Roomba maker iRobot’s lawnmower bot is indefinitely delayed because of COVID-19

-
Image: iRobot

iRobot, the company behind the autonomous Roomba vacuum, says it’s scrapping its plans to release its lawn-mowing robot, the Terra, because of the pandemic. The company said in its earnings release yesterday that it’s “suspended” its launch plans for the Terra because of COVID-19 and the subsequent global economic downturn the virus caused. The announcement came coupled with news that iRobot laid off 70 employees, mostly in its research and development department, and furloughed 14 sales and marketing staff.

The company first debuted the Terra in January 2019 and said it’d be beta-testing the device in the US. In August 2019, iRobot told The Verge that the beta was “progressing well.” The device’s Federal Communications Commission...

Continue reading…



source https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/29/21241064/irobot-terra-lawnmower-robot-delay-update-supply-chain

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Google Assistant will soon be on a billion devices, and feature phones are next

-
Image
As CES kicks off, Google has a massive presence: monorails, a booth that’s three times larger than last year, and likely a giant pile of news to announce. But ahead of all the actual product news, the company wants to beat its chest a little by announcing some numbers. By the end of the month, it expects that Google Assistant will be on 1 billion devices — up from 500 million this past May. That’s 900 million more than the number Amazon just gave us for Alexa . But just like Amazon, Google’s number comes with caveats. In an interview with The Verge , Manuel Bronstein, the company’s vice president of Google Assistant, copped to it. “The largest footprint right now is on phones. On Android devices, we have a very very large footprint,” he... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/7/18169939/google-assistant-billion-devices-feature-phones-ces-2019
Read more

TP-Link unveils its first family of Wi-Fi 6 routers

-
Image
The next generation of Wi-Fi is starting to arrive, and today TP-Link is unveiling its first family of next-gen products. There are six devices in total, ranging from high-end routers to a range extender, all of which use the new Wi-Fi 6 standard to deliver better performance and faster speeds. At the top of the line is the Deco X10, a tri-band mesh router that’ll work with the rest of TP-Link’s Deco series to spread Wi-Fi signal throughout a home. There are basically zero devices that connect to Wi-Fi 6 signals right now, so there’s not much of a reason to upgrade yet, but the Deco X10 at least provides one: it’ll use Wi-Fi 6 to create a stronger link between routers, speeding up the overall connection. You’ll need two Deco X10 units to... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2019/1/7/18167185/tp-link-wifi-6-first-router-family-ces-2019
Read more

GE made a 27-inch smart display for above your stove that streams Netflix and Spotify

-
Image
GE wants to put a smart display at head level while you’re cooking. The Kitchen Hub is a 27-inch touchscreen that runs Android and also functionally replaces your exhaust vent at its mounting above your stove. The company first teased the device at last year’s CES but ultimately never shipped it . It has updated this year’s version with a sleeker interface and tons of features like video calls and streaming movies. The Kitchen Hub supports Google Assistant, meaning you can ask Google to create grocery lists, look up recipes, or control other smart home devices like thermostats, lights, and cameras. The Hub can also run apps like Netflix and Spotify, so you can stream The Great British Baking Show or listen to music while you cook. There’s... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/7/18170285/ge-google-netflix-spotify-exhaust-vent-smart-display-kitchen-hub-ces-2019
Read more