I did some reading on the Dyson site Rob posted and then started doing more Dyson research on the web. Damn, I'm impressed by their vacuums and washers. They're just debuting now in the US.

Their robot vac has some huge pluses and also some huge minuses. It's an actual vacuum and not just a sweeper. That's a big plus. It has great suction power and comes from a company that has proven itself in the vacuum industry. It looks neat enough to get attention. but, it's also fairly tall and definitely will not go under as much furniture as the sleeker Roomba. It wouldn't go under my bed for instance. And one great thing about the Roomba is all the praise I've seen it get for cleaning the little spots that people generally miss or don't clean often enough. If I get one, I plan to run it at least every two days. Anyway, the Dyson's charge also only lasts 30 minutes - understandable considering it's a powerful vaccum, but even more reason to have it charge itself. It method of navigation is very different from the Roomba. It seem much more methodical by description. Anyway, the Roomba does seem like a fairly practical (for some) toy. BTW, do a search in usenet (using Google) for "Roomba" and then sort by date. There have been at least a couple of people post some useful tips for tweaking it and getting the most out of its cycles.

I think this market has huge potential. It just needs a couple of products like this to get the ball rolling. Sort of how I felt about handhelds when the Newton was introduced. That market has matured in many ways, but I think it's about to get explosive over the next couple of years.

Bruno