AllThingsD » Roomba

YBuy's Subscription Service Lets You Try Gadgets for 30 Days

Tricia Duryee — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:10:32 +0000

Subscription services are back in style.

Popular right now are monthly shoe clubs that send you a new pair every 30 days. But here’s a twist: A site that lets you try out consumer electronics and home and kitchen gadgets before buying them.

YBuy.com, which launched today, allows members to try out a product, such as an iPad, a Jawbone headset, a Keurig coffee maker or an iRobot Roomba vacuum, for 30 days before deciding whether they want to keep it.

Members must pay $25 for the service. If they decide to keep the product, the fee applies toward the item’s purchase price. YBuy says shipping is free both ways.

The Manhattan Beach, Calif.-based company was started by Stephen Svajian and Kevin and Tim Wall, and has raised $750,000 in funding from angel investors.

The concept is based on the theory that product returns are already costing the consumer electronics industry a lot of money. In 2011, YBuy estimates that 68 percent of products were returned because they did not meet customer’s expectations, costing the industry $16.7 billion.

Thus, if users get the chance to use the product before they buy it, the number of returns will drop. YBuy says it offers new products, but will also refurbish unwanted products before sending them to another customer.

Other subscription services have received large investments recently with a new twist on the business model introduced in the 80s with the CD club.

For example, ShoeDazzle, which was co-founded by celebrity Kim Kardashian, raised $40 million in capital last year, and JustFabulous raised $33 million with the help of former model Kimora Lee Simmons, who was previously married to Russell Simmons.

Unlike the onerous subscription services of the past, YBuy says subscribers can cancel anytime or choose to skip a month and have that month’s fee applied toward the purchase of a future product.

Right now, YBuy is invitation-only as it ramps up.

Reporter's Notebook: It's Robots Galore at Google I/O

Ina Fried — Wed, 11 May 2011 21:38:11 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

I thought Maker Faire wasn’t for a couple weeks yet, but the show floor at Google I/O did a pretty good impression of that hobbyist tech show.

There were robots, robots and more robots. There were little toy robots built around Android phones and really big ones with tablets for heads. There were robots that used an Android phone as a remote control and there was a giant labyrinth that was itself a robot controlled by an Android tablet.

Even a “fireside chat” on Tuesday with Android’s key developers was shortened by 10 minutes to make way for a demo from iRobot.

Among the robots on display were prototypes from Hasbro of a robot called the Phonedox that turned an Android phone into a walking, smiling picture-taking robot.

“They ding, they dance, they kind of walk around,” said Michael Knight, who consulted with Hasbro on the project. Picking up the robot lets users interact directly by touching the robot face that adorns the phone’s screen. (They don’t like to be turned upside down, but do like being petted, I learned.)

At one point one of the Phonedox robots fell down, apparently low on battery. “It’s still cute when they fall, as long as it’s not your phone,” Knight said. Ah well.

The Phonedox is just a concept, Knight said, of the kind of toy that Hasbro might want to build some day.

Also in San Francisco for I/O was Orbotix, a company whose Sphero product is a robotic ball that can be controlled via an iPhone or Android device.

The company is aiming to ship at least a certain amount of devices this holiday season for around $130, slightly higher than the company’s original goal. The question, says CEO Paul Berberian, is just how many devices will get made this year.

“Do we make a thousand or do we make a million?” Berberian said. “We won’t make a million.”

The answer, he said, will depend on how well the manufacturing process goes and on feedback from early user testing that is set to begin around September.

In addition to the Phonedox and the Sphero, there were assorted other robots rolling around Google’s developer Sandbox, including a robotic version of the Android mascot.

But there was actually one person who didn’t think there were enough robots on display. Of course, that was iRobot CEO Colin Angle, whose whole business is making and selling robots ranging from the Roomba to military-grade devices.

“When I was growing up I always assumed there would be more robots than exist today,” Angle told the crowd of developers. The problem, he said, is that most robots don’t deliver as much value as they cost to produce, making them either a novelty or useful only for tasks that can’t safely be performed by humans, such as defusing bombs or examining nuclear contamination.

However, he said, the economics of the mobile industry could pave the way for robots that are more cost effective.

“I am here to make an appeal to you to help solve the challenge of lack of robots in the world,” he said.

[ See post to watch video ]

The Little Robot Made to Clean the Icky Spots

Katherine Boehret — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 20:24:22 +0000

Thanks to robots, there’s no excuse for a dirty floor.

[ See post to watch video ]

This week, I took a break from my normal product testing to run a robot through the paces of washing, scrubbing and squeegeeing my tile and hardwood floors. The Scooba 230 is the latest model in iRobot Corp.’s large family of household-helping gadgets, which includes the popular Roomba robotic vacuum, introduced in 2002.

Sold in a $300 package with accessories, the Scooba 230 is the least expensive Scooba from iRobot; the earlier Scooba 350 and 380 cost $400 and $500, respectively. It’s less than half the size and weight of its larger and pricier predecessors, giving it the ability to scoot into tough-to-reach spots, like behind most bathroom toilets, where nobody wants to clean.

I like a lot of things about this robot, especially that it’s smart enough to separate clean water from dirty water as it goes—instead of just regurgitating the same water and pushing it across the floor, like a mop. Loading the robot with water and cleaning solution takes just a minute, robbing even the laziest people of an excuse for not cleaning. And its compact size makes it easy to store.

The Scooba 230 can scrub hardwood floors. But don’t expect it to vacuum first.

But to keep its price down, iRobot took away this Scooba’s ability to vacuum as it scrubs the floors like previous Scooba models, so users will have to sweep or vacuum before they place it down and hit the power button. This defeats the idea of letting the robot do all the work. And unlike Roomba, which automatically returns to its recharging base after vacuuming so it can charge itself, Scooba stays where it finishes the job. An iRobot spokeswoman said this design is deliberate because it forces people to empty Scooba’s bladder full of dirty water, rather than forgetting about it.

According to iRobot’s findings on people’s use patterns, the Roomba robotic vacuum is used three to five times a week, a stark difference from their normal cleaning patterns of vacuuming once weekly. In my experience, the Roomba study held true for Scooba, as well.

IRobot, which was founded at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by two students and their professor, has sold more than six million robots in the past nine years. Specialty models include land-mine detectors for the U.S. Army, a robot that monitored the water in the Gulf of Mexico after last year’s oil spill and four robots that iRobot sent to Japan for help with recovery efforts at the Fukushima nuclear plant. The company’s future plans include AVA, a robot that uses an iPad or Android tablet to run apps created internally and by outside app developers. Though AVA is just a concept for now, it could function autonomously, running apps that offer health-care assistance, games and mobile music. IRobot operates on the philosophy that a robot isn’t a robot unless it interacts with its environment.

One of Scooba’s competitors, the $200 Mint Automatic Floor Cleaner from Evolution Robotics Inc. (mintcleaner.com), isn’t quite as advanced. It moves around the floor with wet or dry cleaning cloths attached to its underbelly, much like a motorized Swiffer Sweeper. Mint follows a projected signal beamed out from a separate device set in the room, and this is intended to help the device build a navigational map of a space, though it doesn’t prevent the device from leaving a specific area.

I tried the Scooba 230 in a large bedroom and a small bathroom, though it didn’t fit behind my toilet, which I’d estimate is over 30 years old. In my bathroom, I didn’t sweep first, and Scooba just pushed hair and dirt around on the floor as it cleaned. One eight-hour Scooba charge lasts for two 20-minute, small-room cleanings defined as 60 square feet each, or one 45-minute large- room cleaning measuring 150 square feet. When Scooba’s battery is dead, a red light on its lid turns on.

The Scooba 230, which sells for $300, can scrub tile.

Scooba comes with four removable bottom plates, which are plastic pieces that house its squeegee and brushes, and four packets of cleaning solution. This solution costs $12 a bottle when purchased separately, and one bottle lasts for 64 cleanings. Two small, battery-powered devices called Virtual Walls also come with the Scooba. When powered on, these devices project a beam that Scooba won’t cross, so they can be placed in front of an opened door or set up to restrict the robot to a certain area in one room.

One task that I gave to Scooba was washing my hardwood floors after I spilled a glass of juice. I soaked up the juice with paper towels, but the floor was still sticky and dirty with a scent of V8 Splash. I filled Scooba with one packet of cleaning solution and warm water. Using its flip-up handle, I carried the robot into a room and placed it in the center of the floor, pressing power, then Clean; holding the Clean button down turns on its shorter cycle, indicated by a different tone. Scooba made a whirring sound as its wheels propelled it across the floor with its underbelly brushes at work. A bumper on its front keeps Scooba from nicking walls.

Sometimes Scooba moved slowly then sped up quickly, or hugged walls, or spiraled out from the center of the room. It’s mesmerizing to watch, and as it moves it lays water down on the floor to loosen stuck-on particles. Once in a while, Scooba seemed to get stuck in a corner, humming and grinding for 10 to 15 seconds. It was tempting to want to help it get unstuck, but it used what iRobot calls “escape behavior” to eventually get back to zipping around the floor.

My grimy kitchen floor needs a serious scrub to get clean, which the Scooba alone couldn’t do. It could, however, be used to maintain a degree of clean—and pinch hit when juice is spilled. Just be sure to sweep your floors first.

Email katie.boehret@wsj.com.

Write to Katherine Boehret at katie.boehret@wsj.com

Viral Online Videos, the Funny Edition: Doombas and Anchors Away!

Kara Swisher — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 09:01:16 +0000

Here are two very funny online videos making the viral rounds of late.

The first is from “The Daily Show” earlier this week, in which Samantha Bee perfectly mocks products from iRobot (IRBT)–best known for the automatic vacuum called the Roomba–as killerbots.

In the second, local Chicago anchors from WGN News, Robert Jordan and Jackie Bange, do a very impressive Las Vegas-style routine during the commercial break. It is hard to look away.

Here are the videos:

Future Shock–Roombas of Doom

What News Anchors Do During Commercial Breaks

Festival of Gadgets at the Churchill Club With Guest Geek: Google's Marissa Mayer

Kara Swisher — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:02:20 +0000

Last night, Walt Mossberg and I co-hosted our annual holiday gadget fest for the Churchill Club in Silicon Valley.

Now in its fifth year, it was called “Making a List: The Fifth Annual What’s Hot and What’s Not in Personal Technology” and took place in Palo Alto, Calif. Our guest were Marissa Mayer of Google and tech consultant Greg Harper.

Walt and I typically show off several devices we think are interesting and try to identify some important trends.

Here’s a video of Walt, Greg and Marissa at the event:

(I still am having problems with the Brightcove player, so I uploaded the video to YouTube.)

For example, Walt showed the new Amazon Kindle electronic book reader (which he did not actually like so much in his review of the device this week), as well as the new version of Sony’s e-book offering. He also showed some new cellphones that are trying to mimic the Apple iPhone. His take: Great software in consumer electronics is key this year.

I showed new robotic devices from iRobot–the new version of its popular Roomba vacuum and its new wireless gutter cleaner called the Looj. We had an actual gutter on stage, full of leaves I made my much-abused assistant Ed Daly collect from a gardener’s truck we found on a suburban street.

And every year, we’ve brought in uber-gadget geek and tech consultant Harper, who always brings in a truckload of cutting edge and sometimes freaky stuff. That included an egg-shaped speaker that dances from, of course, Japan, as well as a solar battery charger, a $400 laptop and a vanity mirror that is a Webcam in disguise. Harper posited that all devices would have to be always connected going forward.

And, also annually, we invite a celebrity geek from well-known tech companies. In the past, we’ve had Google’s Larry Page, Jerry Yang of Yahoo, RealNetworks’ Rob Glaser and Chad Hurley of YouTube–geeky guys all. But Mayer, one of Google’s top execs, proved the nerdiest with a wide range of cool stuff.

She showed off a keyboard whose keys had embedded LCD screens, a wireless rabbit, an alarm clock that can jump off your nightstand and a T-shirt with a wireless signal locator in it. She also did a demo of exactly what the new Google Android operating system for cellphones looks like. Take careful notes: It looks an awful lot like the iPhone.