It’s the year 2022 and going to the office for work is no longer the norm for a lot of people. You probably know at least one person in your life who’s remote either part-time or full-time. Working from home has its perks – not having a commute being chief among them – but it’s not without challenges. Household disturbances are big ones, as well as poor lighting or simply the lack of professional-level equipment that they might have access to only in-office. That’s why we recommend giving them a gift or two that will help with those shortcomings. From noise-canceling headphones to an ergonomic footrest, here’s a list of things that’s sure to make their WFH life a lot easier.

Mooas Multi-Cube Timer

Mooas

One of the most difficult obstacles with working from home is all the distractions. You’re constantly sidetracked by temptations like TV, the internet or just easy access to the kitchen. A potential solution to that is to use one of these multi-cube timers from Mooas as a productivity tool. Each side corresponds to different lengths of time; to start the timer, you’ll flip the cube so your desired time faces upwards. Flipping the LCD display upwards again will pause it, while turning the display downwards will stop the timer.

There are a number of ways to use them, but I like using the Pomodoro Technique with these. I’ll enable the 30 minute timer which then encourages me to focus just on my work for the allotted time period. Once time is up, I give myself a five minute rest, and then I start it over again. You can also use them as a reminder to stand up and stretch every so often. These timers come in a variety of colors, each with different time pre-sets, so be sure to pick the one with the time lengths you think your loved one will want. — Nicole Lee, Commerce Writer

Belkin BoostCharge Pro 3-in-1 MagSafe charging station

Will Lipman Photography for Engadget

Apple devotees will appreciate Belkin’s BoostCharge Pro, which will charge an iPhone, an Apple Watch and a pair of AirPods simultaneously. Not only will this save your loved one quite a bit of desk space, it also reduces cord clutter as it only requires a single power cable. Additionally, though the charging pad has 15W MagSafe for the iPhone 12 and up, it’s actually compatible with any phone with wireless charging; it just won’t be quite as fast. That means it’ll work with iPhones 8 and up as well as compatible Android devices. — N.L.

Logitech Lift Vertical mouse

Will Lipman Photography for Engadget

If someone you love spends all of their time on a laptop for work, getting them a wireless mouse can improve the ergonomics of their setup immensely. Not only are they generally more comfortable to use than trackpads, but they can also help improve posture and prevent hand cramping – especially if you get a vertical mouse. Logitech’s Lift is one of its latest vertical mice and it’s ideal for small- to medium-sized hands (those with large hands should check out the MX Vertical instead). The 57-degree angle in its design places their hand in the natural handshake position, which will put less pressure on their wrist than a standard mouse would. It also has a comfortable, soft-touch finish with four customizable buttons that are easy to reach. They’ll be able to connect it to their laptop via a USB receiver or Bluetooth and, regardless of which method they choose, the Lift will last two years before needing replacement AA batteries. — Valentina Palladino, Senior Commerce Editor

Lume Cube Video Conferencing Lighting Kit

Lume Cube

If your loved ones already have a camera they like, then getting them a lighting rig is a great next step for improving how they look on videos, live streams and more. While a typical desk lamp might cast a shadow or make them look washed out, a proper lighting kit will illuminate their face and show off their best side.

We like Lume Cube’s Video Conferencing Lighting Kit because it’s small and lightweight enough to fit on tablets, laptops or desktop monitors. The built-in frosted lens and additional white diffuser softens the light so it’s easier on the eyes while also adding a glow to your appearance. The brightness and color is adjustable to fit whichever lighting environment you happen to be in. The Kit has a built-in extended battery so you can use it on the go, but you can also just plug it directly into your computer’s USB port to run indefinitely.

If they also need their video-lighting rig to be a desk lamp, we would recommend Lume Cube’s Edge Desk light instead. It also has adjustable brightness and color temperatures, which will help make them look great in front of the camera, but it can also swivel around to be used as a regular desk lamp when they’re not on a call. It attaches securely to most desks via a clamp which won’t take up much real estate at all. Bonus: It has built-in USB-C and USB-A charging ports which can be used as additional power sources. — N.L.

Flexispot standing desk converter

Flexispot

By now we all know the benefits of a standing desk, but that doesn’t change the fact that most of them are super expensive. Instead of spending a ton on one, you can work with what you already have – and that might be the better option if you or someone you love already invested in a nice regular desk. A standing desk converter like this one from Flexispot lets you turn your existing desk into one that you can either stand or sit at. This model also comes with a dedicated keyboard tray, so you can separate your workspace a bit and keep things as ergonomic as possible. But the best part is that it costs a fraction of what an actual standing desk would. — V.P.

Logitech C920S Pro Full HD webcam

Engadget

Remote workers might not have to see their co-workers anymore, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have meetings. Any WFH employee will tell you that their days are often inundated with Zoom calls and Google Meet video conferences. That’s why an external webcam is essential, at least if you care about looking good. Our favorite is the Logitech C920S Pro HD webcam, which offers 1080p video quality, autofocus capabilities and white balance adjustment. One big benefit over regular built-in webcams is that they’ll be able to position it however they like, which makes it that much easier to put unsightly household messes out of view. It has a large 78-degree field of view plus a lens cover that will protect your loved ones’ privacy when not in use. — N.L.

Ergofoam Ergonomic Adjustable Foot Rest

Ergofoam

Those who sit at their desks all day will appreciate a more ergonomic setup for less back and neck pain. One way to achieve that is with the Ergofoam Ergonomic Adjustable Footrest, which helps provide fim support for your feet and ensure your sitting position is upright. The footrest is made out of memory foam and is covered in a plush velvet, making it super comfortable as well. This particular model is adjustable to two different heights, which is great for those who need a slightly taller footrest. Additionally, the footrest can be flipped upside down and used as a rocker to keep your feet moving, improving your circulation. — N.L.

Sony WH-1000XM5

Will Lipman Photography for Engadget

It can be hard to control the environment you’re working in when you work from home. You may have kids yelling around you, pets barking, meowing or otherwise making noise and maybe even your partner taking a Zoom call in the room next door. A pair of noise-canceling headphones will become your best friend when you need to block out the world and get things done, and there’s none better than Sony’s WH-1000XM5 right now. They have a refined design and an even more comfortable fit when compared to the (still excellent) XM4 that came before them, and Sony managed to improve upon their already stellar sound quality and ANC.

Thanks to double the number of processors and microphones and a separate V1 chip, the WH-1000XM5 is even better at blocking out human voices and other higher frequencies than its predecessors. And what might be even better is their 30-hour battery life; you’ll be able to use them for hours each day for multiple days before they need a recharge. — V.P.

Ember Mug 2

Will Lipman Photography for Engadget

If you know someone who has a tendency to let their cup of coffee or tea get cold, consider giving them the Ember Mug 2. It’s a self-heating smart mug that keeps beverages at just the right temperature – either for up to 1.5 hours or all day long if the mug is kept on its charging coaster. They can dial in their desired temperatures anywhere from 120 to 145 degrees Fahrenheit. The companion app also lets them save preset temps for their favorite drinks. — N.L.

BenQ Screenbar

Will Lipman Photography for Engadget

While a desk lamp is useful for working in lowlight, it can sometimes obstruct the monitor or worse, shine glare into it. A monitor light like BenQ’s ScreenBar is a fantastic alternative, as it reduces that glare while illuminating your desk at the same time. It has a built-in ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts the ScreenBar’s brightness according to its surroundings. You can also change the temperature of the light from warmer to cooler hues. Since the ScreenBar attaches to the monitor, it won’t take up valuable space on your desk too. — N.L.

Anker 577 Thunderbolt docking station

Will Lipman Photography for Engadget

It’s easy to get carried away building your perfect work-from-home desk setup, only to realize that it’s not as efficient as it could be. Wires cluttering your space, extra connectors and peripherals you don’t use, all of those things can make your desk a place you dread sitting down at each morning. But Anker’s 577 Thunderbolt docking station, and others like it, can remedy that by giving you one multi-purpose, powerful brick into which you can plug all of your necessities.

This model has 13 ports, so there’s a good chance you’ll be covered at every turn, plus it supports 85W laptop charging, so you’ll always have plenty of power fueling your machine as you use it. In addition to supporting 1-Gbps USB-C data transfer, Gigabit Ethernet and 4K HDMI, it also lets you connect to two 5K external displays at once, just in case you’re going for that space-commander look. — V.P.

Samsung's Black Friday deals have arrived, and one of biggest discounts you can get is for the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro. The wireless earbuds in Bora Purple are currently on sale for $125 at Amazon, 46 percent less than their original price of $230. They'd previously gone for as low as $190, but this is the lowest price we've seen for them on the website. We called the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro Samsung's best earbuds yet in our review, where we praised them for being more comfortable than their predecessor. They're 15 percent smaller than the company's first flagship earbuds and come with a vent on the inside, leading to a better fit and less pressure on your ears. 

We were also impressed by the earbuds' capability to deliver full, nuanced bass and clear, detailed sounds. Their 360 audio is much more immersive than the first Pro's, as well, thanks to their virtual 5.1- and 7.1-channel arrangements. Samsung also claims that the newer Pro's active noise cancellation feature is 40 percent better than the first, and we did find that the model can do a better job at blocking most environmental noise. While only the Bora Purple version is on sale for almost half the model's original price, the white and black versions are also available for $200 or $30 less than retail. 

In case you're looking to buy earbuds even cheaper than $125, though, Samsung's Galaxy Buds 2 are also on sale right now. You can get the Olive Green and Lavender variants for $90, which is an all-time low for the model that retails for $150. The Galaxy Buds 2 are also small and comfortable on the ears like Samsung's newer pro-tier earbuds, and they come with active noise cancellation, an adjustable ambient sound mode and wireless charging capability. 

Get the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers by following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribing to the Engadget Deals newsletter.

This might be your best chance to buy a virtual reality headset as a gift — or, let's be honest, for yourself. Amazon is selling a Meta Quest 2 128GB Black Friday bundle that includes the Resident Evil 4 VR remake and Beat Saberfor $350. That's less than the usual price of the hardware by itself, and makes it an easy choice if you wanted games to play from the very start. A 256GB bundle is also available for $430.

The Quest 2 has been around for over two years, but it's still the go-to headset for standalone VR. While it's not as powerful as tethered hardware like the upcoming PlayStation VR2, the freedom of movement makes it very appealing. You can play games or enter the metaverse without tripping over cords or limiting yourself to one room. The high-res screens, comfortable fit (once you've adjusted the lenses) and excellent controllers make the device pleasant to use for the two-plus hours of gameplay you'll typically get on a charge.

The games will be familiar. Resident Evil 4 in VR is what you'd hope for — it turns the survival horror game into a first-person action game that takes advantage of the immersive technology to keep you on edge. Beat Saber, meanwhile, is an iconic rhythm game that has you slashing notes and dodging obstacles in pursuit of high scores. Both are good showcases for VR, particularly for newcomers who might not know what to expect.

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Demand for the current generation of Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox consoles has been through the roof for the better part of two years now, and that should only amplify during Black Friday. We can't guarantee you'll be able to get the Switch, PS5, or Xbox Series X/S you've been eyeing this holiday season, but to help make your search a little bit more convenient, we've compiled all the product listings we can find for each console in one place. 

Again, demand for these machines is high, so not every console may be in stock by the time you read this. And though Black Friday is near, we don't expect to see many outright discounts on most consoles, either — at the time of publication, the only deals available are for the lower-power Xbox Series S and the base Nintendo Switch. We'll update this article over the course of the week if new offers pop up. For now, though, let us save you a bit of Googling.

Nintendo Switch

Engadget

Nintendo's primary deal this Black Friday bundles the base-model Nintendo Switch with a copy of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and a three-month subscription to its Nintendo Switch Online service. If that sounds familiar, it's because Nintendo has run this exact same promotion during Black Friday for the last few years. 

It's hard to call this a great deal at this point — the Switch OLED is a pretty firm upgrade, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a five-year-old rerelease of an eight-year-old Wii U game. But if you don't need the OLED model's upgraded display and just want to save a few bucks, there's at least some value here. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is still receiving updates and normally retails around $50, while a 3-month Switch Online membership normally goes for $8.

Buy Nintendo Switch holiday bundle ($300) at:

• Amazon

• Walmart

• Target

• GameStop

• Best Buy

• Nintendo

Nintendo Switch OLED

Kris Naudus / Engadget

The $350 Switch OLED is the newest Switch model, so it should be unsurprising to hear that Nintendo isn't advertising any deals for the device this Black Friday. Really, discounts of any kind for the console have been exceedingly rare since it launched in October 2021. Stock for the Switch OLED is generally spottier as well, but we've rounded up where it's available below. 

As a reminder, the Switch OLED isn't any better at running games than the standard model, but its 7-inch OLED display is larger and more vibrant, it doubles the internal storage (64GB), its built-in kickstand is much sturdier and its updated dock has an Ethernet port. We gave it a review score of 89 last year.

Best Nintendo Switch OLED ($349) at:

• Amazon

• Walmart

• Target

• GameStop

• Adorama

• Best Buy

• Nintendo

Nintendo Switch Lite

Engadget

We have seen a few deals for the $200 Switch Lite since it arrived in 2019, but the compact console isn't discounted for Black Friday as of this writing. This is the entry-level, handheld-only variant of the Switch; again, there's no difference in power, but it has a smaller 5.5-inch LED display, it doesn't work with Nintendo's dock and it's not equipped with detachable controllers. It also has a genuine D-pad. We gave it a review score of 90 a few years back.

Best Nintendo Switch Lite ($200) at:

• Amazon

• Walmart

• Target

• GameStop

• Adorama

• Best Buy

• Nintendo

PlayStation 5

Aaron Souppouris / Engadget

There've been next to no discounts on Sony's PlayStation 5 since it arrived two years ago, and we don't expect that to change this Black Friday. The console is easier to actually purchase these days — and brick-and-mortar stores are more likely to have it now than in years past — but stock still tends to dry up fast whenever it does become available. Retailers like Amazon and Sony itself continue to hold their inventory behind an invite system to fend off scalpers, while others like GameStop keep it behind store membership programs.

As has been the case for the past few months, it'll likely be easiest to get the console as part of a bundle. Sony's main one of those this holiday season pairs the console with a digital copy of God of War: Ragnarok, which we broadly recommended earlier this month. It costs $559 (or $460 with a disc-drive-less PS5 Digital Edition), which is only $10 off what the console and game would cost otherwise. Since it's more expensive than buying the $500 PS5 alone, though, there should be a little less competition when trying to buy one. 

Walmart had these bundles up for sale as of Monday, but it gave priority access to members of its Walmart+ service for the first several hours of the day. We wouldn't be surprised to see more stock for individual PS5s become available as the week rolls on, but you'll likely need to be vigilant or use a lengthier invite process to more reliably grab one. Note that the $400 Digital Edition is traditionally much harder to find in stock than the standard model, too. 

The PS5 itself could still do with a few more exclusives, but its library is growing all the time, and its hardware will still represent a significant upgrade for those hanging onto a PS4.

Buy PlayStation 5 ($500) at:

• Amazon

• Walmart

• Target

• GameStop

• Adorama

• Best Buy

• Sony

Buy PS5 Digital Edition ($400) at:

• Amazon

• Walmart

• Target

• GameStop

• Best Buy

• Sony

Buy PS5 + God of War: Ragnarok bundle ($560) at:

• Amazon

• Walmart

• GameStop

• Best Buy

• Sony

Buy PS5 Digital Edition + God of War: Ragnarok bundle ($460) at:

• Amazon

• Walmart

• GameStop

• Sony

Xbox Series X

Aaron Souppouris/Engadget

Microsoft's Xbox Series X has been more readily available to purchase over the past year than the PlayStation 5, but discounts for it have been virtually nonexistent, and it's still not uncommon to see it out of stock at third-party retailers. There aren't any Black Friday deals of note going on for it as of this writing. Like the PS5, Amazon still holds the device behind an invite system, and Walmart had it available to Walmart+ subscribers earlier Monday. 

Your best bet right now looks to be buying from Microsoft itself, though again we could see more stock elsewhere on Black Friday proper. Again, the latest Xboxes are somewhat lacking in exclusives, but Xbox Game Pass remains a strong value for those who play lots of games, and the Series X is still a powerful piece of hardware for 4K gaming. 

Buy Xbox Series X ($500) at:

• Microsoft

• Amazon

• Walmart

• Target

• GameStop

• Best Buy

Xbox Series S

Aaron Souppouris / Engadget

The one console that is genuinely discounted is the Xbox Series S. Microsoft announced last week that the diminutive console would be available for $250, which is $50 off its standard going rate, though this week we've seen it as low as $235 at Dell and $240 at Amazon. The former deal is still available.

Target may have the best deal of the bunch, though, as it's throwing in a $50 store gift card alongside the discount. Its stock currently appears be dropping in and out, though. Microsoft, meanwhile, is bundling its Xbox Stereo Headset with the console. Normally, that (basic) gaming headset retails around $50.

We've seen the Series S fall to $250 in the past, but this is still a good price for those who want a secondary console or a more affordable route into the Xbox game library. We gave the Series S a review score of 85 at launch: It lacks a disc drive, only has 512GB of built-in storage and isn't designed to push 4K resolutions like the Series X, but it can play all the same games, its SSD still allows for fast load times and its compact design is easier to tuck away.

Buy Xbox Series S at:

• Microsoft (headset bundle for $250)

• Target (with $50 gift card for $250)

• Amazon

• Dell

• Walmart

• GameStop

• Adorama

• Best Buy

Get the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers by following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribing to the Engadget Deals newsletter.

Ubisoft will start bringing its games to Steam again, nearly four years after it turned its attention to the Epic Games Store and its own Connect launcher. First up is one of the publisher's biggest games of the last few years, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, which will be available on Steam on December 6th. City builder Anno 1800 and the free-to-play Roller Champions will hit Steam at a later date.

"We're constantly evaluating how to bring our games to different audiences wherever they are, while providing a consistent player ecosystem through Ubisoft Connect," a Ubisoft spokesperson told Eurogamer. "Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Anno 1800 and Roller Champions are among the Ubisoft titles that will be releasing on Steam."

Assassin's Creed Valhalla will land on Steam just as Ubisoft releases the game's last content update. The Last Chapter, which will also arrive on December 6th, will bring about the conclusion of Eivor’s story and tie up some storylines. However, Ubisoft confirmed that it will not add a New Game+ mode, as it "realized that the depth of the game gave us limited options to make replayability unique and rewarding."

Ubisoft previously said that abandoning Steam was a business decision. It was one that led to pre-orders for The Division 2 increasing by six times on Ubisoft's own PC storefront (where it doesn't have to pay Valve a 30 percent cut of sales). However, it appears the extensive reach and popularity of Steam was ultimately too hard to ignore. Perhaps Ubisoft sees the value of making its games more readily available on Steam Deck too.

Meanwhile, Valve is preparing for Steam's autumn sale, which starts on Tuesday at 1PM ET and runs through November 29th. The event will be live during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and it will include discounts on tens of thousands of games. In a trailer, Valve suggested that you'll be able to score deals on the likes of Hitman 3, Stray, Hades, Deathloop, Cyberpunk 2077, God of War, Disco Elysium,Yakuza: Like a Dragon and many, many more.

If Samsung's foldable smartphones have caught your eye, perhaps for yourself or as a gift for someone else, now might be the right time to take the plunge. The 256GB model of the Galaxy Z Flip 4 has dropped to $760 at Amazon, which is an all-time low. That's a considerable $300 (or 28 percent) off the regular price. What's more, this variant is currently cheaper than the 128GB model. That's also on sale at the moment, but it's $800.

We gave the Galaxy Z Flip 4 a score of 86 in our review. We liked the improved battery life compared with older generations (it generally lasted for a full day) and the hands-free applications. The matte finish makes it less slippery than previous models, which is a definite plus. It also has a smaller and seemingly sturdier hinge, while the shell is scratch resistant. However, we did have some reservations when it came to the durability prospects in terms of how well the device will hold up after years of use, as well as the quality of low-light photos.

The 1.9-inch cover display gained more functionality, including ways to control smart home products and a quick reply option for messages. Flex Mode, which comes into play when the Galaxy Z Flip 4 is half-opened, is handier too — you'll be able to use the lower half as a touchpad while looking through photos on the top side of the screen. You can prop the device up without a stand as well, which is useful for hands-free video calls.

Get the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers by following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribing to the Engadget Deals newsletter.

Samsung's 32-inch Smart Monitor M8 plays dual roles, acting not only as a monitor with a webcam, but also a smart TV with built in speakers and support for cloud gaming and streaming. Now, with Black Friday week upon us, it's dropped back to its all-time low price of $500 (in white, pink, blue and green) at Amazon and Samsung.

As a computer display, the Smart Monitor M8 offers UHD (3,840 x 2,160) resolution at up to 60Hz, along with HDR10+. With a VA panel, it's decently bright at 400 nits, offers a 4-millisecond response time and displays up to a billion colors, with 99 percent sRGB coverage. Input-wise, you get USB-C and Micro HDMI 2.0 inputs, along with a USB-C charging interface. Finally, it has a a detachable SlimFit Cam for video calls, making it a solid choice for work or light content creation.

Other features include the ability to change the angle and position with the high-adjustable stand, along with a game bar that makes it easy to switch between cloud services. And with Samsung TV Plus and Alexa built in, you can watch streaming content, play games and even do work activities without the need to be plugged into a PC. Normally the white model sells for $700 and the color models for $730, so you get a 29 percent discount on former and 32 percent off the latter.

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Tesla is recalling more than 321,000 vehicles over a software issue that causes the tail lights on some cars not to work properly. The automaker announced the action on Saturday in a National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration filing (PDF) spotted by Reuters. The recall covers 2023 Model 3 and 2020 to 2023 Model Y vehicles manufactured for US customers.

“In rare instances, taillamps on one or both sides of affected vehicles may intermittently illuminate due to a firmware anomaly that may cause false fault detections during the vehicle wake up process,” the NHTSA notice states. “Brake lamps, backup lamps and turn signal lamps are not affected by this condition and continue to operate as designed.”

Tesla will release a software update to address the issue. The company hasn’t had reports of any crashes or injuries related to the bug. The automaker became aware of the problem in late October. In a separate announcement the day before, Tesla recalled about 30,000 due to an issue that can cause the front passenger airbag in Model X vehicles to deploy incorrectly in some situations.

As of this year, Tesla has so far issued 19 recalls in the US. Earlier this month, the company recalled 40,186 Model S and Model X vehicles over a software issue that could cut power steering assistance to vehicles going over potholes. Before that, the company recalled more than a million vehicles over windows that weren't working properly.

Autonomous vacuum maker iRobot is a lot like Tesla, not necessarily by reinventing an existing concept — vacuums, robots and electric cars all existed before these two companies came on the scene — but by imbuing their products with that intangible quirk that makes people sit up and take notice. Just as Tesla ignited the public's imagination as to what an electric car could be and do, iRobot has expanded our perception of how domestic robots can fit into our homes and lives. 

More than two dozen leading experts from across the technology sector have come together in ‘You Are Not Expected to Understand This’: How 26 Lines of Code Changed the World to discuss how seemingly innocuous lines of code have fundamentally shaped and hemmed the modern world. In the excerpt below, Upshot Deputy Editor Lowen Liu, explores the development of iRobot's Roomba vacuum and its unlikely feline brand ambassadors.

Hachette Book Group

Excerpted with permission from ‘You Are Not Expected to Understand This’: How 26 Lines of Code Changed the World edited by Torie Bosch. Published by Princeton University Press. Copyright © 2022. All rights reserved.

The Code That Launched a Million Cat Videos 

by Lowen Liu

According to Colin Angle, the CEO and cofounder of iRobot, the Roomba faced some early difficulties before it was rescued by two events. The disc-shaped robot vacuum had gotten off to a hot start in late 2002, with good press and a sales partner in the novelty chain store Brookstone. Then sales started to slow, just as the company had spent heavily to stock up on inventory. The company found itself on the other side of Black Friday in 2003 with thousands upon thousands of Roombas sitting unsold in warehouses. 

Then around this time, Pepsi aired a commercial starring comedian Dave Chappelle. In the ad, Chappelle teases a circular robot vacuum with his soft drink while waiting for a date. The vacuum ends up eating the comedian’s pants—schlupp. Angle remembers that at a team meeting soon after, the head of e-commerce said something like: “Hey, why did sales triple yesterday?” The second transformative moment for the company was the rapid proliferation of cat videos on a new video-sharing platform that launched at the end of 2005. A very specific kind of cat video: felines pawing suspiciously at Roombas, leaping nervously out of Roombas’ paths, and, of course, riding on them. So many cats, riding on so many Roombas. It was the best kind of advertising a company could ask for: it not only popularized the company’s product but made it charming. The Roomba was a bona fide hit. 

By the end of 2020, iRobot had sold 35 million vacuums, leading the charge in a booming robot vacuum market.

The Pepsi ad and the cat videos appear to be tales of early days serendipity, lessons on the power of good luck and free advertising. They also appear at first to be hardware stories— stories of cool new objects entering the consumer culture. But the role of the Roomba’s software can’t be underestimated. It’s the programming that elevates the round little suckers from being mere appliances to something more. Those pioneering vacuums not only moved, they decided in some mysterious way where to go. In the Pepsi commercial, the vacuum is given just enough personality to become a date-sabotaging sidekick. In the cat videos the Roomba isn’t just a pet conveyer, but a diligent worker, fulfilling its duties even while carrying a capricious passenger on its back. For the first truly successful household robot, the Roomba couldn’t just do its job well; it had to win over customers who had never seen anything like it. 

Like many inventions, the Roomba was bred of good fortune but also a kind of inevitability. It was the brainchild of iRobot’s first hire, former MIT roboticist Joe Jones, who began trying to make an autonomous vacuum in the late 1980s. He joined iRobot in 1992, and over the next decade, as it worked on other projects, the company developed crucial expertise in areas of robotics that had nothing to do with suction: it developed a small, efficient multithreaded operating system; it learned to miniaturize mechanics while building toys for Hasbro; it garnered cleaning know-how while building large floor sweepers for SC Johnson; it honed a spiral-based navigation system while creating mine-hunting robots for the US government. It was a little like learning to paint a fence and wax a car and only later realizing you’ve become a Karate Kid. 

The first Roombas needed to be cheap—both to make and (relatively) to sell—to have any chance of success reaching a large number of American households. There was a seemingly endless list of constraints: a vacuum that required hardly any battery power, and navigation that couldn’t afford to use fancy lasers—only a single camera. The machine wasn’t going to have the ability to know where it was in a room or remember where it had been. Its methods had to be heuristic, a set of behaviors that combined trial and error with canned responses to various inputs. If the Roomba were “alive,” as the Pepsi commercial playfully suggested, then its existence would more accurately have been interpreted as a progression of instants—did I just run into something? Am I coming up to a ledge? And if so, what should I do next? All conditions prepared for in its programming. An insect, essentially, reacting rather than planning. 

And all this knowledge, limited as it was, had to be stuffed inside a tiny chip within a small plastic frame that also had to be able to suck up dirt. Vacuums, even handheld versions, were historically bulky and clumsy things, commensurate with the violence and noise of what they were designed to do. The first Roomba had to eschew a lot of the more complicated machinery, relying instead on suction that accelerated through a narrow opening created by two rubber strips, like a reverse whistle. 

But the lasting magic of those early Roombas remains the way they moved. Jones has said that the navigation of the original Roomba appears random but isn’t—every so often the robot should follow a wall rather than bounce away from it. In the words of the original patent filed by Jones and Roomba cocreator Mark Chiappetta, the system combines a deterministic component with random motion. That small bit of unpredictability was pretty good at covering the floor—and also made the thing mesmerizing to watch. As prototypes were developed, the code had to account for an increasing number of situations as the company uncovered new ways for the robot to get stuck, or new edge cases where the robot encountered two obstacles at once. All that added up until, just before launch, the robot’s software no longer fit on its allotted memory. Angle called up his cofounder, Rodney Brooks, who was about to board a transpacific flight. Brooks spent the flight rewriting the code compiler, packing the Roomba’s software into 30 percent less space. The Roomba was born.

In 2006 Joe Jones moved on from iRobot, and in 2015 he founded a company that makes robots to weed your garden. The weeding robots have not, as yet, taken the gardening world by storm. And this brings us to perhaps the most interesting part of the Roomba’s legacy: how lonely it is. 

You’d be in good company if you once assumed that the arrival of the Roomba would open the door to an explosion of home robotics. Angle told me that if someone went back in time and let him know that iRobot would build a successful vacuum, he would have replied, “That’s nice, but what else did we really accomplish?” A simple glance around the home is evidence enough that a future filled with robots around the home has so far failed to come true. Why? Well for one, robotics, as any roboticist will tell you, is hard. The Roomba benefited from a set of very limited variables: a flat floor, a known range of obstacles, dirt that is more or less the same everywhere you go. And even that required dozens of programmed behaviors. 

As Angle describes it, what makes the Roomba’s success so hard to replicate is how well it satisfied the three biggest criteria for adoption: it performed a task that was unpleasant; it performed a task that had to be done relatively frequently; and it was affordable. Cleaning toilets is a pain but not done super frequently. Folding laundry is both, but mechanically arduous. Vacuuming a floor, though—well, now you’re talking. 

Yet for all the forces that led to the creation of the Roomba, its invention alone wasn’t a guarantee of success. What is it that made those cat videos so much fun? It’s a question that lies close to the heart of the Roomba’s original navigation system: part determinism, part randomness. My theory is that it wasn’t just the Roomba’s navigation that endeared it to fans—it was how halting and unpredictable that movement could be. The cats weren’t just along for an uneventful ride; they had to catch themselves as the robot turned unexpectedly or hit an object. (One YouTuber affectionately described the vacuum as “a drunk coming home from the bar.”) According to this theory, it’s the imperfection that is anthropomorphic. We are still more likely to welcome into our homes robots that are better at slapstick than superhuman feats. It’s worth noting that the top-of-the-line Roomba today will map your rooms and store that map on an app, so that it can choose the most efficient lawnmower-like cleaning path. In these high-end models, the old spiral navigation system is no longer needed. Neither is bumping into walls. 

Watching one of these Roombas clean a room is a lot less fun than it used to be. And it makes me wonder what the fate of the Roomba may have been had the first ever robot vacuum launched after the age of smartphones, already armed with the capacity to roll through rooms with precise confidence, rather than stumble along. It’s not always easy, after all, to trust someone who seems to know exactly where they are going.

While you may have a big list of gifts to get for others over the next couple of weeks, now is a good time to pick up things for yourself as well. There's arguably no better time of the year to pick up expensive gadgets like robot vacuums since most of them will be on sale. Wellbots is kicking things off early this year in the smart home space by discounting both the iRobot j7 and j7+ vacuums, bringing them down to $349 and $599, respectively, when you use the codes ENG250 and ENG200 at checkout.

These are essentially the same robot vacuum, but the "plus" variant comes with a clean base. If you're unfamiliar, clean bases are basically garbage cans attached to the robot's charging base, and the vacuum will automatically empty its bin into the base after each job. If vacuuming is one of your least favorite chores, getting a robo-vac with a clean base makes it so you only have to interact with your cleaning robot once a month or so when you need to change out the base's bag.

The Roomba j7 series came out last year and it features upgraded AI-driven computer vision that gives it improved obstacle avoidance. It'll maneuver its way around chairs, table legs and more with ease, plus that enhanced technology should help it avoid an instances of a robo-vac's worst enemy: pet poop. The j7 earned a spot in our best robot vacuum guide for its solid obstacle avoidance, plus its strong suction power, accurate home mapping and the ease of use of its companion app. iRobot's mobile app will be easy for even novices to learn, and it lets you set cleaning schedules, remotely control the vacuum and more from anywhere.

In this sale, the $600 Roomba j7+ is the same price as the j7 usually is without the clean base, which makes the higher-end configuration even more compelling. However, if you're on a tighter budget, you can skip the clean base and get all of the same cleaning technology for only $350.

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