Technologies

Roomba Robot Vacuums Face a Shakeup as iRobot Files for Bankruptcy

iRobot says it will continue to offer its robots and smart home devices to consumers.

Two decades after it ignited a market for robot vacuums in homes, iRobot has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company, best known for its Roomba robot vacuums, entered the filing late Sunday night after months of warning signs and financial pressure.

Under the proposed restructuring, iRobot will be acquired by its primary manufacturing partner, China-based Shenzhen Picea Robotics.

The company said it will continue to offer robots and smart home devices to consumers.

Massachusetts-based iRobot, which launched the first Roomba in 2002, was once synonymous with the category it helped invent. But years of mounting robot vacuum competition, particularly from Chinese brands like Ecovacs and Roborock, have eroded its market share.

An attempted lifeline came in the form of an Amazon acquisition in 2022, which promised to bolster iRobot’s position in the smart home space. However, that deal was ultimately scuttled by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic, leaving iRobot to fend for itself amid fierce competition.

In response, iRobot revamped its product line and worked with Picea to bring newer models to market, while also slashing prices to stay competitive. Despite those efforts, the company continued to lose ground. US tariffs didn’t help.

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What the iRobot bankruptcy means for you

The acquisition by Picea, a contract manufacturer that already builds many of iRobot’s products, is intended to allow operations to continue without interruption.

«Today’s announcement marks a pivotal milestone in securing iRobot’s long-term future,» Gary Cohen, iRobot’s chief executive officer, said in a statement Sunday. «The transaction will strengthen our financial position and will help deliver continuity for our consumers, customers, and partners.»

But while iRobot products remain on sale through major retailers including Amazon and Best Buy, whether you should still buy one, given the bankruptcy filing, is a complicated question.

«This will rightly have prospective buyers questioning whether to add one to their cleaning arsenal despite the company’s promise to continue operating without disruption,» CNET shopping expert Adam Oram said. «I wouldn’t advise that shoppers rule out a Roomba on this news alone, with many discounted Roomba deals still offering great value even if the longevity of the product remains unknown.»

Oram notes that iRobot’s products are highly rated among users.

But smart home history isn’t exactly full of happy endings. Support can disappear quickly when companies change hands, and even well-intentioned promises can get lost in the shuffle of restructuring.

So yes, you can still buy a Roomba, and in the short term, it’ll likely work just fine. But if you’re shopping for a robot vacuum with years of app updates and new features in mind, you might want to look at Roomba alternatives from brands with a clearer future. Oram suggested Roborock, Ecovacs and Eufy, in particular.

iRobot, founded in 1990, says it plans to be in the game for the long haul.

«By combining iRobot’s innovation, consumer-driven design, and R&D with Picea’s history of innovation, manufacturing, and technical expertise,» Cohen said in the company’s statement, «we believe iRobot will be well equipped to shape the next era of smart home robotics.»

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Feb. 2, #967

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Feb. 2 #967

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is a fun one for fans of Agatha Christie, as the last name of one of her detectives shows up in the grid. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Time.

Green group hint: Need to get in.

Blue group hint: Characters in a certain genre of books.

Purple group hint: They grow in the forest, sometimes, but there’s a twist.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Duration.

Green group: Credentials for entry.

Blue group: Modern crime series protagonists.

Purple group: Trees plus a letter.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is duration. The four answers are interval, period, span and stretch.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is credentials for entry. The four answers are lanyard, pass, stamp and wristband.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is modern crime series protagonists. The four answers are Bosch, Cross, Reacher and Ryan.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is trees plus a letter. The four answers are fair (fir), Marple (maple), popular (poplar) and psalm (palm).

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Technologies

I Found the 9 Best Gifts for Someone Who Isn’t Gonna Watch the Super Bowl

Here are some great gifts for loved ones who see Super Bowl Sunday as just a regular Sunday.

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Super Bowl LX is this Sunday at 6:30 p.m. ET, and a lot of us are excited to watch the game, the halftime or both. But let’s face it, NFL games aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. If you know someone whose birthday falls around now or want to show a non-football fan how much you appreciate them, we’ve got a list of gifts that’ll do the trick.

Technologies

NordVPN Software Blocked 92% of Phishing Emails in Independent Testing

Phishing attempts continue to grow with help from generative AI and its believable deepfakes and voice impersonations.

NordVPN’s anti-malware software Threat Protection Pro blocked 92% of phishing websites in an independent lab test of several antivirus products, browsers and VPNs in results released this week.

AV-Comparatives, based in Austria, attacked 15 products with 250 websites — all verified to be valid phishing URLs — in a test that ran Jan. 7 to 19. The lab said the products were tested in parallel and with active internet/cloud access. The Google Chrome browser was used for antivirus and VPN testing.

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Phishing is a form of cyberattack in which a malicious actor tries to get someone to go «fishing,» with malicious URLs as bait. These phishing attempts might be sent in emails, but they also appear on websites, in texts and in voicemails.

You might get an email that says your bank account has been hacked and you should click on a URL to solve the problem. Or an email says you’ve won a big prize, instructing you to click on a URL to redeem. During tax season, the amount of scam emails and texts increases dramatically, with AI often used to ramp up the numbers. CNET offers tips for how to detect phishing attempts on even the most sophisticated of emails.

«By creating a sense of trust and urgency, cybercriminals hope to prevent you from thinking critically about their bait message so that they can gain access to your sensitive or personal information like your password, credit card numbers, user data, etc,» warns the US State Department website. «These cybercriminals may target specific individuals, known as spear phishing, or cast a wide net to attempt to catch as many victims as possible.»

In the AV-Comparatives test, which evaluated phishing-page detection and false-positive rates, NordVPN’s Threat Protection Pro ranked fourth among security products, blocking 92% of the 250 phishing URLs tested. The highest scoring included:

Avast Free Antivirus 95%
Norton Antivirus Plus 95%
Webroot SecureAnywhere Internet Security Plus 93%

On its website, NordVPN says Threat Protection Pro protects devices even when they are not connected to a VPN. The company says the software can thwart phishing attempts and prevent malware from infecting your computer in several ways — alerts about malicious websites; blocking cookies that can learn about your browsing habits; and stopping pop-ups and intrusive ads.

According to cybersecurity company Hoxhunt, the total volume of phishing attacks has skyrocketed by 4,151% since the advent of ChatGPT in 2022, with a cost to companies of $4.88 million per phishing breach.

With the rapid expansion of AI across the internet, the volume of phishing attacks is growing. Some AI-generated phishing scams are able to get past email filters, but Hoxhunt found that only 0.7% to 4.7% of phishing emails were written by AI. However, cybercriminals are using AI to expand their phishing tools. AI can create deepfake videos and voice-impersonation phone calls to redirect payments or gain access to sensitive data.

AI scams will be tough to root out. CNET reported that 62% of executives had been targets of phishing attempts, including voice- and text-based scams, with 37% reporting invoice or payment fraud, all from generative AI.

Although NordVPN’s product might be effective at preventing malware from infecting your computer, it can’t eliminate malware that may already be on it. To clean up those issues, CNET lists the best antivirus software of 2026 and the best free antivirus apps. Those products can scan your computer and hopefully eradicate any malware and viruses that might be there.