The Combo 2 is now the most expensive option in iRobot’s Essential line and slightly pricier than the $400 DreameBot D10 Plus, our current choice for the best budget robot vacuum and mop. The Vac 2 is available via “select retailers” in North America (including Target and Best Buy, so far) and has the same features as the Combo except for the mopping capabilities, which contributes to its lower price.

Both vacuums have a self-emptying dock, up to 120 minutes of battery life, and the ability to perform cleaning routines that can run automatically or start manually from a button on the robot, in the mobile app, or by voice command to Alexa, Siri, or Google Assistant-capable smart device.

When a cleaning routine is complete (or when its battery is close to dying), the Combo 2 will automatically return to its included AutoEmpty dock, where the contents of its dust bin will be sucked into a bag that iRobot says is large enough to hold 60 days’ worth of dirt. The bag is also self-sealing, making the process of replacing and throwing it away a little cleaner.

The Combo 2’s mopping capabilities require a little more maintenance. The charging dock can’t automatically refill the tank used to moisten the robovac’s reusable microfiber mop pad, and rugs will need to be manually moved out of the way during a cleaning routine that involves water, as the Combo 2 can’t retract its mop pad when transitioning from hard floors to carpeting.

iRobot says the new Combo 2 features “100 percent stronger suction compared to the Roomba Combo Essential” while cleaning for up to 120 minutes on a single charge. But the company doesn’t specify which of the four levels of suction power will yield a two hour runtime. At maximum power, you can potentially expect a cleaning routine to last less than two hours.

Also, the Combo 2’s navigation isn’t as advanced as what you’ll find on more expensive Roomba models. This robovac relies on “specialized sensors” and an “enhanced bumper” to avoid obstacles as it simply crisscrosses a room. Although it can display a visual representation of where it’s traveled through the iRobot app, the Combo 2 can’t generate 3D maps of a room to know where it has and hasn’t cleaned.

De’Longhi has launched a new manual coffee machine that gives you full control over the coffee-making process, helping you make your drinks exactly the way you like them, and do so consistently.

The company is best known for its bean-to-cup coffee makers, but its new La Specialista Opera machine offers only a light guiding hand. It has a smart grinder that automatically adjusts the grinding duration and dose for a single or double espresso, and a smart tamping station that helps you apply even pressure (up to 20kg) for a well formed puck.

The US agency in charge of regulating road safety revealed Friday that they are probing Tesla’s self-driving software systems.

The evaluation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) covers 2.4 million Tesla vehicles across multiple models manufactured between 2016 and 2024.

NHTSA’s action is the first step toward any potential recall that the agency might seek against the company, which is run by tech billionaire Elon Musk.

Tesla did not immediately reply on Friday to a BBC inquiry about the investigation.

NHTSA’s preliminary evaluation follows four crash reports involving the use of Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving”, or FSD, software.

The agency said the crashes involved reduced roadway visibility, with fog or glares from the sun.

One of the incidents involved a Telsa fatally striking a pedestrian, and another involved someone being injured, NHTSA said.

The evaluation aims to determine if Tesla’s self-driving systems can detect and appropriately respond to reduced visibility conditions. It also will examine if other self-driving crashes have happened under similar conditions.

In its notice, the agency noted that despite the label, full self-driving is actually “a partial driving automation system”.

NHTSA’s announcement comes one week after Mr Musk’s glitzy rollout of the Cybercab at the Warner Bros. studio lot in Burbank, California.

At the event, Mr Musk said the fully autonomous robotaxi concept, which operates without pedals or a steering wheel, would be on the market by 2027.

But some analysts and investors were unimpressed.

The company’s stock is down 8% since the Cybercab rollout. Shares were mostly steady after the notice from NHTSA.

Unlike Waymo, the self-driving venture operated by Google-parent Alphabet, Tesla’s autonomous systems rely largely on cameras and artificial intelligence.

Mr Musk’s approach costs less than deploying high-tech sensors like Lidar and radar, which are critical to Waymo’s driverless car program.

Tesla’s recent We, Robot presentation has run into trouble, with one of the production companies behind Blade Runner 2049 suing Tesla and its CEO, Elon Musk, for copyright infringement.

Tesla used the glitzy October 10 event to unveil its Cybercab and Robovan, and also to showcase the latest version of its Optimus humanoid robot.

Hosted by Musk at Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Studios in Hollywood, the presentation included imagery that Blade Runner 2049 production company Alcon Entertainment alleges Tesla created using generative-AI and stills from the seven-year-old sci-fi movie.

Alcon says in the lawsuit that just hours before the event kicked off on the evening of October 10, Tesla and WBD asked for permission to use “an iconic still image” from the movie. Alcon quickly rejected the request.

The company explained its decision in the suit, saying: “Any prudent brand considering any Tesla partnership has to take Musk’s massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes veers into hate speech, into account,” adding that “Alcon did not want Blade Runner 2049 to be affiliated with Musk, Tesla, or any Musk company, for all of these reasons.”

Following the rejection, Tesla is accused of then feeding imagery from Blade Runner 2049 into an AI image generator to create a still image that appeared on screen for 10 seconds (see it in the video below) during the We, Robot live stream. With the image showing, Musk even referenced the movie franchise, adding that he’s hoping for a “fun, exciting” future rather than the dystopian one depicted in so many sci-fi films.

Alcon also said in its suit that it wasn’t surprising that Musk referenced Blade Runner 2049 during the We, Robot event, as the movie features a “strikingly designed, artificially intelligent, fully autonomous car.”

The accused parties have yet to comment publicly on Alcon’s lawsuit, and it’s not yet clear what level of damages the production company is seeking.

Google is doing its best to make Android OS more secure for users. More recently, Android 15 brought a new theft detection feature to prevent data theft when someone robs or steals your unlocked device. But, what if the thief knows your lock screen’s PIN, password, or pattern? Yes, we know that sounds concerning, but it’s still possible. It seems Google is aware of such circumstances. That’s why it is working on a new feature that would enable Chrome to block password autofill in the event of device theft.

Google Chrome will soon block password autofill to safeguard your data in the event of device theft

The Google Chrome feature we are talking about here is Identity Check. When enabled, this feature forces the user to use their biometrics to unlock apps. Interestingly, apps that use simple lock features like PIN, pattern, or password would also require biometric authentication.

In a part of the announcement post of the theft detection feature, Google talks about the feature. It mentions “Later this year, we’ll launch Identity Check, an opt-in feature that will add an extra layer of protection by requiring biometric authentication when accessing critical Google account and device settings, like changing your PIN, disabling theft protection, or accessing Passkeys from an untrusted location. This helps prevent unauthorized access even if your device PIN is compromised.”

To catch you up, popular Chrome tipster Leopeva64 previously found some code changes in the Chromium Gerrit. Those codes reportedly pointed towards this exact feature. One such code change had a new Chrome flag that “enables Android identity check for eligible features.”

That’s not all, the description of the Chrome flag explains the feature too. It reads “The feature makes biometric reauthentication mandatory before passwords filling or before other actions that are or should be protected by biometric checks.”

The feature could roll out as part of the Android 15 QPR1

Mishaal Rahman (for Android Authority) further investigated if these Chrome changes were related to the Android Identity Check feature. Today, he reported that the changes made by the Google Chrome team were indeed related to the Identity Check feature. Rahman found out that one of the code changes includes a new GetBiometricAvailabilityStatus method.

That method reportedly returns “kRequired,” “kAvailable,” “kAvailableLSKF,” and “kUnavailable” when biometric authentication is mandatory (or enabled), available but optional, isn’t available, and unavailable, respectively. Rahman also mentions that the Google Chrome team is adding this method to code related to “password autofill, payment methods, sync settings, and incognito mode.”

The Android reporter further figured out that the new Chrome feature will only be available on devices running Android 15 QPR1. All that said, Google hasn’t confirmed when the Identity Check feature will be available in the previous announcement. It’s also unclear how the feature would work.

That said, Google might bring the mandatory biometric setting with a server-side update for the Google Play Services apps. Time will tell when the actual rollout happens. But one thing is sure, Google is quite serious about users’ data and safety, which is a good sign.

The Wall Street Journal’s parent company, Dow Jones, and the New York Post are suing AI-powered search startup Perplexity for using their content to train its large language models. Both News Corp. publications are accusing Perplexity of copyright infringement for using their articles to generate answers to people’s queries, thereby taking traffic away from the publications’ websites. “This suit is brought by news publishers who seek redress for Perplexity’s brazen scheme to compete for readers while simultaneously freeriding on the valuable content the publishers produce,” the publishers wrote in their complaint, according to the Journal.

In their lawsuit, the publications argued that Perplexity can serve users not just snippets of copyrighted articles, but the whole thing, especially for those paying for its premium subscription plan. They cited an instance wherein the service allegedly served up the entirety of a New York Post piece when the user typed in “Can you provide the fultext of that article.” In addition, the publications are accusing Perplexity of harming their brand by citing information that never appeared on their websites. The company’s AI can hallucinate, they explained, and add incorrect details. In one instance, it allegedly attributed quotes to a Wall Street Journal article about the US arming Ukraine-bound F-16 jets that were never in the piece. The publications said they sent a letter to Perplexity in July to raise these legal issues, but the AI startup never responded.

Various news organizations have sued AI companies in the past for copyright infringement. The New York Times, as well as The Intercept, Raw Story and AlterNet, sued OpenAI for using their content to train its LLMs. In its lawsuit, the Times said OpenAI and Microsoft “seek to free-ride” on its massive investment in journalism. Condé Nast previously sent a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity to demand that it stop using its publications’ articles as responses to users’ queries. And in June, Wired reported that Amazon had started investigating the AI company over reports that it scrapes websites without consent.

News Corp. is asking the court to prohibit Perplexity from using its publications’ content without permission, and it’s also asking for damages of up to $150,000 for each incident of copyright infringement. Whether the company is willing to negotiate a content agreement remains to be seen — News Corp. struck a licensing deal with OpenAI earlier this year, which allows the ChatGPT owner to use its websites’ articles for training over the next five years in exchange for a reported $250 million.

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