I know, but even though the author focuses on commercial applications, revenue streams, and open source software, it's worth reading through this in the context of libraries.

I've said before that aggregation is a killer app, one well-suited to libraries and the kind of information to which we provide access. External projects such as LibraryLookup bring home hard the need for our products to very quickly adapt to web services and XML back-ends. And now we're seeing another big push for integration in our industry - federated searching, OpenURL and SFX resolvers, and statewide union catalogs are good examples of this.

So what would aggregation, integration, and personalization mashed together in one app, designed from the ground up to work together, look like in the library world? Would *that* be our version of the killer app?

Killer Instinct

Killer Instinct 05/24/2004 07:51 AM
Killer Instinct 0.41

Dick Is A Killer

Dick Is A Killer 07/11/2004 10:45 PM
From Etan comes a Liberal Dance Party tune: Dick Is A Killer Some more tracks at the Party Party.

Why There Will Be No iPod Killer -- Ever

Why There Will Be No iPod Killer -- Ever 03/30/2005 11:33 AM

Why? Because it look slike the whole consumer electronics industry is now trying to "kill" the iPod instead of inventing something of their own. By Francois Joseph de Kermadec, O'Reilly Network

Killer companies

Killer companies 07/02/2004 08:13 AM
Post-"Fahrenheit," the stellar documentaries -- including "The Corporation" and "Imelda" -- just keep coming. Plus: A moody meditation on familial love, or homoerotic cologne ad?

Zero PopUp Killer XP v5.2

Zero PopUp Killer XP v5.2 12/09/2003 08:42 PM
Zero Popup Killer XP is a small, effective, and intelligent anti-pop-up software product that can kill annoying pop-up windows without human intervention by using artificial intelligence and intelligent agent technologies. It is light on your system's resources and resides in the system tray. It works as an add-in for Internet Explorer and automatically starts when you start up the IE browser. [Shareware $12.00 1.64 MB]

Containing a Killer Flu Virus

Containing a Killer Flu Virus 04/14/2005 07:00 AM
Laboratories worldwide destroy samples of the 1957 Asian flu virus they received as part of a proficiency testing program. Between 1 million and 4 million people were killed by the pandemic nearly 50 years ago.

Mark of a killer

Mark of a killer 05/14/2004 06:15 AM
USA Today May 14 2004 10:43AM GMT
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SmartCarpet Roomba Killer

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