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DJI Mavic 2 Zoom/Pro drones unveiled: Hasselblad cam/2x optical, quieter. more

Mavic 2 Pro Zoom

If you’re a fan of stunning aerial footage around Apple Park, DJI just made it easier to capture your own with the Mavic 2. Our sister-site DroneDJ is on location at DJI’s latest product unveiling in New York City where the drone maker is launching two new consumer quadcopters with some serious specs.

Mavic 2 Zoom (DJI, Amazon) packs a 2x optical zoom lens for capturing hard-to-reach scenes from the sky. If optics are your focus, Mavic 2 Pro (DJI, Amazon) touts an onboard Hasselblad L1D-20c camera with a 20 MP shooter and 10-bit HDR video capture.


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Review: Zephyr’s drone simulator is a great if pricey way to improve your flying skills

One of the downsides of living in a city is that opportunities to fly your drone tend to be limited. Where I live is well inside the massive chunk of drone-free air over London. Indeed, I’m inside both controlled airspace for my nearest airport (London City, less than five miles away) and a separate Restricted Area above central London.

So if I want to reach clear airspace, it’s either a car ride or train journey away – which means I only really do it when I have a specific reason or project in mind. That makes it hard to build on, or even maintain, my flying skills.

DJI of course has its own drone simulator built into the DJI Go app, but it’s more of a conceptual implementation than an accurate simulation of real-world physics. Which is why I decided to try Zephyr, a simulator for the Mac and Windows that claims to accurately model the actual flight characteristics of the drones it covers …


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Realistic AR drone simulator is fun today, could signal the start of much more [Video]

An augmented reality drone simulator powered by Apple’s ARKit allows users to fly a virtual quadrocopter wherever they are.

“ARKit is a game-changer,” says Taylor Moore, co-founder of CircleSquare Entertainment. “We were actually working very hard on a drone racing game – but dropped everything when we realized that we could offer iOS users the kind of augmented reality no one has ever seen before. DroneTopolis AR is like having a Drone in your Pocket.”

You can fly your virtual drone in places the real thing wouldn’t be allowed, fly through virtual ‘hoops’ and record and stream your flights to share with friends …


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Drone Diary: The DJI Mavic Pro flies autonomously using the Litchi app

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Flying a drone manually is fun, but there are some manoeuvres that are virtually impossible to fly smoothly. Circling an object or person, for example. You’d need to constantly change the balance of forward/backward and left/right inputs to fly the circle in the first place, then simultaneously keep rotating the camera by just the right amount to keep it pointed at the centre of the circle. Anyone who can do that perfectly is either a drone genius or has way more than the usual number of hands.

The DJI Go app offers a range of intelligent flight modes – aka autonomous flying. But a third-party app, Litchi, goes even further: it allows you to program your flight path in Google Earth before you even leave home. As soon as you arrive on site, just load the pre-programmed flight and hit Start.

I decided to give it a go with my ultraportable drone, the DJI Mavic Pro I reviewed last month


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Drone Diary: A review of the DJI Mavic Pro, an ultra-portable prosumer drone

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I’ve been keeping a watching brief on drones for some time. They had immediate and obvious gadget appeal. I mean, proper drones are both radio-controlled flying vehicles and high-end cameras – what’s not to love?

But decent ones are expensive, and I feared that they might be one of those things I’d find fun for a short time before the novelty wore off. I didn’t want to spend a four-figure sum on something that would soon be relegated to a cupboard.

Then a few family members got together to buy my father a DJI Phantom for his birthday, which gave me some hands-on experience. I was starting to get the itch, but still resisting. After all, what would I actually do with it?

Travel was the only situation I could think of where I might make use of one, but small ones were poor quality and high quality ones weren’t exactly compatible with my handbaggage-only approach to travel. Then along came the DJI Mavic Pro – a folding drone whose spec was virtually identical to the Phantom 4 but with a folded size so small it was almost pocketable …


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Apple Campus 2 construction progress gets a close up in latest 4K drone flyover

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Today we get one of the best looks yet at Apple’s under construction “Campus 2” in Cupertino with a drone flyover video courtesy of Emory Peterson and aerial photography company Above Reno.

The video, shot in 4K over Labor Day weekend earlier this month, gets us up close with Apple’s rapidly progressing Campus 2 project scheduled for completion in late 2016. Above Reno notes the video was “filmed at or below 400 feet above ground level with clearance from the local FAA office.”
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9to5Toys Last Call: car jump starter/power bank $60, DJI Phantom drone $299, Bluetooth headphones, more

Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: TwitterRSS FeedFacebookGoogle+ and Safari push notifications.

Today’s can’t miss deals:

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Last Call Updates:

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Daily Deals: Anker Car Jump Starter and Portable Power Bank $60, TaoTronics iPhone 6 Car Mount $5, more

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DJI Phantom 1.1.1 Quadcopter with GoPro Mount $299 shipped (Orig. $349)

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Bluetooth headphones: Sol Republic Tracks Air $75 (Reg. $150), JBL J56BT on-ears $44 (Reg. $149), more

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The 5 biggest iOS and Android games announced at this year’s E3 Expo

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Beats by Dr. Dre Powerbeats2 Wireless Bluetooth Headphones in multiple colors: $150 shipped (Reg. $200)

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Ondesoft Mac Bundle with X-Mirage, iTunes Converter, Audiobook Converter and more: free ($146 value)

The Big Deal photography bundle with training tools, memberships for $99 ($4,000+ value)

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Quick Review: Kano’s Raspberry Pi 2 computer kit shines as a learning tool for kids and DIYers alike

More new gear from today:

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More deals still alive:

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ZAGG Folio/Profolio+ iPad Bluetooth Keyboard Cases: $28 shipped (Orig. $90+)

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Belkin Thunderbolt 2 Express Dock HD w/ 1-Meter Cable: $205 shipped (Reg. $300

New products & more:

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Simple Station Dock is an industrial all-in-one charging solution for Apple Watch & iPhone

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Super Smash Bros. updates, Star Fox rolls onto Wii U, more

New games & hardware announced at E3 make Xbox One deserving of a second look

Sony shows Last Guardian, Final Fantasy VII remake, Uncharted 4, Star Wars, more

Microsoft unveils new hardware, 360 compatibility + Forza 6, Halo 5, more

Bethesda’s real life Pip Boy for iPhone/Android, Dishonored 2, Doom, more

Xbox Live Gold Members can enjoy EA Access for free this week

Drone flies low to give first close-up look at Apple’s new Campus 2 auditorium (Video)

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A new flyover of Apple’s under construction Campus 2 project in Cupertino, California gives us one of our closest look yet at the site. We also get our first detailed look at work started on Apple’s new auditorium on the campus where it plans to host events when the project is complete.

The video below comes courtesy of MyithZ who was able to get these shots from just 120ft up, much closer than previous drone flyovers and Apple’s own aerial shots.


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Latest 4K drone video of Apple Campus 2 posted, roof now started

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The latest 4K flyover video showing construction progress on Apple’s Campus 2 has just arrived in our inbox. Thanks to our good friend MyithZ, we see that the full internal structure has now been started including all the way to the roof in one part of the video.

The full drone flyover is available in full 4K video below:
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Next-generation drones will go where you point your iPhone and never crash, says startup

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Drones are a lot of fun, but making them to exactly what you want them to isn’t always easy, and a fair number of them are damaged or destroyed in crashes. Skydio, a startup formed by ex-MIT and Google X engineers, is hoping to change that by turning your iPhone into a ‘magic wand’ controller, reports TechCrunch.

To demo its auto-pilot system, it’s built a drone “magic wand” that lets you direct a drone by simply pointing your phone where you want it go. That means you don’t need the traditional, clunky dual joystick drone controller.

Today’s drones use cameras to allow you to shoot photos and video, and feed the video back to your phone or controller. What Skydio does is use that same video feed to construct a 3D map of the surroundings and feed it to the drone’s flight controller, so it can automatically avoid obstacles.

The team demonstrated the technology by flying a radio-controlled aircraft at speed through an underground parking garage, and a drone through a cluttered office–seen in the above video.

Some of today’s drones have ‘follow me’ functions aimed at those into action sports like mountain biking and skiing, but Skydio believes that using 3D mapping will allow a drone to perform this kind of function far more intelligently, using its awareness of the terrain to ensure the best possible coverage of your heroic endeavors.

The team plans to partner with drone manufacturers, and recently raised $3M in seed capital to create the custom hardware to pitch it to drone makers.

One series of drone flights of particular interest to us, of course, are those made by Myithz, showing construction progress at the Apple Campus 2. The most recent video, earlier this month, was filmed in 4K.

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Apple shares updated aerial image showing Campus 2 construction progress

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Just after sharing our latest drone flyover video of Apple’s under construction “Campus 2” in Cupertino this weekend (this time in 4K), Apple today shared an updated aerial shot of the campus.

The shot shows early progress being made on the structure of the main building and other buildings on the campus as well as earthwork and greenery on the surrounding property.

The City of Cupertino’s website, which tracks construction and traffic updates related to the Campus 2 project for locals hasn’t changed the project schedule that still calls for building construction to wrap up by the end of 2016.

Apple has recently opened a number of smaller satellite offices in Sweden, Seattle, and Cambridge, Englandbut it expects its new 176 acre Cupertino campus to hold around 12,000 of its employees when construction is complete.

Check out the latest drone flyover video of the Campus 2 site (in 4K!) from over the weekend.

Apple Campus 2 December 2014 update + Drone Flyover video

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Our bi-monthly drone flight over Apple’s Campus 2 doesn’t reveal anything huge but things are definitely moving along from last time, especially in the foundation. Check the YouTube below and thanks again to Myithz, our eye in the sky.
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Apple Campus 2 Drone video update

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It appears that most of the foundation is laid now in an update from a video taken by a drone two weeks ago.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has called Apple’s Campus 2 the ‘Greenest in the World’. The controversial structure which will house 12,000 staff in 2.8M square feet on 176 acres and is estimated to be completed in 2016. Interestingly, even though Apple is covering the construction site with a high green wall, it is updating the 3D flyover of the location in Apple Maps somewhat frequently. The latest looks like it was taken earlier this summer.

An official updated aerial shot from Apple was also posted on the City of Cupertino’s website:

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You can follow the progress in our Campus 2 story line here. We’re going to try to get a new video every few weeks so stay tuned.

 

CES 2014: Hands-on w/ Parrot’s Jumping Sumo insect robot toy (Video)

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Yesterday we gave you our hands-on demo video of the latest MiniDrone quadricopter from Parrot, and today we got a demo of the new Parrot Jumping Sumo: a Wi-Fi connected “insect robot” toy that can turn on a dime and jump up to 30 inches.It’s controlled via an iOS app, packs in a gyroscope and accelerometer, and can roll and turn 90 degrees with quite impressive precision.
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CES 2014: Parrot demos new iOS controlled ‘MiniDrone’ quadricopter coming later this year [Video]

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Parrot, the company best known for its AR Drone quadricopter, today unveiled a few of its latest iOS controlled vehicles including a smaller quadricopter called ‘MiniDrone’. We shot the videos above and below tonight during the official CES Unveiled press event and were quite impressed with the MiniDrone’s agility. Unlike its bigger brother, Parrot’s new drone sports removable wheels on either side allowing it to run smoothly along the floor, wall, or ceiling before taking off again into mid-air. It’s also extremely agile thanks to a number of built-in sensors, an auto-pilot mode, and a super lightweight design, as you’ll see in the video below.
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