Hacking Roomba

My favorite snarky hacker / dotcom millionaire / nightclub owner Jamie Zawinkski has a Roomba and recently had some problems with it. But everything was sorted out because iRobot shipped him an OSMO firmware upgrader to “fix” what sounds like a malfunctioning odometer sensor on one of the wheels.

As he says in his blog post:

But let me rephrase that story:
* My personal cleaning robot has malfunctioning hardware.
* The manufacturer sent me a piece of hardware to update the software.
* That software fixed the hardware.
I just felt a bit like I was living in the future for a minute there. I got a little chill.

Once again iRobot shows itself to be not only a leader in domestic robotics but also one that understands the proper way to interact with customers that makes them so happy they become advocates.