Did you ever think you’d see the day we got lazy enough, as a species, to invent a tiny robot whose only task it is to clean the surfaces of our smartphones and tablets? Because, what, wiping is too hard now? Don’t get us wrong, we think the AutoMee S is pretty awesome, but only in a “look at that cute thing moving about on my iPad” sort of way. And we suspect that it’s been created precisely because of its cuteness, especially considering it’s being launched in the Japanese market by Takara Tomy. And we all know Japan likes its kawaii. The AutoMee S measures “67 × 73 × 38mm, weighs 82 grams and is powered by a single AA battery which is good for three hours of cleaning.” It takes 4 minutes to clean an average smartphone and twice as long for a tablet. Like a Roomba, it has edge sensors to prevent it falling off the device, and is programmed to move in random patterns, eventually covering every bit of the surface in its allotted time.
It’s going to hit the market on March 28, in Japan, for 1575 Yen ($ 17) a piece.
[ Product Page ] VIA [ NewLaunches ]
Sign me up for two, because I hurt my wrist wiping my tablet.
It’s a shame that the company announced today (Feb 7) that its in such a bad financial shape that it needs to retire most of its employees. It looks like this company will not be in existence after the end of next month. The main reason is sales. I can see why. I tried to get their email address to inquire about the AutoMee S so that I can sell it on my website and after checking out all the sites on their web, i could not find a way to email them. They have no contact information. I then proceeded to search their site in Japanese and found their website contact page. It was all in Japanese. It is a shame that their sales department was only looking for domestic sales and not expanding to international. I hope they can recover!