TidBITS#787/11-Jul-05
=====================
Can a wristwatch help you sleep better? Andrew Laurence sleeps
on the job to determine if the Sleeptracker device keeps him
from waking up feeling kicked in the head. Tonya tackles another
tool designed to help at home, the Roomba robot vacuum cleaner.
In Mac-specific news, Smith Micro purchases Allume, Apple counts
down to the 500 millionth iTunes track sold, WiTopia makes
corporate-grade Wi-Fi security free, Adobe fixes Acrobat
security vulnerabilities, and Adam shares where he and Tonya
will be at Macworld Boston!
Topics:
MailBITS/11-Jul-05
Macworld Expo Boston 2005 Events
Smith Micro Acquires Allume
Apple iTMS Giveaway: Only Ten iPods?
Free Corporate-Grade Wi-Fi Security from WiTopia
Sleeptracker: How Dick Tracy Goes to Sleep
Roomba: a Robot Underfoot
Take Control News/11-Jul-05
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/11-Jul-05
<http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-787.html>
<ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/issues/2005/TidBITS#787_11-Jul-05.etx>
Copyright 2005 TidBITS: Reuse governed by Creative Commons license
<http://www.tidbits.com/terms/> Contact: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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MailBITS/11-Jul-05
------------------
**Acrobat Vulnerabilities Fixed** -- Adobe has released Adobe
Reader 7.0.2 and Adobe Acrobat Standard/Professional 7.0.2 for
the Macintosh, in part to fix a pair of security vulnerabilities
and to improve form handling. In one vulnerability, a malicious
JavaScript embedded within a PDF file could launch an arbitrary
application on your Mac, at least as long as the exact application
and path name is known in advance by the attacker. In the second
vulnerability, the updater for Adobe Reader and Acrobat could
either elevate the permissions of a pre-existing Safari Frameworks
folder or create such a folder with elevated permissions.
<http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/331709.html>
<http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/331711.html>
The free 7.0.2 updaters work only on version 7.0.1; if you haven't
already updated from 7.0 to 7.0.1, you must do so before updating
to 7.0.2. You can either download the updates manually from the
URLs below or use the Check for Updates Now command in the Help
menu of each program, after which the Adobe Update Manager
application will download and install the update automatically.
The Adobe Reader update is an 11.2 MB download; the Acrobat
Standard/Professional downloads check in at 99.6 MB. [ACE]
<http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=10&;
platform=Macintosh>
<http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=1&;
platform=Macintosh>
Macworld Expo Boston 2005 Events
--------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Macworld Expo in Boston happens this week from 12-Jul-05 through
14-Jul-05 in the Hynes Convention Center, marking the second East
Coast show that will not include Apple Computer as an exhibitor.
The exhibitor list is once again a bit sparse, with about 50 to 60
vendors currently listed, so it shouldn't be a problem to see the
entire show floor fairly quickly. Interestingly, IDG World Expo
has tweaked the show hours this year, so the doors open at 11 AM
Tuesday and Wednesday and close at 7 PM; Thursday runs from 10 AM
through 3 PM. Hopefully the later closing hour the first two days
will make it easier for Boston residents to stop by after work.
<http://www.macworldexpo.com/live/20/events/20BOS05A/>
I'm not aware of any public after-hours events associated with
the show, but Tonya and I will be attending and would love to
say hello to any TidBITS readers who make it to the show.
Here's a cheat sheet to where you can find us:
* Tuesday, 12-Jul-05 brings another episode of the MacBrainiac
Challenge, in which the "Intel Aside" team of Andy Ihnatko, Dan
Frakes, Rich Siegel, and I attempt to defend our title against
the Smart Folders: Jason Snell, Jim Dalrymple, Rob Griffiths,
and Rick LePage. The MacBrainiac Challenge is a live quiz show,
moderated by the estimable Chris Breen, and it has been huge fun
in previous years. If you're around at 12:45 PM and have an hour
to kill, don't miss it. Then, at 3:00 PM, I'll be talking about
iPhoto, wireless networking, and Tiger at the Peachpit Press
booth (#202).
<http://www.macworldexpo.com/dev/20/events/20BOS05A/keynotes>
* Wednesday, 13-Jul-05 will be a long day. At 11:15 AM, I'll
be giving my "Inside iPhoto 5" talk in the Users Conference.
Then, from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM at the Macworld Speakers booth
(#433), Tonya and I will be answering questions about TidBITS
and Take Control, signing books, and generally chatting about
the show. Then, at 6:00 PM, I'll be talking to the Boston
Macintosh User Group in room 106 of the Hynes Convention
Center, probably about iPhoto, wireless network security,
and Take Control.
<http://www.macworldexpo.com/dev/20/events/20BOS05A/conference/tracksessions/
Digital+Photography/QMONYA04NPXX>
<http://www.macworldexpo.com/live/20/events/20BOS05A/SN287250/CC999970>
<http://www.bmac.org/>
If you're sensing a pattern of what I'm talking about, that's just
what I have prepared, and I'm happy in the general sessions to
veer off onto any topic you like, so please bring your questions
and feedback about our work. See you next week, and for those not
attending, note that my email responsiveness will be minimal the
entire week.
Smith Micro Acquires Allume
---------------------------
by Geoff Duncan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Smith Micro Software, Inc. announced its acquisition of Allume
Systems, Inc. for $11 million in cash and $1.75 million in Smith
Micro stock. Allume, formerly known as Aladdin Systems, is the
maker of long-standard StuffIt compression products as well as
Spring Cleaning and a number of other Macintosh utilities. The
company also recently took over distribution of Corel's graphic
products for the Mac under the name Creative Essentials, including
CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT. Allume was previously acquired by
International Microcomputer Software, Inc. (IMSI) in August 2004.
<http://www.smithmicro.com/default.tpl?group=news_full&id1=273&id2=13>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07806>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07773>
Smith Micro's interest in Allume focuses on the company's
development of a new JPEG compression technology that further
reduces image sizes by up to 30 percent without additional loss
of image quality. Smith Micro plans to license the technology
to wireless operators and handset makers, as well as apply it
to MPEG video and MP3 audio along with images.
In the Mac world, the acquisition will no doubt cause some
trepidation. Allume has a long history with the Macintosh:
for instance, its StuffIt compression technology served as the
de facto standard for Macs beginning in 1986, and the ubiquitous
StuffIt Expander has long been a part of every Mac user's toolkit.
Conversely, in the Mac world Smith Micro is best-known (if not
well-loved) for its FAXstf line of fax software products, although
the company also develops QuickConnect connectivity software for
wireless devices. At present Smith Micro seems to plan to keep
Allume's products around in their current forms; considering that
Allume accounted for about $2.5 million of IMSI's revenues during
the first quarter of 2005, it seems unlikely Smith Micro will
simply turn off the tantalizing, pre-existing revenue stream
represented by Allume's existing products.
Apple iTMS Giveaway: Only Ten iPods?
------------------------------------
by Geoff Duncan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Apple's approaching another milestone with its iTunes Music Store:
selling its 500 millionth track. In celebration, Apple has set up
an online song counter so customers can see just how fast the 500
million mark is approaching. The tally's up to 491,295,326 as of
this writing, and the counter is visible on the front door of the
iTunes Music Store, as well as Apple's home page (so long as
you're using a new-enough Web browser).
<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/jul/05itms_live8.html>
As part of the countdown Apple is once again giving away prizes
to customers whose purchase(s) happen to span a nice round number.
Customers who buy a track at a 100,000th song interval will
receive an iPod mini and a 50-song iTMS gift card, but the real
prize goes to the purchaser of the 500 millionth track: a whopping
10 iPods of their choice, a 10,000-song iTMS gift card, and an
all-expenses-paid trip for four to see the band Coldplay perform
on their current world tour.
My question is: Doesn't 10 iPods seem like an awkward first prize?
Apple can't spring for some iPod-enabled clothing (iPod socks!),
add-ons, or boomboxes? Maybe an iPod-enabled BMW to go along with
them? What do you do with 10 iPods? Giving them to family and
friends, as Apple suggests, seems like it could be a recipe for
disaster. After all, those folks know you have 10,000 free songs
coming to you, and outnumber you as much as ten-to-one: you could
easily be left high and dry. And the members of Coldplay already
have iPods of their own if they want them, so the iPods probably
aren't an effective lure to get them to sign some part of your
body with a Sharpie. The burdens we bear in this digital age
just keep getting stranger.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07889>
Free Corporate-Grade Wi-Fi Security from WiTopia
------------------------------------------------
by Glenn Fleishman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The folks at WiTopia, a group that sells personal and small-office
scale network security tools, are offering their WPA Enterprise
service for Wi-Fi networks of up to five users and a single base
station at no cost for a year. This is a boon to small networks
because it allows you to have high-level security for each user -
even if it's just you - without having to create and enter
encryption keys.
<http://witopia.net/aboutsecuremy.html>
WiTopia uses WPA Enterprise, which combines the strong encryption
found in the algorithm used in WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) with
individual usernames and passwords. Mac OS X 10.4 supports WPA
Enterprise; Mac OS X 10.3 works too, with the latest AirPort
firmware and software. When you connect to a Wi-Fi network that
uses WPA Enterprise, Mac OS X prompts you for your username
and password. If you enter your credentials correctly, the
access point assigns you a unique encryption key - no one on
the network shares that key with anyone else on the network.
This effectively gives you a secure wireless link that can't
be sniffed. (Someone can sniff at the Ethernet port if they
have physical access, of course.)
WiTopia maintains your information on their servers, which you
access in two different ways. To add, change, and remove users,
you access their secure Web site and use a simple interface.
Your access point also directly access a separate, secure
authentication server using a separate password they provide
(a shared secret) to confirm a user's login details when they
connect to the wireless network. (A WiTopia staffer pointed
out that an AirPort Express can become a portable secure WPA
Enterprise network: if it's configured to point to their servers,
all it needs is to plug into an Internet-connected Ethernet
network that assigns it a valid local address, and it's secured.)
The one drawback to their service is that a bug in how AirPort
Admin Utility works with the latest few releases of the firmware
for the AirPort Extreme Base Station prevents easy entry of the
shared secret. It's Apple's bug, and I alerted Apple months ago
with no results. WiTopia has a workaround involving Apple's free
AirPort Management Utility that's not too inconvenient, and you
enter the shared secret only once during setup. They document
the workaround on their support forums.
<http://forums.witopia.net/viewtopic.php?t=11>
This $29 per year starter package comes with a $29-off coupon,
making it free for the first year for up to five users and a
single base station. Base stations cost $10 per year extra each,
and additional blocks of five users are $5 per year each.
<http://www.witopia.net/cart/cgi-bin/cp-app.cgi?pg=prod&ref=smwf>
Sleeptracker: How Dick Tracy Goes to Sleep
------------------------------------------
by Andrew Laurence <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
If you're like me, an alarm clock wakes you at the same time five
days a week. Usually I feel like I've been kicked in the head
by a mule. I have to sit on the bed for a spell before my brain
realizes that the eyes are open and it's time to start processing
data. But on other days, I awake fully refreshed. I go to bed
at roughly the same time every night, however, and the morning's
outcome doesn't correlate with the time at which my head actually
hits the pillow.
I never gave the "mule kick" phenomenon much thought until I read
about the Sleeptracker from Innovative Sleep Solutions, a device
that claims to have powers and abilities far beyond those of
mortal alarm clocks: instead of sounding klaxons at an arbitrary
time, it wakes you at the optimal time for you, and you awake
feeling fully refreshed. Sounds like hokum, you say? That's what
I thought.
<http://www.sleeptracker.com/>
**Deep Background on Dozing** -- First, a bit about sleep cycles.
As we sleep, the body passes through a set of cycles that govern
sleep's restfulness, recuperative powers, and dreams. Sleep is
considered to be divided into five stages of varying levels of
activity and restfulness.
Stage 1 is a transitional state in which the body relaxes and the
heart rate slows, until you arrive at stage 2, or baseline sleep.
From stage 2 the sleep becomes increasingly relaxed and the heart
rate slows further, until you reach stages 3 and 4, or delta
sleep; delta sleep is the deepest sleep. It's very hard to wake
a person in delta sleep, and such a person is usually disoriented
to find themselves awake. Stage 5 is REM, or "rapid eye movement,"
the stage in which dreams occur. REM sleep is considerably less
deep than stage 4; it's actually closer to awake than stage 2's
baseline sleep. After the REM stage, we return to stage 1 and
the cycle begins anew. The average adult goes through four to
five such cycles over the course of eight hours' sleep.
<http://library.thinkquest.org/26459/basics/>
Over the course of a night's sleep, the overall cycle lessens in
duration and depth, until we finally awake in the morning. While
the first cycle might take two hours, thirty minutes of which are
in delta sleep, the last cycle might be only half an hour and be
no deeper than Stage 2.
**Counting Sleep from Your Wrist** -- The Sleeptracker looks and
is worn like a wristwatch, but not a particularly flashy or
stylish one - by all appearances it's an average, non-interesting
digital watch. It doesn't have features you'd normally expect
in a digital watch - no stopwatch, 24-hour clock, countdown
timer or multiple time zones - because it's really marketed
as a sleep aid.
To use the Sleeptracker, you set the time at which you want to
be awake - probably the time for which you'd set a normal alarm
clock. You also set the interval leading up to the alarm time,
during which the Sleeptracker may wake you, and the time at which
you'll go to bed at night. (This last time is required so that
it knows when to start monitoring.) During the night the
Sleeptracker's accelerometer monitors your physical activity,
and from that determines the peaks in your sleep cycles. As your
target wake time approaches, the alarm goes off at a time during
the specified interval in which you are closest to being awake.
If your sleep cycle doesn't supply an "almost awake" peak during
the interval, Sleeptracker goes off at the designated wake time.
It also has a Data screen that lets you review the peaks in the
last night's sleep cycles.
Does it work? Actually, it does. If I set the Sleeptracker to wake
me up no later than 6:30 AM, with a wake interval of 30 minutes,
it usually gets me up around 6:20, without that mule-kicked
sensation. (I know from experience that, had my normal alarm gone
off at 6:30, I'd sit on the bed for 15 to 20 minutes waiting for
the cobwebs to clear.) To wake up 10 minutes earlier and feel
fine, well, it feels wrong on some basic cosmic level. What's
more, the next day I feel generally more alert, drink less coffee
to "stay sharp," and I don't sneak a nap when going out to
"get some air."
So, it works, but it's not a panacea for getting enough sleep, and
it doesn't cure my penchant for being a night owl. It doesn't help
you get to sleep at a decent hour, and it doesn't make four hours
feel like eight. My wife wishes it had a buzz option instead of
beeping. (She doesn't seem to mind our clock radio alarm, perhaps
because she's used to ignoring it.) On a couple occasions I slept
through the beeping, because my arm was either under several
layers of blankets or a couple pillows; my wife wouldn't like
a louder beep, but it might be a good idea for me.
As a $150 wristwatch, Sleeptracker seems ludicrously expensive.
As a $150 sleep aid that helps you wake up feeling refreshed,
it might be a fair price. Adjust your expectations accordingly.
[Alternatively, Tonya and I highly recommend falling asleep to
an audio book, which helps us fall asleep faster and wake up
more easily. See "iPods Defeating Insomnia" in TidBITS-768_.
-Adam]
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08004>
Sleeptracker does what it claims: it wakes you up at the optimal
time. My inner geek is always excited by new opportunities for
optimization, but I still wonder... what if I just went to bed
at a decent hour?
[Andrew Laurence is a writer and editor at modmini.com, which
provides in-depth Mac mini reviews and analysis.]
<http://www.modmini.com/>
Roomba: a Robot Underfoot
-------------------------
by Tonya Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Pop quiz: can you think of a round, computer-driven device that
has four buttons, is not made by Apple, and ought to be in every
household by the end of the decade? In case you don't pay much
attention to the domestic scene - and by domestic, I mean the
low-down world of dust bunnies, dog hair, and cookie crumbs -
the answer is Roomba, the robotic vacuum cleaner from iRobot.
<http://www.irobot.com/consumer/>
Roomba is about the size of a medium pizza, and about as thick as
a pizza box. Its four buttons - Power, Clean, Spot, and Max - make
it possible for virtually anyone to vacuum a floor with minimal
effort. Plus, that someone doesn't have to be a geek. All he has
to do is put Roomba on the floor, press Power, press Clean, and
walk away. Sound too good to be true? It's not.
The low-end Roomba model, the Roomba Red, costs about $150. At the
high end, you can pay as much as $300 for the Discovery SE. The
primary differences among the models, besides their colors, are
which accessories they come with. (Roomba is readily available
in the U.S.; the International page of the iRobot Web site - found
via the About iRobot link - has Web URLs for European, Australian,
Japanese, and a few other distributors.)
<http://www.irobot.com/about/international.cfm>
I received the Roomba Discovery, a mid-priced, second-generation
model, for Christmas last year. I was initially concerned about
all the batteries and running the remote, and if it would prove
to be yet another gizmo that didn't live up to its promise, but
I've found that it not only does the job well, it also does the
job with cheerful enthusiasm. Roomba is my first experience with
owning a robot, and I appreciate that it saves me time instead of
giving me more to do. And if you don't believe me about its good
cheer, listen to Roomba's chirps and see it in action on the
iRobot Web site.
<http://www.irobot.com/consumer/product_detail.cfm?prodid=18>
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00022HYJ6/tidbitselectro00/
ref%3Dnosim/>
<http://www.irobot.com/consumer/what_Roomba_says.cfm>
<http://www.irobot.com/community/commercial_qt.cfm>
You don't have to be the sort who can program a digital watch or
run a VCR to run Roomba, though it wouldn't hurt. Although I am
the Roomba expert in our household, primarily because I figured
out how to clean it and how to set up its floor-based docking
station so that it returns to it automatically after vacuuming
to re-charge, I have yet to investigate some aspects of its
operation, including the point of the aforementioned Max button
and the use of the remote control.
**Preparing to Run Roomba** -- Before you let Roomba loose, you
must pick up the usual clutter that infests everyone's floors:
magazines, rubber bands, drinking glasses, and so on. This step
is far more important than when you're using a regular vacuum,
because you know enough to vacuum around clutter, if necessary.
Roomba lacks common sense and will cheerfully attempt to vacuum
anything in its reach, including shoelaces and electrical cables.
In fact, running Roomba in my and Adam's offices is challenging
because we have so many cables and fragile electronic devices.
In my office, I made a wall out of old computer books to protect
the cables under my desk and positioned a recycling bin in front
of the cable nest that connects my office and printer into the
network. I also worry about Roomba bumping into my Mac, which sits
on the floor, so I always block that off as well. I keep Roomba
out of about a third of Adam's office because he has far too many
cables snaking around the base of his desk. With a normal vacuum
I might spot-clean around the cables, but now I use a virtual wall
to protect them from Roomba. The Roomba Discovery comes with two
virtual walls, small plastic boxes that shoot an infrared beam up
to 8 feet long. Roomba will not cross the beam, and it's important
to use them to keep Roomba away from trouble; a friend reported
that her Roomba met a bad end when she accidentally let it get
into her fireplace.
**Running Roomba** -- Watching Roomba vacuum is like watching
an engrossing screen saver. It usually starts moving around
on the floor in a tight spiral, but then, for no particular
reason, travels in a straight line until it hits a wall or
other obstruction, such as a table leg. It then bounces off at
a random angle and goes straight until it hits something else.
If it encounters a particularly dirty spot, its Dirt Alert light
goes on and it circles tightly on that spot for a few moments.
It goes on like this, moving among the different rooms that it
can reach, until it thinks it is done. My son, Tristan, who is
6 years old, loves to watch Roomba, especially if I let him run
around positioning his feet so that it can go under his legs like
a boat under a bridge. You can also let it bump into your feet
(probably best if you're wearing shoes); it's a bit like having
a small animal in the room with you. Roomba demos well, but I
urge caution if a lot of children are around, since they will
want to play with it. The directions for Roomba, alas, note
that children should not ride it.
Our cat, who is easily scared, will leave the room if Roomba is
running, but he otherwise ignores it. Some dogs, however, have
a more dramatic reaction, as you can see in these videos:
<http://www.ljcfyi.com/2005/04/for-small-dog-oscar-sheds-excessive.html>
<http://stevenf.com/downloads/sophie-vs-roomba.mov>
Different people report different satisfaction levels with the
quality of the cleaning that Roomba does. Overall, I think it does
as good a job as I would. Roomba occasionally misses an obvious
piece of dirt that a person would always get with an extra pass
from a normal vacuum, but it also has no problem with vacuuming
under the couch, which, honestly, I'd do at most once per year.
Roomba has "cliff" sensors that help it avoid falling over the
edge of a staircase. Our dining room is separated from the living
room by two separate four-step staircases, and it has almost
fallen down several times, probably because the steps are tile,
with extremely rounded edges. It drives a little bit too far over
the edge and then hangs over or topples down, half onto the first
stair. At that point, it shuts down its wheels and vacuum and
chirps for help. If I plan to be home when Roomba is working,
I figure I'll rescue it if it has trouble; if we're out while
it's going to be working, I set up the virtual walls.
Roomba works well on our wood floors, wall-to-wall carpeting, and
uneven tile floors. I've had poor luck with it on a new area rug:
although it can usually negotiate the one-inch height difference
between the tile and the rug, it often leaves crumbs and bits
of new-carpet fluff on the tile next to the rug, necessitating
a quick run with the traditional vacuum to finish the job. I have
to roll up one other area rug, because it has fringes, which
Roomba would undoubtedly eat. We'll eventually replace it with
one that Roomba can manage.
Roomba does a great job on the fur from our long-haired cat, and
friends who have a dog that sheds constantly (plus three children)
report running their Roomba every morning before leaving the
house, just to keep the dog fur under control. They went through
three units of a first-generation Roomba model, and the only thing
they didn't like about it was waiting to get it back after it
broke under warranty. Roomba also picks up human hair, but my
shoulder length hair tends to get wound up in Roomba's rollers,
and it's best to clean Roomba right away after cleaning our
bedroom or my office.
Besides the regular cleaning mode, Roomba also has a Spot mode,
which you trigger by pressing the Spot button. Spot mode is for
small messes that you want to vacuum quickly. Max mode (which
I learned about by reading the 8-page manual) causes Roomba to
run for longer than it would otherwise, presumably to clean up
a truly bad mess.
Roomba is quieter than my relatively new Kenmore canister vacuum,
and a lot quieter than my former Eureka upright. Still, it makes
too much noise for most people to want to spend time in the same
room with it for long, and if your home has an open floor plan,
that may mean that you'd prefer to be elsewhere while it works.
Although our house has four levels, three of them are basically
"downstairs," and open to each other. The upstairs hallway is
separated from downstairs by only a waist-high wall. I can ignore
the noise level if I am upstairs in my office, with the door
closed, while Roomba works downstairs, or if it's upstairs
vacuuming behind a closed door while I am downstairs.
**Cleaning Roomba** -- Roomba stores vacuumed-up debris inside its
case, and needs to be emptied much more often than you'd change
a vacuum cleaner bag. I've found that it works best to empty it
after each big vacuuming session. The debris bin pulls out like
a drawer, so it's easy to extract it, remove the filter, and dump
the debris into the garbage. You're supposed to change the filter
every one or two months, and a three-pack of filters costs $15.
You must also clean the two rollers and four sensors. Cleaning
the sensors is quick, but the rollers take some effort. I often
cut cat and human hair out of them.
The first time I cleaned Roomba, a little yellow cap fell off the
end of one of the rollers. I discovered a wad of my hair in the
hole where the cap connects to the roller, and it appeared that
the hair had pushed the cap off kilter. I used a toothpick to
remove the hair from the hole, but the cap wouldn't fit back on
quite properly after that. Roomba operated just fine, but the
cap often fell into the garbage accidentally as I was cleaning.
I finally called Roomba customer service to find out if the
yellow cap was supposed to be loose. Emily, a friendly customer
representative, verified that the cap should stay on properly
and promised to send me a new roller. Assuming the roller
arrives reasonably soon, the customer service was excellent.
I sense that Roomba's main weakness lies in the sturdiness
of its parts, and that was the consensus of advice that Adam
received when he was researching the purchase, although the
second generation Roomba models appear to be more solid than
the initial generation. Based on this advice, Adam purchased
my Roomba at Sears and spent $40 more to get an immediate
replacement warranty that lasts for two years.
**Wrap Up** -- Much of what prevents me from running Roomba
routinely is that my house has too many levels and requires
too much prep before it can run. If I lived in a single-level
home, I'd probably position the docking station under the couch,
learn how to use the remote, and turn it on every time we left
the house.
When talking about Roomba, it's easy to say, "You just press
a button, walk away, and return to a clean home." In our house,
with its four levels, child-related clutter, and throw rug,
prep time can end up being longer than you might anticipate.
Even so, setting Roomba loose is vastly easier than the noisy
tedium of running a regular vacuum. The testimonials section
on the iRobot Web site includes several notes that discuss how
Roomba is especially helpful for the elderly or people with bad
backs or more serious physical difficulties, since it takes most
of the physical labor out of vacuuming.
iRobot continues to improve the Roomba line. In August 2005,
iRobot plans to release a new model, the Roomba Scheduler, which
will come with a remote control and virtual walls that you can
use to schedule when it runs. The company will also release a new,
$60 remote control and virtual wall set for several existing
Roombas that will allow them to be scheduled. The scheduling
feature isn't all that exciting to me, because of the necessary
preparation. I'm more excited about the soon-to-be-released
Scooba, which will vacuum, wash, and dry the floor, all in
one pass. Roomba has improved the cleanliness of our floors,
but since most of the downstairs is tile, mopping is needed
far more frequently than we get around to it.
<http://www.irobot.com/consumer/scooba_sneak_preview.cfm>
Although it would be enough if Roomba just cleaned the floor,
what makes Roomba a great product is that it is pleasing to
use. It doesn't require anyone to install drivers or update
an operating system, the interface is simple to understand,
and it makes cute noises. In the end, it's telling that we've
anthropomorphized this little device so much; we always call
it "Roomba" or "she" rather than "the Roomba," we reflexively
say "Thank you!" when we return home to a clean floor, and
we always rush to help it upon hearing a "Help me!" chirp.
But the fact is, Roomba is the first new piece of technology
we've found that, like the washing machine, dryer, and dishwasher,
actually improves our domestic lives. As such, I can recommend
Roomba highly to anyone who would like a hand with the chore
of vacuuming.
Take Control News/11-Jul-05
---------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
**"Take Control of Buying a Mac" Updated** -- The last Macworld
Expo in San Francisco saw the release of the Mac mini, and Apple's
Worldwide Developer Conference last month brought us the news that
Apple would be transitioning the Macintosh to use CPUs from Intel
in place of IBM's PowerPC chip. I've now updated my "Take Control
of Buying a Mac" ebook to take account of these important events.
The update also builds the Mac mini into the buying discussions;
updates details that have changed since the previous update; and
includes information about Apple's Government Stores as a way for
U.S. local, state, and federal government employees to buy Macs at
a discount. Those who have purchased the ebook may access the free
update by clicking the Check for Updates button on the cover of
the ebook; for anyone who hasn't yet bought a copy, it's $5 and
includes a coupon worth $5 off any order at Small Dog Electronics,
making the book free if you buy through Small Dog.
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/buying-mac.html>
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/11-Jul-05
------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The second URL below each thread description points to the
discussion on our Web Crossing server, which will be faster.
**Modifying Microsoft Word for the elderly** -- An 80-year-old man
who is new to the Mac needs help viewing the text cursor in Word,
as well as formatting text; TidBITS Talk readers provide
solutions. (7 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2646>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/498/>
**Apple Releases iTunes 4.9 with Podcasting Support** -- Following
last week's article about iTunes 4.9, readers discuss the types
of shows available and how to deal with future for-fee podcasts.
(5 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2647>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/499/>
$$
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