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TP-Link Tapo RV10 Plus Review: No Maps, Self-Emptying

TP-Link Tapo RV10 Plus Review: No Maps, Self-Emptying

Robot vacuums are insanely expensive. A reliable, midrange mapping vacuum like the Shark AI Ultra (8/10, WIRED Recommends) can run you almost a grand. I say that it’s midrange because that’s what the market will bear, but $700 is out of my own budget for a home appliance. Those of us who are plebes must resign ourselves to cheaper bounce-navigation vacuums, or else to a life of constant maintenance.

But what if there was a third option—a vacuum that was just a little dumber, and thus a little less expensive? Enter TP-Link’s Tapo RV10 Plus, which has a self-emptying station, a mop, but a much cheaper navigation system and no mapping to slow it down, give your home details to Amazon, or post pictures of your butt to Reddit. It’s an intriguing value proposition. Personally, I found it to be a little wonky, but if your home is smaller and doesn’t have mixed flooring, this would be a great pick.

Well Done

Tapo is the smart home brand owned by TP-Link, which is well known to us (and possibly you) as a router manufacturer. The RV10 Plus is its first robot vacuum, but this is not TP-Link’s first rodeo when it comes to home appliances. That shows in the hardware’s clean lines and easy setup. No screwing on flimsy plates or stands—I pulled two pieces out of the box, connected the TV10 Plus to the app, and I was done. It also works with Google Home and Amazon Alexa.

The self-empty bin is amazing. The bin on most self-emptying robot vacuums usually has a shutter or a curve in the tube that connects it to the dust bag on the dock. Ostensibly it is to prevent dirt from leaking out, but it usually malfunctions or traps debris. On the RV10 Plus, the bin tube is straight, and there’s no door. Nothing ever gets stuck or trapped. Every time I checked the bin, it was empty. I never had to stick my poor index finger inside the chute to loosen clogs.

It took about 1.5 hours for it to charge from 5 percent to 100 percent. TP-Link claims around three hours of cleaning on one charge, which I found to be accurate. We had run times of up to two hours and 37 minutes at a standard cleaning level (you can set it to one of three vacuum power levels), with power still in the tank.

It also has a mop attachment with a perfectly adequate 300-mL water tank. You can select between three different water levels. To mop, you clip the panel with the washable mop pad on the bottom of the vacuum tank. The lowest water level worked well on my wooden kitchen floor and had about half a tank left when it finished cleaning about 250 square feet.

Rolling Around

Unlike many, even other midrange vacuums, the TV10 Plus uses gyroscope navigation to determine where everything is in your house and the distance between them. There’s a number of advantages to gyroscope navigation. First off, it’s much cheaper and faster than a laser system might be, and it doesn’t have a camera to violate your privacy or send images to Amazon. Few things are more annoying than a low-end mapping robot that wastes endless hours getting stuck and requiring three or four (or even 35) mapping runs to come up with an inaccurate map.

When it did clean a room, the TV10 Plus worked great. It swept over each room in long S-shaped passes that navigated adroitly around obstacles and picked up the big dog hair tumbleweeds that my heeler mix leaves by getting scratches and pets in the middle of the living room. When I mopped my kitchen, laundry room, and bathroom, it cleaned 250 square feet in around 24 to 29 minutes. This is fast and efficient; it cleans up all the Ritz cracker crumbs and powdered sugar under the kitchen table, and it’s a performance comparable to much more expensive mopping robot vacuums that I’ve tried.

However, unlike a mapping vacuum, you can’t program it to clean just one part of your house and stop. So every time I mopped, I had to keep an ear cocked and race to grab it before it dragged a wet, dirty mop pad onto the carpeted parts of my house.

The app does have a remote control, but it’s about 50–50 whether I remember and grab my phone first or the robot vacuum. I asked Tapo whether the company had any tips for setting automatic boundaries and its spokesperson suggested buying magnetic boundary tape ($25). I’ve used this tape before. It’s effective and it’s not particularly hard, but it is unsightly and annoying.

And because gyroscope navigation can get thrown off on low-friction surfaces, it occasionally misses the doorways between completely. That means I can take the trouble to pick up my entire house and it will spend all three hours cleaning only one room. That room is sparkling, but still.

Of course, it’s really easy to imagine a house in which this wouldn’t be a problem. In fact, in my old house, which was all hardwood floors in an open floor plan, I probably wouldn’t have even noticed Tapo’s shortcomings at all. If you have this specific use case, then congratulations! This is your unicorn, a self-emptying robot vacuum-mop combo that doesn’t completely suck and is under $500! For the rest of us, we might still need to spend the extra cash.

Chi X Barbie On The Go Travel Kit Review (2023): Compact and Capable

Chi X Barbie On The Go Travel Kit Review (2023): Compact and Capable

Even if my feelings about my wild, wangly hair are complicated, I love hair tools. But why get them in boring colors like black and gray when you can get pink Barbie ones? Everything is better when it’s pink.

Barbie-branded accessories aren’t precisely new, but as you may or may not know (we knew) Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is coming out soon. We’re seeing more collaborations with the famous doll, which includes Chi’s latest line of hair tools. This travel kit includes a mini flat iron and foldable hair dryer, which is sadly not quite small enough to use on Barbie herself. Each is adorned with Barbie’s adorable doll head logo and packaged in a cute pink, blue, and green case.

All Pink Everything

Chi x Barbie hair dryer

Photograph: Chi

The Chi X Barbie mini hair dryer reminds me of the cheap ones you might find at a hotel. Obviously it’s cuter in bubblegum pink, but if you’ve used one of those, you’ll recognize the power compromise. It’s not as powerful as a full-size dryer, but you can fold it up and throw it in a bag or a packed bathroom drawer without taking up prime real estate. It works well for its size, but it doesn’t have separate heat and speed settings. Instead, there are just two settings: medium heat uses medium speed and high heat uses a higher speed.

You’ll find a small concentrator attachment in the bag, which is for targeting air flow and is especially helpful for blowouts. There’s no diffuser. That’s the norm with most travel dryers, although we recommend the Paul Mitchell’s compact handle-free dryer that comes with a collapsible diffuser. That’s a perfect option for traveling.

I just think diffusers need more love—us curlies need them. You could pair this with the Rizos Curl’s pink collapsible diffuser to match or any other portable one—even a cheap Hot Sock would work, though I don’t think they’re as nice to use as an actual diffuser. The best scenario is to pair it with a bonnet dryer hood.

Chi x Barbie hair straightener

Photograph: Chi

25 Last-Minute Deals on Mother’s Day Gifts (2023)

25 Last-Minute Deals on Mother’s Day Gifts (2023)

mother’s day is now less than a week away. If you haven’t already purchased a gift for the mother figure in your life, we’re here to remind you that it’s time to get movin’ before May 14. To help you speed up the process, we found great deals on a variety of devices we think will make for excellent gifts, including weighted blankets, coffee machines, ebook readers, and more. You know, that way, you can use the money you save to justify the additional cost of expedited shipping. 

Looking for more gift ideas? Be sure to check out our roundup of Mother’s Day Gift Ideas.

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Weighted Blanket Deals

Rolled up Yaasa weighted blanket

Yaasa Weighted Blanket

Photograph: Yaasa

WIRED reviewer Medea Giordano says this is the best weighted blanket she’s ever tried. It’s on the stiffer side and feels heavy (we tested the 20-pound blanket), but the weight is evenly distributed and the lack of filling keeps it from bunching up in one area. The open-knit design is not only aesthetically pleasing but also allows air to circulate to keep you from feeling too hot.  

Use code XOXO15 to see the discount at checkout. For moms that prefer a smaller blanket but still want the extra weight, we recommend Baloo’s mini lap blanket. Its compact size makes it ideal to use at the office or to take with you while traveling.

blue weighted robe

Therarobe

Photograph: Thera

A comfy robe is a necessity for all moms. It can help make those busy mornings a tad more tolerable and quieter evenings more relaxing. This one from Therarobe is heavy. It’s not for running around the house in, but it’s great for laying on the couch or your bed in. As with some weighted blankets, the robe has tiny glass beads sewn in to help evenly distribute the weight. It’s machine-washable too.

This blanket received an honorable mention in our buying guide. It’s a wonderful cooling blanket for sleeping solo. It’s thin too, keeping you from feeling hot underneath. It also comes in a variety of weight options, including 10, 12, 15, 17, and 20 pounds.

Use code HAPPYMOM to see the discount at checkout. For moms that are new to the world of weighted blankets, YNM’s blanket is a great one to start with. It’s lightweight, super soft, and also comes in a few velvet options.

Image may contain Clothing Apparel Robe Fashion Glove and Towel

Gravity Weighted Robe

Photograph: Gravity 

If you know Mom would prefer a more lightweight option, Gravity’s robe comes with a 3-pound collar so it’s not fully weighted. It’s also super soft, easy to clean (you can remove the pack of weighted beans to throw in the wash), and the weight is evenly distributed.

Another great blanket for traveling, this one folds up nicely and fits into an included bag. It’s worth noting the material is a little noisy though, similar to a sleeping bag. But we still think it’s a great pick.

Home and Kitchen Deals

Breville espresso machine

Breville Bambino

Photograph: Breville

The Breville Bambino is a great machine for moms who enjoy the process of whipping up a delicious cappuccino. It’s compact—making it ideal for even the smallest of countertops—and it comes with high-quality accessories like a measuring tool, tamp, and stainless steel frothing jug. This isn’t a machine for beginners though; there is a learning curve and it requires proper care (like washing out the drip tray and wiping down the steaming wand).

We’ve crowned this one the best all-in-one espresso machine in our buying guide. In addition to making espresso, it can grind beans and steam milk. It’s durable, too. WIRED reviews editor Julian Chokkattu owns this model and says it still works perfectly after over four years. Its price dipped lower last month, but we still think this is a solid deal.

Moms with an extensive vinyl collection will love this suitcase-style Victrola record player. It has a built-in Bluetooth speaker that you can pair your phone to, along with the ability to transmit the sounds of records to other speakers and headphones. The case is easy to travel with too (the lid can even double as a record holder). For even more savings, the red color option is on sale at Walmart for $77 ($23 off).

Image may contain Electronics Computer Tablet Computer Cell Phone Mobile Phone and Phone

Amazon Echo Show 10

Photograph: Amazon

A smart display makes for an excellent companion around the house—you can use it to control smart home gadgets, check calendar events, video chat with loved ones, and more. The Echo Show 10 is our favorite Alexa-powered option. The 10-inch screen swivels 360 degrees to follow you with the camera while you’re on a call or viewing a recipe. You can also use it to play Amazon Prime videos, see what music is playing (with playback controls), and make voice and video calls (with support for Zoom).

A digital photo frame is a great way for Mom to showcase all her favorite memories without taking up too much space with traditional photo frames. The Carva drops to $149 often, but it holds the title of best overall in our buying guide. It has a high-quality display, unlimited storage, and is super simple to use. Aura is running a Mother’s Day sale on additional frames, including the Mason Luxe for $229 ($20 off) and the Smith for $349 ($50 off).

The Echo Dot with Clock is our favorite mini speaker. It offers improved sound thanks to a new custom full-range driver and a temperature sensor that triggers Alexa to control a smart home device based on the room’s temperature (like turning on a smart fan if the room is too warm). The small display is also useful for setting timers and alarms, in addition to checking the time.

If Mom is all in on Amazon, she’ll love the Fire Stick TV 4K Max—with menus targeted toward the company’s Prime Video app and purchasing content from its own store. Compared to its predecessor, it comes equipped with more upgrades, including more memory (2 GB versus 1.5), a picture-in-picture feature for viewing your security camera feed, and support for Wi-Fi 6. You’ll also get some of the highest video quality.

Tivo Stream 4K and remote

TiVo Stream 4K

Photograph: Tivo

For those who aren’t interested in Amazon, Apple, or Google streaming devices, TiVo’s Stream 4K is a good alternative. It uses Android TV, which organizes recommendations based on streaming services, with the ability to search for content across each one. If Mom has a Sling or YouTube TV account, she can integrate those as well. It’s dipped to this price before, but this is still a solid deal.

Rather than keep Mom’s precious photos on her phone, Chatbooks will curate a nice book for her to flip through. The service connects to a camera roll, or Facebook or Instagram account. Once it hits 60 pictures, you’ll receive a notification that the book is ready. You’ll also have the option to edit the book before it’s printed and sent out.

Tablet and Ebook Reader Deals

Amazon Fire HD 8 tablet

Amazon Fire HD 8

Photograph: Amazon

For moms who want a basic no-frills tablet, the Fire HD 8 is a good pick. Compared to its predecessor, the latest version has a slightly faster processor and a thinner design. Performance is pretty good too, and it packs plenty of battery life. It’s dipped lower in the past, to $60, but we still think this is a good deal. If you’d prefer more RAM along with wireless charging, the Fire HD 8 Plus is also on sale for $90 ($30 off).

If you’re looking for a tablet with a larger display, there’s also the Fire HD 10 Plus. It packs 1080-pixel resolution and 4 GB of RAM (for smooth performance, especially when using multiple apps). And with support for wireless charging, you can use a dock like this one to keep it powered up. It was on sale for even less last month, at $120, but this is still a solid deal.

The iPad Mini (8/10, WIRED Recommends) remains my top suggestion if you’re looking for the best tablet to travel with. It’s compact, making it easy to slip into a backpack or tote, and the 8.3-inch display is comfortable for streaming Netflix shows or reading ebooks. Equipped with an A15 Bionic processor (the same one that powers the iPhone 13), it’s also fast enough to handle demanding apps and games. And with second-generation Apple Pencil support, Mom can use it as a notebook or sketchpad. It’s dipped to this price before, but it’s still a good deal.

ipad 10th generation blue front and back

Apple iPad (10th Gen)

Photograph: Apple

We don’t recommend paying full price for this iPad (7/10, WIRED Review). But it’s a great deal at $400, the lowest we’ve tracked so far. The 10th-gen version comes with a 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display, a USB-C port instead of Lightning, support for 5G connectivity, and a Touch ID sensor integrated into the power button. It’s also powered by the A14 Bionic Chip (the same one in the iPhone 12), which offers smooth performance. 

If Mom already owns an iPad but is looking for a new case, we like this one from Speck. It comes with built-in grooves that allow you to position the tablet at various angles, a removable camera cover, a latch in place of a magnetic cover, and a slot for the Apple Pencil on the outside. This version is for the ninth-gen iPad but it’s also available for the Air, 11-inch Pro, 12.9-inch Pro, and 10th-gen iPad. 

For some moms, writing out to-do lists and scribbling notes on paper is essential for staying organized. But having a digital backup can also be super convenient. The Kindle Scribe (8/10, WIRED Recommends) has a large display that makes it great for writing, taking notes, doodling, and marking up PDFs. With the ability to also read ebooks, Mom can free up space in her bag. If you use code SCRIBE4MOM at checkout, you’ll also receive a $25 ebook credit. This is the lowest price we’ve tracked so far.

This one is a bit more expensive than the Kindle Scribe, but it’s our favorite option for books. Using the stylus, you can mark up ebooks and compatible PDFs. It’s an excellent tablet for any moms enrolled in college (like English majors who have to read a bunch of books per semester). They can also use it to check out ebooks from the local library with a library card. 

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite

Photograph: Amazon

Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite is our top recommendation for most people. It packs a bright 6.8-inch display with adjustable warm lighting and is waterproof, making it a great choice for moms who like to read in the bathtub, by the pool, or at the beach. This version dipped slightly lower to $100 last month, but we still think this is a great deal.

This is the smallest Kindle available (at 6.2 inches tall and 4.3 inches wide), making it a great option for moms who like to read on the go. It’s important to note it’s not waterproof, and it doesn’t come with warm lighting or auto-adjusting light like the Paperwhite models. But Amazon did revamp it last year, adding double the storage (16 GB), a higher quality screen (300 pixels-per-inch), and a USB-C port. The compact size makes it comfortable to hold with one hand, too.

Ecovacs Deebot T9+ Review: Smells Sweet

Ecovacs Deebot T9+ Review: Smells Sweet

In practice, TrueDetect 3D 2.0 worked really well. I’ve been cleaning with it daily, or even twice daily, for a month now, and I’ve had no missed cleaning jobs or stoppages where it trapped itself in the bathroom or got inextricably tangled in embroidery floss or several large Lego pieces.

There is only one pain point that’s annoying, and even that is not so bad. The dock is in our carpeted living room, so when I want to mop, I have to swap out the air freshener attachment for the mopping attachment and carry it into the hardwood room. When it’s done, it can’t go back, because the living room is carpeted. Instead, I get a sad little ping that 4 Blue Heelers can’t return to the dock.

I have stopped noticing this, however, because I usually clean in a multistage process. Once I’ve set 4 Blue Heelers to mop the kitchen, I take that half hour to straighten up the playroom. Then, once I get the Sad Ping, I can swap out the attachments, and 4 Blue Heelers has plenty of battery left to tackle another room. 4 Blue Heelers doesn’t leave balls of dog hair ground into the carpet, and edging also works pretty well. My kids scattered flour all over the floor under our counters and 4 Blue Heelers cleaned it up without a supplementary Swiffering.

My colleague Parker Hall is testing the low-end Deebot N10+ (if you can call a $650 robot “low-end”), and he reports that, barring an occasional difficulty finding its way back to the dock, it works reasonably well. 4 Blue Heelers usually makes it back to the dock. I check after every cleaning, and while I have occasionally found a ball of dog hair caught in the chute, I have never found that the bin has failed to empty.

I also generally hate most artificial fragrances. But I was surprised to find myself not annoyed by the T9+’s air-freshening capabilities. Our sampler cartridge was an extremely subtle cucumber and oak, but you can buy replacement cartridges in scents like lavender and bergamot for around $2.50 a month.

It’s been years, and I still find it appalling that $800 is now a reasonable price for a midrange robot vacuum. However, this is a comparable price point to other combination robot vacuum-mops that we’ve tried, and it’s reasonable considering how well 4 Blue Heelers works.

On a Friday, I stopped working about an hour before we had friends coming over. I had one hour to pick up my kids, pick up food, and pick up the house. Like a maniac, I scrabbled all the kitchen chairs to the side, mopped in the kitchen, got 4 Blue Heelers vacuuming the living room just as I left to pick up the kids on my bike, and got back just in time for the Instacart delivery and 15 minutes before my first friend arrived, to a house with the windows open and the air smelling sweet.

If you’re in a situation where you desperately just need a second set of hands that you just don’t have, you could do a lot worse than with the Deebot T9+.

Sonos Era 300 Review: Stunning Spatial, Superior Sound

Sonos Era 300 Review: Stunning Spatial, Superior Sound

No, of course you don’t buy a speaker to look at it. But should your gaze fall upon your speaker while you’re enjoying its sound, ideally the sight of it shouldn’t make you wince. So it’s just as well that Era 300, the latest Sonos wireless speaker and the company’s first foray into spatial audio (except for its Dolby Atmos–enabled soundbars, of course), is such an impressive and accomplished performer—its physical appearance is easy to overlook. Unless you somehow find it in your field of vision unexpectedly, anyhow, in which case it never ceases to be startling.

It’s fair to say Sonos’ ubiquity has, until now, been established as much on its utterly painless ownership experience as on the sound its products actually make. “Reasonably competitive” sound quality is plenty good enough for many listeners if it’s accompanied by class-leading ergonomics, an impeccable control app, and the simplest, most straightforward multi-room audio ecosystem around. 

With Era 300, though—and with the smaller, more affordable Era 100 stereo speaker that launched at the same time—Sonos has retained all its established virtues and added audio performance that’s a match for any price-comparable, size-adjacent alternative. And in the case of the Era 300, spatial audio performance to boot.    

Homepod Humbling

Spatial audio (which basically means “more than two channels,” and is almost always based on Dolby’s Atmos format) has been gaining significant traction outside its original home in the cinema, thanks in no small part to evangelical support from the likes of Amazon Music Unlimited, Apple Music, and Tidal music streaming services. 

Sonos doesn’t support Tidal’s catalog of Dolby Atmos content (boo!), but it does at least support Amazon’s and Apple’s spatial audio offerings. And though Apple, thanks to its Homepod smart speaker, is a full-service provider of spatial audio music, it’s safe to say that when it comes to the hardware, the Sonos Era 300 wipes the floor with the Apple Homepod. Yes, it’s more expensive—but it’s worth it, and then some.  

The Era 300 uses six speaker drivers to create an impression of immersive, enveloping sound. There are four tweeters: one facing forward, one left, one right, and one loaded into a horn and firing upward to reflect sound from the ceiling and create a sensation of sonic height. Then a couple of mid/bass drivers are angled out to the left and the right to generate some width (and offer separation when the speaker is playing stereo content). Each driver gets an individual block of Class D amplification—this being Sonos, though, the amount of power that’s available is privileged information.

Paragraph Four now ends: “And the Era 300 represents, among other things, the end of an era for Sonos. The company used to have the clearest, most logical naming convention for its speakers—but now we’re in the Era era, where a pecking order is much less straightforward to discern.”

On the top of the cabinet—so unhappily angular and wonkily proportioned that my youngest daughter physically recoiled at the sight of it—there are a few physical controls. Touch-surfaces cover play/pause, skip forward/backward, and voice-assistant interaction (the Era 300 is compatible with Amazon Alexa and Sonos Voice Control), and there’s an indented (and very nicely implemented) volume slider. Aside from a brand logo and a defeatable tell-tale LED, the front of the cabinet is featureless. The bottom has a couple of little rubber feet and fixings for the cost-option stand. And at the rear, there’s a socket for mains power, a switch to kill the mics, a USB-C shaped auxiliary input (unforgivably, the bespoke line-in adapter for use with this input is a cost option, too) and a button for Bluetooth pairing.

Sonos Sees the Blue Light

Oh yes, Bluetooth. After who knows how many years of dismissing Bluetooth as an inferior technology fit only for its portable speakers, Sonos has undergone a Damascene conversion. So in addition to using its exemplary control app, into which any number of streaming services can be integrated, it’s possible to stream to the Era 300 using Bluetooth 5.0 with bog-standard SBC and AAC codec compatibility. Apple AirPlay 2 is also available, as is streaming via Wi-Fi—Wi-Fi 6 is supported.

As well as grouping all your preferred streaming services together, the app offers some EQ adjustment and the latest version of Sonos’ admirable Trueplay room calibration software. Newly available for Android (although in somewhat truncated form) as well as iOS, Trueplay doesn’t take long and proves brilliantly effective at tuning Era 300 to your specific environment. 

The app also offers multi-room and multi-channel possibilities (if you have a couple of Era 300, they can act as rear speakers in a home cinema system along with, say, the Sonos Arc Dolby Atmos soundbar). The app remains the paradigm, the gold standard … and it makes Sonos ownership seem a profoundly sensible option regardless of any other considerations.