ie8 fix

Roomba

Pain in the glass? Windoro bot does your windows

I've messed around with several household robots that clean floors, but I can't believe it's 2010 and I'm still manually washing my windows. I know I'll have to wait until 2020 for bionic eyesight, and a bit longer for immortality, but come on. Windows? By hand?

South Korea's Pohang Institute of Intelligent Robotics (PIRO) has given me reason to hope that one day I'll be freed from wiping away grime myself. It has developed a window-washer robot called Windoro that can do the job itself, increasing my leisure time.

Windoro resembles square floor-cleaning … Read more

Roomba vs. NaviBot: High-tech hygiene hoedown

Dirt. Disgusting dirt. The enemy of all that is gleaming, shiny, and gadgety--how we despise it. Thank the stars then that the brave super-scientists at iRobot worked so hard to create the revolutionary Roomba cleaning machine, guaranteed to keep your home sparkling and new, without any input from you. Pretty smart, eh?

So smart, in fact, that electronics mega-giant Samsung is getting in on the act with the Samsung NaviBot (for now, only available in the U.K.). It's a silicon beast of such calculated poise and deadly efficiency it could probably kill a tiger. A robot tiger. We … Read more

Humanoid bot hitches a ride on Roombas

What do you get when you put a humanoid robot on top of four Roomba floor-cleaning bots? The ultimate meta robot--and hopefully some very clean floors.

Scientists at the University of Bonn's Autonomous Intelligent Systems Lab bolted together four Roomba 530s to create the Roomba QuadDrive, an omnidirectional moving robot base with individually steerable axes.

The QuadDrive can sustain weight up to about 44 pounds, so the AI guys decided to plop their Robotinho android on top of it and put it to work as a temporary tour guide at Bonn's Deutsches Museum. Robotinho, originally developed for the … Read more

Get a Roomba 530 robot vacuum for $269 shipped

Believe it or not, my favorite new gadget at home is not the iPad. Sure, Apple's tablet is cool and all, but it hasn't picked up a single Cheerio off the floor. Not one--there's not an app for that!

On the other hand, the iRobot Roomba vacuum cleaner I bought works tirelessly, vigorously, and automatically, scuttling around the house, sweeping floors and carpets as it goes, then returning to its dock for recharging. Frankly, it makes my children look like a couple of slackers.

J&R has the Roomba 530 for $269.88 with free shipping, … Read more

The 404 572: Where it's time for a downgrade (podcast)

Jeff Bakalar is out sick today but luckily Natali Del Conte is back from her sojourn to San Francisco and fills in on today's episode of CNET's The 404 Podcast. I hope you had a better weekend than mine; I almost had a sleepover at the Apple Store after my iPhone inexplicably broke...again! The display on my 6-month-old phone stopped working, so I've decided to stick it out with a budget Samsung flip phone until the fourth-generation iPhone comes out.

Downgrading to a single-function handset from an iPhone requires some adjustment, but I'm quickly getting used to (and even enjoying) the simplicity of having separate dedicated devices for music and phone calls.

Boredom arrives much quicker without a smartphone, of course, but who really needs all those silly apps? I'm having a great time rediscovering the simple mundane pleasure of scrolling through "settings and options." What time increment should I set my auto-dimmer to today? The possibilities are endless!

Last night CBS' "60 Minutes" aired an interview with Conan O'Brien to get his personal take on the "Tonight Show" fiasco that left poor CoCo without a network to call a home.

Unfortunately, neither NDC nor I had a chance to check it out, but Wilson gives us the rundown on Conan's amicable responses and explains why Conan starts crying halfway through the segment. Check out CBS News for the full interview.

There are also plenty of hilarious Calls From the Public to play today including one listener who finally debuts an impression of Jeff that you won't want to miss. If you have something to tell us, leave us a message at 1-866-404-CNET or shoot us a line at the404(at)CNET(dot)com!

Episode 572 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video

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The 404 554: Where Justin and Wilson take a trip to the Jersey Shore (podcast)

Look for me and Wilson at an Ed Hardy store near you! We might just pop up on your television set too, if all goes well with a casting call in L.A. asking for Asian-Americans to audition for a reality show based on "Jersey Shore" and "The Hills."

It's rumored to be set in Koreatown, and we're not putting much faith in the series based on the fact that Jin and this guy are the only two Asians on TV right now. That being said, an Asian-American reality television show would be a real gag...maybe their first order of business will be to help Snookie and the Situation get that elusive GED.

Artist Jack White of The White Stripes has a few words of advice for aspiring musicians, not the least of which is to put down the plastic guitars and drums and learn how to play a real instrument.

While we completely agree with Mr. White that the fad has turned living rooms across the country into nurseries, there's still an element of self-appointed stardom that goes along with the Guitar Heroes and Rock Bands of the world, and it doesn't look like it's going away any time soon.

That being said, real musicians have an opportunity to show off their recording skills in our ongoing The Audiophillie Music Awards for Excellence in Recorded Sound, so get going and you could win a set of either Monster Turbine Pro Gold ($299) or Pro Copper ($399) headphones.

We're excited about a new pilot for a show called "Immersion" that tests video game concepts out in the real world. One real-world scenario is the idea of a third person steering like you'd see in a driving game. To put it to the test, the crew mounted a camera on a long arm behind a car and put a monitor in front of the driver. To make things more "video game realistic," they also blacked out all the windows in the car. It's a hilarious and creative premise, and we're looking forward to an episode where they compare GTA to real life.

The second half of the show is all about a list of the eight most irritating types of gadget owners. Characters like "The Bluetooth Warrior" and the "Super Tech Spec Guy" are universal, but we really spend the whole time complaining about our own personal tech pet peeves, like our friends who are "too cool" to get on Facebook or refuse to own a cell phone in order to "reduce their carbon footprint."

And don't think we've forgotten about the main perpetrators of tech-induced fury: our PARENTS! Share in the horror of showing your father how to import a CD in iTunes, teaching a grandparent to cut and paste, and forcing your mother to use a Roomba.

EPISODE 554 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS VideoRead more

Roomba Pet Series: A paws-on review

Roomba just tried to suck up my sneaker. Fortunately, it didn't get past the laces.

I found it hunched over a threshold with the laces coiled around its brushes, looking like a slightly guilty puppy.

The shoe was easy to dislodge. With the push of a button, Roomba was on its way again, vacuuming my hardwood floors, rugs and tiles.

iRobot marked its 20th anniversary the other day (see our photo gallery of its robots), notching more than 5 million home robots sold, and I celebrated by sicking one of the latest, the 562 Pet Series, on the dust … Read more

Neato's auto vac gets down and dirty with Roomba

Roomba has been king of the robotic vacuum market for a while, but Neato Robotics, a start-up out of Menlo Park, California, will be trying to usurp the throne in February with a new automated vacuum that will cost $400.

While the company expects to have multiple robotic housekeeping products in the future, its debut product is called the Neato XV-11. What makes it better than Roomba vacuums? Neato says it's smarter because it features a high-tech laser-powered Room Positioning System (RPS) to map your room and avoid most obstacles. And since it's smarter, it cleans a room … Read more

Roomba Pac-Man: Classic game gets robot twist

Students at Colorado University have reprogrammed five Roomba vacuum-cleaning robots to recreate the classic 1980s arcade game Pac-Man.

The machines move around a virtual maze, indicated by red tape on the floor, as the four ghosts Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde chase the Pac-Man Roomba as it vacuums up paper dots.

The Pac-Man Roomba is joystick-controlled by a user, but the ghosts navigate autonomously. They will try to chase Pac-Man until it sucks up a power pellet, which puts them into evade mode.

The Roombas are wirelessly linked to a laptop that processes their locations through an overhead camera positioning … Read more

iRobot CEO: Robot nurses to cut health care costs

BERLIN--In the midst of America's raging debate on the future of health insurance, one man says he has a solution to out-of-control health care costs: more robots.

Of course, this is coming from Colin Angle, a roboticist and CEO of iRobot, the company that makes both robotic vacuum cleaners and bomb-defusing gadgets currently in use by the U.S. military. At IFA here on Friday, he said that robotic telepresence devices, which would act like nurses in a person's home, could reduce the $2.2 trillion, or 17 percent of the U.S. GDP, currently spent on health … Read more