Robotic vacuum cleaner

Now you’re talking, Walt: Mossberg reviews Roomba, a robotic vacuum cleaner (subscription required). This little guy, shaped like a UFO, rolls around on your floor in random patterns, bouncing off of obstacles, vacuuming as it goes. There are some drawbacks: Bits of string and such can choke it, and it got “beached” on the tapered base of a Scandinavian chair. Also, notes Mossberg, “it can get a little overzealous: Our test Roomba locked my assistant Katie out of her office by knocking away a rubber doorstop.” Probably it was pissed about that Scandinavian chair.

Here’s the company’s home page (warning: slow, excessively glitzy site; Flash required).