Roomba? No! ConnectR? iWant!
The other night on woot! I saw an offer for an older model Roomba. If you haven't heard of the Roomba, it's essentially a small automated vaccuum cleaner from iRobot. So, while I decided not to purchase ($150) I did spend some time looking around the iRobot site and stumbled upon the iRobot Create. Apparently as more and more people starting "hacking" the Roomba, iRobot decided to release a Roomba minus the vaccuum! After spending way too much time following links that night, I finally went to bed.
Yesterday, while browsing Engadget, I stumbled across this story about the next pair of items coming soon from iRobot. While the Looj bot looks hokey, IMHO, I think the ConnectR is going to rock! In fact, I applied to participate in the beta (and get one at a discounted $199).
Here's the scenario I'm thinking of. Telligent is based in Dallas, but the Community Server product team is remote (except for Kevin/David). If we bought a ConnectR, we could each have a PIN code that would allow us to remotely control this little robot, drive up/down the halls of Telligent HQ (alongside our scooter friends), and participate in video conferences.
Personally, I would love to be able to walk roll into Kevin or David's office, see what they're *really* up to, and then start a conversation.
Okay, now I finally know what I want for Xmas! 