After a decade on the market, the Roomba has become the most well-recognized brand in robotic vacuum cleaners and a staple of many households. But while iRobot has improved the Roomba's filtering, suctioning, and collision detection over the years, actually controlling the vacuum has been left to its automated systems. Now iRobot has released the Roomba 790, which gives you direct control of the robo-vac's movement and settings remotely with a new Wireless Command Center.
The Wireless Command Center is basically a remote control for the Roomba, with most of the controls mimicking the ones on top of the machine - starting a cleaning, scheduling a regular session, specifying certain rooms, etc. One cool addition though is a directional pad that lets a person steer the device like a remote-controlled car to specific dirty spots. The remote also transmits using radio waves, so it can be used to reprogram the vacuum from anywhere in the house.
Aside from the wireless controls though, the Roomba 790 doesn't really clean any better than the other Roombas in the 700 series. Like the Roombas 760, 770, and 780, this one comes with a cleaning head designed for pet owners, dual HEPA filters, and an expanded bin for debris. It does however include an extra Virtual Wall Lighthouse for creating a boundary for the robo-vac, plus additional replacement brushes, filters, and a case for all the accessories.
The Roomba 790 is currently available from iRobot for US$700.
