Weak Wi-Fi is a new enemy, your Roomba. Along with dirt, iRobot’s Roomba 900 series models will shortly hunt down your home’s wireless dead zones too. The forthcoming patch activates the ability and comes in the middle of January. Especially, the upgrade includes iRobot’s top-tier vacuums, the Roomba 960 $700, and Roomba 980 $900.
When enhanced, the robots generally clean up the floors when searching for spotty networking signals. The robots log any problem areas and merge that data with vacuum coverage maps they simply create. Roomba owners can then use the information to tweak their wireless networks accordingly.
Do not get too excited. The upgrade will not be widely available, at least at 1st.
iRobot is planning to update only its members of its beta program. According to an iRobot spokesman, “initially test groups could be as small 100 to 200 participants.” However, the company expects large software tests to “may include 10-20 % of iRobot users”
Of course, iRobot is not the 1st manufacturer to bump up its existing vacuum capabilities. Neato, the maker of our Editors’ Choice award-winning Botvac Connected, has steadily increased the range of its floor cleaners. Neato machines now accept your voice commands by Alexa and Google Assistant. They’ll also respond to prompts over Facebook chatbot and via IFTTT software.
