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NASA's latest space station cargo includes a 3D printing system for lunar soil
'Madden NFL' now has a soundtrack album
Apple ordered to pay $300 million in LTE patent dispute
HBO Max will reportedly overhaul its smart TV apps in the next few months
Matter smart home networking standard delayed to 2022
ICYMI: We listened to Samsung’s $150 Galaxy Buds 2
Reddit iOS app now includes a TikTok-style video feed
Twitter tones down new buttons after complaints of eye strain
Hitting the Books: How a radio telescope cost this West Virginia town its modernity
iRobot's high-end Roomba i7+ and S9+ are up to $150 off at Wellbots

NASA's latest space station cargo includes a 3D printing system for lunar soil

Posted: 14 Aug 2021 02:53 PM PDT

NASA has edged one step closer to building Moon and Mars colonies using the celestial bodies' soil. Universe Todaynotes that NASA's latest International Space Station resupply mission included a machine meant to demonstrate 3D printing regolith (that is, loose soil or rock) on the Moon and similar extraterrestrial surfaces.

The Redwire Regolith Print (RRP) project will work in tandem with an existing printer system (ManD) to try 3D printing simulated regolith. If that succeeds, the ISS crew will gauge the strength of the resulting material to see if it can handle the harsh conditions beyond Earth.

If all goes well, RRP could lead to colonists printing at least some of their habitats on-demand. That, in turn, could reduce the volume of construction supplies NASA brings to the Moon and Mars. Scientists have envisioned soil-based habitats for years, but this test is relatively realistic — it's an attempt at 3D printing soil in lower gravity. While there will still be much work to do, the long-term goals for Artemis and future Mars missions may be that much more achievable.

'Madden NFL' now has a soundtrack album

Posted: 14 Aug 2021 01:33 PM PDT

You'd think EA would have released a Madden NFL soundtrack years ago given its penchant for licensed music, but no — it's only getting to that now. The publisher has teamed with Interscope Records to release its first album for the football game franchise, Madden NFL 22: The Soundtrack. The title unsurprisingly tries to walk the line between big names and indie cred with artists like Swae Lee, Tierra Whack and multiple up-and-comers.

The full game will include more than 50 extra tracks while you're playing the new Yard mode, including originals from artists like Killer Mike and hit-of-the-moment songs from the likes of Drake and Lil Baby.

You can stream or buy the soundtrack through common services like Apple Music, Spotify and Deezer. This probably won't convince you to buy Madden if you weren't already sold on the formula, but that's not really the point. Much like other game soundtracks, it's another way to capitalize on the game beyond the usual sales.

Apple ordered to pay $300 million in LTE patent dispute

Posted: 14 Aug 2021 12:38 PM PDT

Apple will have to pay another company a handsome amount to keep using certain wireless tech. Bloomberg and The Register report that a Texas jury has determined that Apple must pay patent firm Optis $300 million for allegedly violating patents covering LTE cellular service in devices like the iPhone and iPad. A jury had awarded Optis just over $506 million in 2020, but the judge in the case ordered a damages-only trial over concerns the earlier jurors hadn't considered whether the demand was fair for standards-based patents.

Optis is also chasing Apple in the UK, where it hopes to set a global royalty rate that could net up to $7 billion. Its patents come from other companies, including LG, Panasonic and Samsung.

Apple still intends to fight back. The tech giant accused Optis of being a patent troll in a statement, noting that the firm exists solely to sue companies using purchased patents. Apple would keep resisting Optis' efforts to obtain "unreasonable payments" for patents, the iPhone maker said.

As The Register notes, the $300 million payout will barely make a mark on Apple's finances. The company made $21.7 billion in net income just in its latest quarter — the Optis payment will represent slightly over one day's profits. The concern, of course, is that Optis will succeed in getting regular payments that could add to Apple's costs and drive hardware prices upward.

HBO Max will reportedly overhaul its smart TV apps in the next few months

Posted: 14 Aug 2021 10:32 AM PDT

The HBO Max smart TV apps have been less than reliable, to put it mildly, but WarnerMedia appears ready to turn things around. An anonymous WarnerMedia executive talking to Vulture claims the HBO Max team will replace all its smart TV apps with brand new versions inside of the "next four or five months." Roku and PlayStation owners would receive the overhauled apps first, followed by Apple TV users near the end of 2021. Mobile and web viewers would have to wait until early 2022.

The existing apps have suffered from a number of serious flaws, ranging from broken playback controls to forgotten settings and sluggishness. Roku users have faced more problems than most, with lockups and crashes sometimes making the HBO Max app unusable.

The problems reportedly stem from WarnerMedia's scramble to launch HBO Max in May. Where many rivals built their streaming apps from scratch, the current HBO Max app is a repurposed version of the software meant for HBO Go and HBO Now. It was built to handle high demand, but it wasn't meant to cope with an increasingly global audience streaming much more than Game of Thrones.

An HBO Max app revamp will supposedly provide both modern underpinnings and, importantly, room to grow. The unnamed executive said the new app won't look much different at first, but should allow for a more "sophisticated" interface update as well as new and upgraded features.

If accurate, this could be important to HBO Max's long-term future. The TV streaming space is increasingly crowded with rivals like Paramount+ and Peacock joining incumbents like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. You might easily lose interest in HBO Max if buggy apps sour the experience, no matter how alluring the content might be — and that will be particularly important once WarnerMedia stops releasing brand new movies on the service.

Matter smart home networking standard delayed to 2022

Posted: 14 Aug 2021 09:44 AM PDT

You'll have to wait a while longer for the Matter standard to usher in a (hopefully) more harmonious smart home. The Connectivity Standards Alliance has delayed Matter's rollout from late 2021 to the first half of 2022. Members need more time to ensure the development kit and other tools can match the "expectations of the market," according to the CSA.

A rough version of the Matter specification should be ready by the end of 2021, but the kit, first device certifications and a formal certification program will take a while longer. The longer timelines for those elements should not only boost quality, but ensure they're "deployable at scale," the CSA added.

The delay might be important. Matter is designed to not only ensure more consistent and reliable smart home networking, but to speed up development through open source tools. Amazon, Apple, Google and many smart home device makers (such as Nanoleaf and Signify) are already committed to Matter. If the standard is going to see widespread adoption, it needs to work well from the start — the extra time could help achieve that goal.

ICYMI: We listened to Samsung’s $150 Galaxy Buds 2

Posted: 14 Aug 2021 09:00 AM PDT

After a brief hiatus, ICYMI is back to give you a helpful summary of all the gadgets and gizmos we've put to the test recently. This week, Billy Steele lent his ears to Samsung's new entry level Galaxy Buds 2 to check out their new design and features. A little while ago, Terrence O'Brien created beautiful music on the Novation Circuit Rhythm sampler and struggled with the controls on the SkulptSynth SE. Devindra Hardawar also experienced immersive VR courtesy of two professional headsets from HTC. Lastly, Daniel Cooper checked out Framework's repairable laptop to see just how easy it is to customize and fix.

Samsung's Galaxy Buds 2 offer premium features at an affordable price

Affordable wireless earbuds often come with compromises, but Billy Steele feels that Samsung has found a winning combination with the Galaxy Buds 2. Redesigned to include wireless charging and ambient sound at an entry-level price of $150, the Galaxy Buds 2 are 15 percent smaller and 20 percent lighter than the Galaxy Buds+, which makes them comfortable to wear. Billy says that the sound quality, though improved, doesn't have quite the same clarity and depth, but the dynamic range is comparable. Low-end tones lack punch and tracks that should sound big and bombastic are a bit flat and subdued.

That being said, he was still impressed by the inclusion of active noise-cancellation, which Samsung says can reduce 98 percent of background noise. Billy could still hear a bit of his box fans and white noise machine during testing, but the feature was definitely better than relying solely on passive isolation. He felt that Samsung delivered on the call quality improvements as well, via a combination of machine learning, three microphones per bud and a voice-pickup unit to maximize clarity. He managed to get around seven hours of battery life from "regular" use (which included some ANC), but was disappointed that the Buds 2 only have an IPX2 rating, which could produce issues during sweaty workout.

HTC's Vive Pro 2 produces an incredible virtual reality experience — but it comes at a steep price

Devindra Hardawar liked HTC's Vive Pro 2 VR headset so much he called it "an enthusiast's dream." However, he's quick to point out that its $1,399 price tag makes it a tough sell. The Vive Pro 2 offers a 5K 120Hz display with 2,448 x 2,448 pixels per eye. Additionally, the LCDs have RGB sub-pixels that help to produce the sharpest desktop VR experience that he's ever seen. It also has solid ergonomics — Devindra says the headset is comfortable to wear for extended sessions due to its weight distribution and its plush cushioning on the front and back.

But even if you're prepared to shell out for the headset, Devindra admits it comes with some drawbacks. First, the controllers are the same archaic, oversized ones that came with the original 2016 Vive. He also felt that the on-ear headphones produced some heat during use, as did the displays. But the biggest issue is the graphics power necessary to experience the device in its full glory: Devindra says you can probably forget about getting anything truly usable out of the system's minimum requirements, which means you'll need a lot of desktop power to get the most out of the Vive Pro 2. Despite those hurdles, he's quick to call the Vive Pro 2 the highest quality desktop VR available right now.

Framework's modular laptop can be repaired by anyone

Framework's laptop isn't eye-catching or showy. The design of the 13-inch notebook resembles an older MacBook, but with one noteworthy difference: it's intended to be modded and repaired via the included Torx T5 screwdriver and the expansion cards. While testing how easy it was to replace a keyboard, Daniel Cooper said he felt fully confident that he could make multiple repairs to the machine — something that can't be said for most consumer laptops.

In addition to being easy to upgrade and fix, the Framework features a solid spec list: a 13.5-inch, 3:2, 2,256 x 1,504 display with a backlight capable of 400 nits; a variety of inputs via the expansion cards as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack; a chiclet keyboard with 1.5mm of travel and an impressive 1080p, 60fps webcam with an 80-degree field of view. During testing, the $1,399 Performance model handled undemanding games well and scored an average 4927 in PC Mark 10. The only thing Daniel didn't enjoy about the machine were the side-firing speakers, which produced weak, tinny sound.

The HTC Vive Focus 3 is a premium VR workhorse

Much like the Vive Pro 2, HTC's Vive Focus 3 isn't intended for the casual consumer. The $1,300 price point alone puts it on another level, likely best for business users who should be pleased with the superior hardware, ergonomics and build quality. Devindra Hardawar says the system has just about everything you would want in a modern headset: a sturdy yet light build with a design that's comfortable to wear for long periods of time, and even has support for large glasses.

With a 5K resolution, a 90Hz refresh rate and a 120-degree field of view, the Vive Pro 2 delivered one of the most immersive standalone VR experiences that Devindra has seen. He had a realistic sense of walking through meadows and beaches in a nature trek VR program, and said he was consistently impressed by how great everything looked. However, he was disappointed by the limited software library that required him to remove the headset to purchase apps and games. After his time with the Focus 3, Devindra heartily felt that it is an ideal set up for companies who can take advantage of the business-focused apps and the hardware quality without cringing at the price point.

The SkulptSynth SE is a formidable sound engine

As a follow up to the original Skulpt, the SkulptSynth SE makes some upgrades to the build quality but comes in more affordable at $199. Terrence O'Brien spent some time with the instrument and determined that it's still as powerful, compelling and confusing as the previous version. The SE features a total of 32 oscillators stacked in four voices which produces a thick tone that Terrence called inviting. He says the SE shines when the stacked oscillators are given a chance to really flesh out the sound. He also approved of the various modulation options, which give the device a surprising amount of depth.

Despite the improvements in the hardware (specifically firmer knobs), Terrence said that the SE still felt pretty wobbly and cheap overall. And he was still frustrated by the cramped layout and the navigation of the controls — he recommends keeping the included cheat sheet at hand to help with the latter. Additionally, the touch keyboard wasn't always super responsive. However, using the app solved a lot of his complaints and he was excited about the MPE support, which is unheard of at the SE's price point.

Intel's NUC 11 Extreme offers gamers a full sized GPU

Intel NUC 11 Extreme mini gaming desktop

Devindra Hardawar is quick to acknowledge that the new NUC 11 Extreme, aka "Beast Canyon," is pretty sizable. However, he feels the trade-off is worth it because the design provides support for a full GPU — something that should attract gamers to the unit. It's also a bit cheaper than the last model and more flexible due to the fast 11th-gen Intel CPU (which can be purchased separately as an upgrade for NUC 9 Extreme owners).

This NUC was clearly designed with gamers in mind with an LED skull on the black metal case, mesh air vents and three large fans on top. Devindra was pleased to report that the case cooling on the device was excellent: the GPU never went above 75 celsius and the CPU stayed under 80 celsius. Additionally, because of the thoughtful modular design, he had no trouble fitting in large GPUs like NVIDIA's RTX 3070 Ti or the Radeon RX 6800. The system also performed well in benchmark testing: in PCMark 10 it outpaced every Windows PC we've seen this year. Still, the $1,150 to $1,350 price tag for the NUC 11 is high, especially because owners will need to pay up for additional hardware and software.

The Novation Circuit Rhythm is entirely sample-based

Though physically similar to its cousin the Circuit Tracks, Novation's Circuit Rhythm uses the popular screen-free workflow of the Circuit with the full-featured sampler and performance effects of the SP-303 to produce a device that is ideal for lo-fi hip hop and house music. Terrence O'Brien particularly enjoyed this simple workflow as well as the sampling and slicing features that are fun to use.

The Circuit Rhythm has 32 RGB, velocity-sensitive pads, 28 buttons for switching views and tracks, eight endless encoders and two knobs for volume and master filter. Terrence says those eight monophonic sampler tracks are the core of the Rhythm, and he was also impressed with its portability and 3.5-hour battery life. Though he would like to see some additional features like more fine-grained temp control, overall he deemed the Circuit Rhythm a strong contender for best entry-level sampler, particularly for anyone interested in hip hop or house music creation.

Reddit iOS app now includes a TikTok-style video feed

Posted: 14 Aug 2021 08:47 AM PDT

Reddit is about to make video a cornerstone of its mobile app. The company told TechCrunch that it's rolling out a TikTok-like video feed to iOS app users through a dedicated section. Tap the button and you'll see a swipeable video collection from both the subreddits you've subscribed to as well as related communities. As usual, you can upvote, downvote, comment on or gift awards.

A basic version of this experience was available before, but only if you tapped on a video — and the first videos you'd see would come from the same subreddit. The new tab is meant to "bring community through video," according to a Reddit spokesperson, and that means creating a "unified" experience that matches what you expect from app-based video players.

Reddit didn't say when all iOS users could expect the feed, or when you'd see an Android version. The vido section first reached a handful of iOS devices sometime in July.

This isn't a shocking move. Reddit started toying with livestreams in 2019, and bought TikTok rival Dubsmash in December 2020. While that company's code isn't being used for the feed (that will come with future products), the acquisition signalled Reddit's intent — it wants to keep its social network relevant in an era when video is all-important. You might not see video take center stage, but it's now considerably more than a nice-to-have feature.

Twitter tones down new buttons after complaints of eye strain

Posted: 14 Aug 2021 08:44 AM PDT

A few days ago, Twitter rolled out a number of design updates meant to make the website more accessible. It introduced a new proprietary typeface and increased contrast to make buttons and other visual elements like images stand out. Just because those changes make the website more accessible for some people, though, doesn't mean they work for everyone. As TechCrunch and CNET note, complaints started pouring in after the update went out, with people reporting eye strain and headaches caused by the changes. Now, the social network has announced that it's adjusting its buttons' contrast levels to make them easier on the eyes.

We've identified issues with the Chirp font for Windows users and are actively working on a fix. Thanks for your patience and please let us know if you have additional feedback.
— Twitter Accessibility (@TwitterA11y) August 14, 2021

Twitter said it made the adjustment after people sent in complaints that the "new look is uncomfortable for people with sensory sensitivities." The company's accessibility account started asking for feedback a day after the updates went out, promising to track it all. Sounds like it's stayed true to its word, though the Chirp font remains even if it's supposedly giving people headaches. Twitter also hasn't changed the new colors for the Follow button, which has caused quite the confusion: The button is now filled in with black for accounts you've yet to follow and shows up with a white background for accounts you're already following. It used to be the other way around.

The company may release more fixes to its accessibility update in the future, though. It told TechCrunch that "feedback was sought from people with disabilities throughout the process, from the beginning." However, it knows that "people have different preferences and needs and [it] will continue to track feedback and refine the experience." Twitter added: "We realize we could get more feedback in the future and we'll work to do that."

Hitting the Books: How a radio telescope cost this West Virginia town its modernity

Posted: 14 Aug 2021 08:30 AM PDT

Deep in the heart of Appalachia, modern science and America's bucolic past meet at a unique crossroad of scientific discovery and luddite lifestyles. The Quiet Zone, by journalist Stephen Kurczy, is the story of a sleepy small town that hosts the Green Bank radio telescope. But the presence of this installation comes at a price: due to the telescope's exceeding sensitivity, virtually every device and appliance that emits radio waves, Wi-Fi signals, or microwave radiation is banned for square miles around. That means that Green Bank, West Virginia has about as much tech today as it did in the 1950's (maybe even a little less) — and some people very much like it that way. But not everybody. In the excerpt below, Pocahontas County attorney, Robert Martin, recounts the challenges of attempting to modernize the region without loosing a horde of gentrifiers upon it as well.

Excerpted from the book THE QUIET ZONE: Unraveling the Mystery of a Town Suspended in Silence by Stephen Kurczy. Copyright © 2021 by Stephen Kurczy. From Dey Street Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Reprinted by permission.

For every electrosensitive who wanted radio quiet, there were probably one hundred residents who wanted WiFi and cell service, and they elected the county's officials. In early 2018, the Pocahontas County Commission passed a resolution in support of cell service throughout the county, a challenge to the very notion of a Quiet Zone. The commission assigned its attorney, Robert Martin, to contact all major telecommunications providers asking them to invest in Pocahontas.

"I'm doing my level best to get another company in here," Martin told me in the spring of 2018. He'd invited me to his house to discuss the new cell service ordinance, and we were swigging Bud Lights at his kitchen table.

"How many cell companies have you written to?" I asked.

"All of them," he said. "I promised the companies that we'll get everybody in the damn county to sign up with them. I'll sign up first! . . . I wrote a letter to everybody and said, 'We have shit for cellphone service here, we want you to come in here, we'll partner with you, we'll help you however we can. Come in here.'"

At our feet were two boxers and a basset hound. In the adjacent mudroom was a 250-pound Vietnamese potbellied pig named Pig, who was snoring. Pig knew how to open the front door and pull a blanket over himself. "I'm the true image of West Virginia, aren't I?" Martin laughed. "I got a pig living in the house." Despite his home literally being a pigsty, Martin was always the best dressed at county meetings, usually wearing tight designer jeans, leather boots, and a crisp dress shirt, top buttons undone and a few chest hairs curling out. A blustery guy, Martin was once jailed in Marlinton for contempt of court for arguing with a circuit judge. He had a history of getting into fights at West Virginia University football games. For years, he'd also operated a hotel in Belize, paying "tens of thousands of dollars in bribes" and putting the payments on his tax returns so the U.S. government could see the corruption he was dealing with (even if he was admitting to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act). Martin came across as a dogged lawyer who knew how to get things done. And he wanted cell service.

"You seen that commercial saying Verizon has more coverage than anyone else?" he asked me. "Pause and look at it real closely, and you'll see right where Pocahontas County is because almost the entire Eastern Seaboard is all yellow [signifying cell coverage] and right there in southeastern West Virginia there's this hunk about this big—it's Poca-fucking-hontas County. I swear to God. Right fucking there we are on Verizon's commercials."

Martin knew well what connectivity was like outside the Quiet Zone. He had earned his law degree from West Virginia University in 1979, married a girl from Marlinton, and started his career in Pocahontas County before becoming a well-heeled insurance defense lawyer in Charleston. He'd gotten his first cellphone in 1986—it was the size of a beer bottle, with a three-foot-long antenna, and it went to bed with him every night. That attachment ended in 2012 when he moved back to Pocahontas, where he only carried an iPhone so he could listen to music in his truck. I asked if he was concerned about the impact of cell service on the electrosensitives.

"Wackos that are afraid of their brains getting fried and all that?" he responded. "Yeah, I know about them."

"They see Green Bank as a haven," I said.

"So? So?" He said he wasn't going to let the electrosensitives keep Pocahontas "behind the curve" for cell service.

"But I'm here because you're behind the curve," I said. "That makes this place unique."

"You think we want to deal with stone knives and axes for the rest of our existence? You're like these fucking people who move in here and don't want it to change, that it? We have people who have moved here in the last five to ten years and they don't want anything to change. They've 'discovered' Pocahontas County and now nothing can change. Well, fuck, that ain't the way of the world. We have limitations because of the observatory, because of our topography, because of our insignificant population. But we need to do what we can as government entities to make things available to people."

"Of course," Martin added, the cell service would have to comply with the Quiet Zone.

"We believe in the observatory, we don't want to fuck with them," he said. "Right now, as you and I are sitting here bullshitting, they're up there looking for fucking E.T. And I want to give them every opportunity to do that. But I've got emergency services I've got to render in this county."

In addition to trying to bring in cell service, Martin was assisting the county's emergency services director, Michael O'Brien, to improve communications. The 911 center in Marlinton had difficulty broadcasting any emergency radio communications toward the northern end of the county, where Green Bank was located. O'Brien found a partial solution by installing an internet-controlled radio system just north of Green Bank in the town of Durbin, but it had minimal range and failed altogether when internet or electricity went down. Pocahontas was also one of the only counties in the state unable to adopt a "smart radio system" that integrated radios with smartphones.

On the off chance that someone made an emergency 911 call from one of the county's few pockets of limited cell service, authorities had an especially hard time pinpointing the person's location. "We had a dispatcher spend two and a half hours on the phone one night with a lady that was trapped in her car in a creek," O'Brien told me. "She didn't know where she was or how she got there. We were just keeping her calm while we sent the department to look in all the areas that had cell service."

ACCORDING TO DELOIT TE, a 10 percent increase in mobile penetration increases total factor productivity—a key component of economic growth modeling—by 4.2 percentage points over the long run. In Pocahontas, businesspeople like Kenneth "Buster" Varner felt they needed all the help they could get to keep the county's economy puttering along, which meant bringing in cell service.

I first met Varner in early 2017, while eating breakfast at the counter at Station 2. A heavy, jowly man, he had leaned over and asked, "Do you think the gravy is too salty?" As we shoveled down heaping plates of biscuits and sausage gravy, he told me about his various businesses. Aside from owning Station 2, he operated a half dozen enterprises involved in logging, excavation, towing, septic pumping, and auto repair. He was also a fire chief. I told him that I imagined a lot of headaches trying to manage all those things within the restrictions of the Quiet Zone.

"You have to realize that we never had cellphone service when everybody else had it, so it wasn't anything to us," Varner said. "It'd be more convenient, of course, if it was so you could use your cellphones all the time. But it's a unique place to live where you don't have them, and we take a little pride in that." He noted how the observatory provided jobs and shared its resources, such as lending one of its diesel generators to a funeral home during a recent power outage. "That to me means a lot," Varner said. "And having the largest telescope in the world out your back door, that's a pretty neat conversation piece."

"People can get ahold of me the old-fashioned way," he added. "Call me on the landline or come look for me."

Spending more time with Varner, however, I realized that he was hardly a Luddite. When we met again months later in his cluttered office, I found it hard to keep his attention. He kept glancing down at his iPhone to check texts and alerts he was receiving over WiFi. When he took a call, I was left to stare at a poster of a busty woman in a red bikini and firefighter helmet. When he finally put down the iPhone, I told him I was confused. Hadn't he said he took pride in not using a cellphone?

"I thought it was rude to have a smartphone," Varner said of his "old" perspective, apparently from just a few months earlier. "I do a lot of business on that phone, more than I ever thought in my wildest dreams that I would do." I asked if he could ever go back to living without one. "Wouldn't want to. It's so handy."

Varner had an AT&T data plan. He used Siri. He wished all his employees and volunteer firefighters could always be connected through smartphones. Instead, because of the Quiet Zone, he'd invested more than $30,000 in a specially approved radio repeater system to allow his workers to communicate via low-band radio. "I don't want the observatory to close and for people to lose their jobs," he said, "but it'd be more convenient for everybody."

iRobot's high-end Roomba i7+ and S9+ are up to $150 off at Wellbots

Posted: 14 Aug 2021 06:00 AM PDT

We all could use a little help keeping our homes clean and a robot vacuum can do just that. Some robots, like iRobot's Roomba i7+ and S9+, go one step further by automatically emptying their bins into their clean bases after each job — so you rarely have to take out its trash. These gadgets come with high price tags, but you can grab either of them for less right now at Wellbots. The online retailer has the Roomba i7+ for $699, or $100 off, and the S9+ for $949, or $150 off, when you use the codes 100ENGADGET and 150ENGADGET, respectively, at checkout. While not all-time-low prices, they're the best prices we've seen since April.

Buy Roomba i7+ at Wellbots - $699 Buy Roomba S9+ at Wellbots - $949

The Roomba i7+ is one of the more expensive robot vacuums you can get from iRobot and we gave it a score of 87 when it first came out. Not only did it do a good job cleaning both carpeted and hard floors, but it was also quieter than other robot vacuums we've tested. The i7+ also has smart mapping technology so it can keep track of the rooms in your home to clean more efficiently. And like other robo-vacs, you can control the i7+ from your smartphone, plus set cleaning schedules, using the iRobot mobile app.

But the biggest thing that sets the i7+ apart from others is its clean base. After each job, the robot will automatically empty its bin into the clean base so you don't have to worry about it. The clean base itself can hold about 30 jobs worth of dirt, so it won't require constant attention either. The only downside are iRobot's proprietary bags that you'll have to buy for it.

Overall, the i7+ is a good pick if you want a robot vacuum that requires little attention on a daily basis. The Roomba S9+ has all of the same features plus a more corner-friendly design and "power-lift suction," which should help it do a better job deep-cleaning carpets and capturing pet hair.

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