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New Samsung NaviBot handles the hoovering via an app on your tablet

Hoovering? There's an app for that. Samsung's unveiled a new NaviBot robotic vacuum cleaner that you can control via a smart phone or tablet.

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Richard Trenholm Former Movie and TV Senior Editor
Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.
Expertise Films, TV, Movies, Television, Technology
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Richard Trenholm
2 min read

Hate hoovering? Don't worry -- there's an app for that. Everybody's least favourite household chore has gone even more hi-tech, with Samsung unveiling an app that lets you control its new NaviBot robotic vacuum cleaner via a smart phone or tablet.

The NaviBot uses cameras to measure the ceiling of the room it's been dispatched to clean. The new NaviBot VC-RL87W can now zap what it sees to a smart phone or tablet. It has a mic too. This all means that, while your NaviBot is pootling around picking up dust and dirt, you can see and hear how it's getting on with your Samsung Galaxy Tab or Galaxy Tab 10.1.

You can also remotely control the dusting droid from your phone or tablet. Consequently, NaviBot is now more than just a hi-tech housekeeper. It can be used to check up on your home while you're away, to see what pets, kids and even burglars are doing behind your back. You can guide it around the house, deliver stuff to people in other rooms, sneak up on sleeping siblings, or take your tabby on a tour.

As well as keeping tabs on your home as it hoovers, the house-proud mechanoid uses the recorded images to keep track of where it's been so it knows which parts it's already cleaned. The new NaviBot features a turbo mode for high-speed hygienising, and an edge mode for getting into the cracks in the skirting board. It makes 48dB of noise when working, which is slightly quieter than a washing machine.

The NaviBot's chief rival is the iRobot Roomba. We pitted the vacuuming automatons against each other in head-to-head cleaning combat, and you can check out the video here.