#Toshiba #Smarbo takes on dirt, #Roomba, music playing prowess unclear -- Engadget:

Toshiba is just the latest company to enter the robovac fray. Samsung, ASUS and LG have already tested the waters against the mighty iRobot, now it's Smarbo's turn to try its hand at automated vacuuming. Inside the round floor cleaner are 38 sensors that help it avoid obstacles and keep it from falling down stairs, as well as a CPU or CPUs that sport "double brain function" according to the machine translated PR. The bot is quite quick, supposedly able to clean 100 square meters (over 1,000 square feet) in about 90 minutes, and only uses a few pennies worth of electricity to do so. Toshiba's vacubot will hit shelves in Japan for around $1,100 on October first, but it does suffer one distinct disadvantage -- DJ Smarbo just doesn't have the same ring to it.