It’s a sad, sad day for telepresence. iRobot’s ConnectR, the Roomba with a webcam on top, has been given the knife, deemed “not yet practical enough” for all you oh-so practical consumers out there. The device, which pledged to let you shout home and explore your abode like some domesticated rover, stood poised to open new avenues for the confusion of cats and other small pets. Perhaps $500 was a bit too steep for the beta group, or possibly users spending that much wanted something that looked a little less like a sentient vacuum, but, regardless of the reason, we’re not expecting anything like that to hit retail until we pull ourselves out of these economic doldrums.

[Thanks to everyone who sent that in]

Filed under: Household, Robots

iRobot’s ConnectR gets sent to wherever robots go when they die originally presented on EnGadget on Sat, 10 Jan 2009 01:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Tim Stevens

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