DEEBOT R95

        Meet the floor cleaning Robot  DEEBOT R95.

I really love this well designed vacuum floor cleaner. It’s a nifty little character that works quite hard on keeping the floors clean. She has her own personality and we have have  called ours Roberta.

It’s wifi too and there’s a great free smartphone app on iOS and Android for operating the Deebot.

Watch as it maps out the floor area to be cleaned utilising SMART NAVI technology, a proprietary laser scanning and mapping process   ……….and then cleans it.

ADVANCED INTELLIGENCE. LASER MAPPING.

You can amend the map to add barriers and separate zones ( Be warned this will climb up a few centimetres but it does also sense a drop of a stair and changes path accordingly ). Oh and you can schedule the cleaning too  – up to twice a day and then the robot returns to its charging base and waits for the next instruction or cleaning schedule whilst it recharges.

It’s pretty swift too – I have used  Roomba Robots before but this is lightning fast and efficient compared to those heavy old-school beasts. I would highly recommended this product although I would advise that its not suitable for really thick heavy carpets.  It is also very flexible in cleaning around obstacles that the kids leave scattered about the floor as the children tend to do using its inbuilt obstacle detection technology.

It’s pretty quiet for a vacuum cleaner but not silent and my planned late night cleaning schedule was rejected within seconds on noise grounds – but no one complained at all as it worked away around them during the day.

My wife is so impressed I am now “Head of Floor Cleaning” at home. There’s a plastic reservoir with a towel attachment for wet cleaning over tiles and wooden floor which seems to work very well  across our Oak Flooring and Kitchen Floor tiles .

It communicates quite loudly in spoken phrases (in several Languages) and clearly whilst working and there’s full reporting of work done which is useful too.

Theres a HEPA filter on board for allergy sufferers and its probably good for homes up to 150M2 in size and you will need a smart phone to drive it, initially at least.

Bose SoundTouch Wireless Link

My very own first Proper Product review

 

So you know how you read all those Blogs where people just get sent stuff to review ? And you always just think how does that work ???

Well its my first time so here goes……

Bose SoundTouch Wireless Link

Described as “a box that transforms your speakers into a wireless music system and stream any music through your home wifi network or bluetooth device.” I shall be probing the issues, pushing the buttons and checking out all the facts to see if it lives up to its “mission statement” and “manufacturer pedigree”.

“Turn Your Speakers Wireless” 

A picture is apparently worth a thousand words and this is what it looks like up close. The actual unopened box, factory sealed as delivered by courier…..

 

Factory seal peeled to reveal The Bare Backside

The back of the packaging gives you an instant idea of whats in store and I was immediately impressed to learn it contained an optical lead – but hey maybe thats standard these days right ?!?! Plus a useful link  Go.BOSE.COM/STWL  which took me to the US website and I had the to choose a different territory and then search the product again. So I went back and  just pretended I was in the US. It  is worth a visit if you are interested in this product.

Disclosure Time.

I must confess to being a big Bose fan and over the years I have spent an awful lot of my own hard earned cash with them. I am thrilled to be able to review this product which I don’t get to keep and more importantly no one is paying me or providing any benefit other that allowing me to blog about this device….and I am mature enough to overlook the fact I didn’t get the swankier speaker system to review, you gotta start somewhere right.

 

so lets see how it unpacks, sets up and performs.

The sleeve slips off to reveal another box ………

Nice packaging in the modern way not too dissimilar to the latest Apple TV for example nice design and materials.

Thinking inside the box ……

The money shot

The Contents

Unwrapping

What is it that is included in the actual box then exactly  ?

• SoundTouch Wireless Link adapter 2.5 cm H x 8.8 cm W x 8.8 cm D (0.1 kg)
• Power cable
• Optical to mini-optical cable
• 3.5 mm stereo cable
• 3.5 mm female to RCA cable

• Inputs and outputs on the device itself

  • Audio out (digital optical and analogue)
  • 3.5 mm auxiliary input (mimi jack)
  • Micro-USB port (for setup) – Ignore this it all works fine over wifi for set up. I initially panicked that no cable was included and ran around to try to find a spare one only to realise it was already setting itself up fine wirelessly.

   

 

Meanwhile over On the Appside……

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I downloaded mine from the app store but you could be using another method  (Android via Google Play or direct from Bose for your Computer)….Onto My Iphone 6Plus but you may be using a different device….. ( Tablet, Phone, Mac & PC. Blackberry users check your app thingy coz I don’t know)

 

I Opened the App 

 

I followed the set up instructions on screen it was was  on my wifi network quickly and updated the SoundTouch Wireless Link adapter slowly ………………….or so it tells you. It was actually pretty quick.

I explored the app as i am quite interested in the user experience side of things even though I was impatiently excited to turn my Speakers Wireless.

Music Services

 

It found all my local radio stations quicker than any other internet radio app that I have tried.

 

 

However  I really am a big fan of Bhutan Broadcasting Service Radio – so that was an immediate blow.

 

It suggests it can link from an iTunes player on a computer (or other media players) we will test that….. Laterz.

 

First though lets connect the sound link to make those speakers wireless.

 

Hmmmm I have an old Apple Speaker that sounds beautiful  I could try and it even works on batteries. I could put it anywhere  (with a nearby power source for the Soundlink obvs)

I have a beautiful old Quad 34 Preamp and a 25 year old pair of Bose Roomates. It would be a tempestuous marriage of old and new technology.

We could come direct out of the Soundlink into Genelec 2040″s and really hear a comparison between an MP4 and Lossless file over the wireless link.

It would make the Apple Speaker Truly Wireless so would pass that test with that example however if I were to use the Quad34/Roomates we would still have cable from pre amp to speakers and between the speakers so it would not be truly wireless. Pedantic comment I know but be clear on what it is the product does and you will avoid any early disappointment – it is not replacing those speaker cables.

 

The cables all plugged up and hey it works. It works very nicely and sounds as it should. As expected.

Would I buy this system ? Maybe if I was just starting out with a from scratch system. I could incorporate it into my current system but its only doing what my airport express or belkin wifi sender can do (plus a few additional apps) and Im spending most of the time streaming HD tv around the house anyway and using AIRPLAY/Apple TV for Audio. Maybe it is a serious Sonos competitor but without some tech specs avail it is rather hard to compare the systems – It does however do what it says on the box !!!!