DJI’s Goggles put you in the cockpit of a drone
No, this isn’t another VR headset. These are video goggles from DJI. Why would you want a headset from DJI? Because it connects wirelessly to the company’s new foldable Mavic Pro drone, giving you a live, bird’s eye view from the camera (in 1080p no less). The idea isn’t new, in drone circles it’s pretty common to see bespectacled pilots, especially in racing, where “FPV” (as it’s called — first person view), is the only way to fly the drones at such breakneck speed. DJI announced the goggles (actually called “DJI Goggles”) at its big Mavic launch event last week, but they weren’t giving demos. We managed to get a rare ride inside them, and it’s a whole bunch of fun.
If you follow our drone news here on Engadget, you may have seen a similar pair from DJI’s rival Yuneec. There’s a lot in common between these two products, at least aesthetically, but DJI’s offer a better resolution (full HD, rather than 720p) and connect wirelessly over the firm’s proprietary “OcuSync” video link for a cable free experience. Right now, the goggles only work with the Mavic Pro, but you can expect more DJI drones to be compatibile going forward.
Let’s talk about the actual headset for a second though. It’s pretty chunky (and not much of a hot fashion look), but the single adjustable hoop-style headband (similar to Sony’s PSVR) makes them much more comfortable than the typical headband that tends to press VR headsets against your face. The front section may be large, but it doesn’t feel heavy.
On the inside are two 1080p panels (rather than one split screen), with an 85-degree field of view. This is a little less than what you’d find in an Oculus Rift or Vive (which offer around 90 to 100 degrees FOV), but it’s still pretty good. On the base of the goggles are two buttons for navigating menus, and a scroll wheel for focus. There’s also a flap on the side covering some connectors, but DJI didn’t show us what was there in our demo. Hopefully at least HDMI input for doubling as a video viewer, some rival headsets also can record the live feed to a memory card. There’s also no mention of head-tracking to move the camera, unless it’s being kept under wraps.
The displays are incredibly bright and clear, and the video feed beaming down from the Mavic soaring above looked crystal clear and the connection was faultless. I had the benefit of one of DJI’s experienced pilots at the sticks; it’s not recommended you fly solo with these. If you can do so legally in your region (or you own lots of land), it changes the game completely. Not only is it straight up a much more sensory experience, you can often fly more competently — as you’re always seeing from the front of the drone, which keeps your orientation “forward” whatever direction the drone is facing.
There is also the option to connect two pairs of goggles to the same Mavic, meaning a friend can fly along with you. More traditional drone goggles go one further, using common radio frequencies, so anyone can tune in to the same ride, but it’s still nice to be able to share the experience.
Video goggles for drones come in all sorts of shapes and sizes (and price points). Usually the more affordable options require more work to connect them to your quad, or have a trade off in comfort, style and functionality. DJI’s pair were the nicest I’ve seen in terms of build-quality and user experience, making them much friendlier to the mainstream user. What will really determine their success though is the cost.
Yuneec’s SkyView goggles will run you $250, and a pair or radio-based FatSharks about the same (depending on your resolution of choice). DJI hasn’t put a price sticker on the Goggles yet, or confirmed a release date, but if it can match Yuneec, these will be the accessory to get for those hoping for a Mavic under the christmas tree.
Google wanted to sell intelligent robot arms (but didn’t)
Google (and parent company Alphabet) build a lot more hardware than fancy new smartphones and AI assistants — it’s just that a lot of it doesn’t make it out of the lab. Take these advanced robotic arms, for example: Alphabet’s robotics group built the arms, which were used in a research project to show how Google’s software helps robots learn from each other over time. But despite their apparent usefulness, Alphabet CEO Larry Page decided to cancel plans to sell the hardware because it failed Page’s “toothbrush test.” As Bloomberg reports, Page only wants to ship products that could be used daily by billions of people, and these robotic arms are significantly more niche than that.
At the time the robot arms were built, the robotics division was part of Google, but near the end of the year the group was moved under Alphabet and plans to sell the arms to manufacturing companies and similar operations were nixed. It’s a move that caused frustration within the robotics group, which felt that Alphabet has a tendency to be too cautious with its more experimental ventures.
“It was still a prototype, but it had a lot of advantages,” James Kuffner, chief technology officer at the Toyota Research Institute and previous lead of Google’s robotics unit, said to Bloomberg. “The team worked really hard. If it had been entirely up to me I would have shipped it. But it was not.”
It’s an example of what some at Alphabet apparently feel is a trend for the company to put smaller projects on hold in the chase for a “moonshot” that’ll have a huge impact — if it works. It’s illustrative of the conflict within Alphabet: Google has some of the most popular and widely-used products around, so releasing any product associated with the brand runs a risk of tarnishing its reputation (just look what happened with Google Glass).
That’s not to say that projects like the robotic arm are a waste — Google’s clearly been using them to learn more about how robots can collectively learn based on the behaviors of other robots, something that fits right in with the company’s focus on machine learning. But in terms of turning the hardware into revenue generating hardware, these arms seem to land pretty far from the toothbrush-level ubiquity that Page looks for.
Source: Bloomberg
Watch the Oculus Connect 3 keynote at 1PM ET
Oculus’ developer conference is going down in San Jose, California this week and today the keynote address will reveal the big news. You can stream all of the announcements as they happen at Oculus Connect 3 on Twitch or if you happen to own a compatible headset, you can watch with NextVR. On top of a load of software news, we’re expecting to get more details on those Touch controllers, including final pricing and an official release date. The event starts at 1:00 PM ET/10:00 AM PT and we’ve embedded the stream down below for your viewing pleasure.
Watch live video from Oculus on http://www.twitch.tv
Source: Oculus (Twitch)
Giphy Cam finally arrives on Android
After 14 months of breathless waiting, Android users can finally experience the Instagram of GIFs. Giphy released its Giphy Cam app to the Play store on Thursday. The app allows you to record GIFs, apply various filters and fades, as well as overlay text and emoji. Unfortunately, the Android version doesn’t currently appear to be able to import video and generate GIFs from that source, as the iOS version can. However a Giphy rep did explain that the Android version should be getting camera roll import as well as the AR capabilities announced for iOS this morning, in coming the months.
A quick tour of Engadget HQ West
Speaking of iOS updates, Giphy rolled out a new Giphy Cam for iOS on Thursday morning as well. Dubbed Giphy Cam 2.5, its marquee new feature is Augmented Reality. Rather than capture video directly from the camera or pull it from the camera roll, the new Giphy Cam will overlay graphics and sprites atop live video — Pokemon Go-style. You can then generate gifs from the augmented feed.
Staples and British Airline easyJet Now Accept Apple Pay on Web
Staples, a leading office supplies chain, has announced that its mobile website now accepts Apple Pay for convenient and secure payments using Safari on iPhone or iPad. The feature eliminates the requirement to manually fill out account, shipping, and billing information repeatedly for a more seamless checkout experience.
Likewise, British low-cost airline easyJet, the second-largest airline in Europe by number of passengers carried, has announced that customers can now use Apple Pay in Safari for bookings made on easyJet.com, including both its desktop website on Mac and mobile website on iPhone and iPad.
Apple Pay on the web works with iPhone 6 and later, iPad Pro, iPad Air 2, and iPad mini 3 and later. iOS 10 or later is required.
Meanwhile, in Russia, Apple Pay can now be used at select BP gas stations in the Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Pskov, Tver, Smolensk, and Novgorod regions, in addition to on the web with Safari for Russian airline Aeroflot, including both its desktop website on Mac and mobile website on iPhone and iPad.
Apple Pay officially launched in Russia earlier this week, two years after its U.S. debut. The mobile payments service is also available in Australia, Canada, China, France, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Switzerland, with New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan, and other regions set to follow in the near future.
Apple Pay on the web is a new feature in Safari on iOS 10 and macOS Sierra, expanding upon in-store and in-app payments. The feature started rolling out in September on websites such as Indiegogo, StubHub, and Wayfair, with other committed partners including Airbnb, Fandango, Target, Ticketmaster, and more.
Related Roundup: Apple Pay
Tags: Staples, easyJet
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Yahoo Adapted Email-Scanning Spam Filter to Satisfy ‘Secret Court Order’ Related to Terrorist Hunt
Following a report yesterday that cited three former Yahoo employees who claimed the company built a program to scan every customer’s email for specific information at the order of the United States government, new pieces of information have surfaced in a separate article from The New York Times. Specifically, anonymous sources close to the matter said that Yahoo built the program by adapting a filter meant to scan email inboxes for child pornography, malware, and basic spam content.
Yahoo was said to have done this in order to “satisfy a secret court order,” created to require the company to search for content containing a specific computer signature related to online communications of an unspecified state-sponsored terrorist group. Two of the anonymous sources — referred to as “government officials” — mentioned the Justice Department received the order from a judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court sometime last year, an order that Yahoo was “barred from disclosing” to the public.
Through its modifications to the spam filter program, Yahoo complied with the Justice Department’s order and made available any email that contained the signature, but as of now that collection method “is no longer taking place.” The order was described as “unusual” because it required the scanning of individual emails instead of user accounts as a whole, and was allegedly only given to Yahoo as other tech companies, including Apple, have said they never encountered such a demand.
In response to a request for comment, an Apple spokesperson told BuzzFeed News, “We have never received a request of this type. If we were to receive one, we would oppose it in court.”
A Microsoft spokesperson said, “We have never engaged in the secret scanning of email traffic like what has been reported today about Yahoo.”
A Google spokesperson told BuzzFeed News, “We’ve never received such a request, but if we did, our response would be simple: no way.”
According to the sources, federal investigators learned last year that members of a foreign terrorist organization were communicating using Yahoo’s email service, through a method that used a “highly unique” designator, or signature, in each communication. Although built to look for specific content, the modified program’s far-reaching scanning of each user on the service brought about unrest in the user base when the original report came out yesterday. Yahoo’s compliance is also being contrasted to Apple’s obstinate response in its battle with the FBI earlier in the year.
After the news broke, Yahoo said that the Reuters story was “misleading” and that the email scanning outlined in the report “does not exist on our systems.” Compounding the company’s woes, last month Yahoo confirmed that “at least” 500 million user accounts were compromised during an attack in late 2014, leaking customer information like names, email addresses, telephone numbers, birthdates, hashed passwords, and both encrypted and unencrypted security questions and answers. In the midst of all of this, Yahoo’s pending acquisition by Verizon could potentially face negative effects.
Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
Tag: Yahoo
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Polar M200 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
Tuukka Koski/Polar
Polar on Thursday announced the Polar M200, an entry-level GPS running watch and smart fitness tracker with a built-in optical heart-rate sensor. In addition to tracking pace and distance when running, the $150 (£150, about AU$200) watch doubles as an all-day fitness tracker and can measure steps, distance, calories burned and sleep at night.
It also supports notifications from an iPhone or Android smartphone. The M200 will vibrate to alert you to incoming calls, text messages, calendar events and social media notifications. It also includes inactivity alerts to keep you moving throughout the day.
The watch syncs with the Polar Flow app on Android and iOS. Here you can view detailed information on workouts and all day activities. The app also includes a running program that will build you a “personalized and adaptive training plan” for events ranging from a 5K all the way to a marathon.
The M200 is waterproof down to 30 meters (about 98 feet), and can be worn in the shower and while swimming. Polar has said the battery will last up to 6 hours with an active GPS signal and heart-rate tracking, which is a bit disappointing. The comparable Garmin Forerunner 35 is able to squeeze out an impressive 13 hours of battery life under the same circumstances. Polar also didn’t specify how long the watch would last as a normal fitness tracker.
The Polar M200 will be available later this year for $150, £150, and about AU$200.
Parrot Mambo MiniDrone Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
The Parrot Mambo is a tiny drone that fits in the palm of your hand.
Aloysius Low/CNET
Parrot’s minidrones aren’t really designed for shooting awesome aerial videos. Smaller drones like the palm-sized Mambo are there to let you experience the joy of piloting a drone without forking out too much cash.
Retailing for $120 (which converts to about £95 or AU$160), the Mambo costs a lot less than the higher-end Bebop 2 ($549). It’s quite a fun toy to play with, but it does have its limitations. For one thing, you only get 8 minutes of flight time, which passes quicker than you think.
I found the drone pretty easy to control once I got the hang of it. It took me about one minute to figure it out, despite having never flown a drone before. You can fly it either with your phone or the Parrot Flypad controller. If you’ve flown other Parrot drones, you’ll recognize the control scheme as well and won’t need to learn how to fly all over again.
The Mambo has a flight time of 8 minutes if loaded with accessories such as the cannon accessory, and 9 minutes without.
Aloysius Low/CNET
You can outfit your Mambo with a peashooter cannon or a grabber that can lift up to 4g (0.14 oz). Getting hit by the peashooter won’t hurt, but it’s hard to find the tiny pellets after you’ve fired them. The grabber doesn’t lift much, but Parrot has a video showing the Mambo lifting a sugar cube to drop into tea, so if you practice hard enough, you might impress a visitor from the UK when they drop by your place.
The Parrot Mambo makes for a fun introduction to drone flying, but don’t expect to do much more with this. The short battery life also means you may want to invest in a spare battery to swap in when the Mambo’s juice runs out.
Key specs:
- Quadcopter-style drone
- 550mAh battery for around 8 minutes of flight
- Comes with a peashooter cannon and a grabber accessory
- Uses Bluetooth to stay connected with your phone
- Requires iOS 7 or Android 4.3 an above
Parrot Swing MiniDrone Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
The Swing is able to hover like a quadcoter, or switch to plane mode where it flies horizontally.
Aloysius Low/CNET
If piloting a quad-copter drone isn’t your cup of tea, why not try one that flies more like a plane instead? That’s the idea behind Parrot’s Swing minidrone, which features a unique X-shaped design that feels like something from Star Wars.
Lacking the sleek fuselage of an X-Wing fighter, the Swing is all about the wings. There’s not much to look at, to be honest, but there’s more than meets the eye when the Swing takes to the air. It costs $140, which converts to around £110 or AU$185.
The Parrot Flypad controller lets you use the controller to switch between quad-copter and plane modes, and you can choose between three different speeds. I was easily able to get the Swing to take off and weave around for a good 8 minutes or so, but I felt I hadn’t really learnt how to control it in the short time I spent with the Swing.
Plane mode is a lot trickier to learn, given that the drone will constantly be moving. And be warned: Making a mistake will send it crashing into something. But if you’re worried about crashing, you can quickly hit the stop key. That switches the drone back into hover-quadcopter mode.
The Flypad controller allows you to control the Swing at a distance of up to 60m.
Aloysius Low/CNET
If you’re wondering whether you should get one, consider this: The Swing isn’t the easiest drone to learn but it offers plenty of fun, especially when you’re zooming around in plane mode. Unfortunately, that’s all you’ll be doing. The drone doesn’t offer a camera for video recording or any other features. It also uses Bluetooth, which means range is limited to around 20m, but you can increase this to 60m using the Flypad controller. Battery life, as mentioned, isn’t very good either, but you can swap in a fresh new battery as needed.
Key specs:
- Can switch between quadcopter or plane mode
- Can go up to 30 kph, or around 18.6 mph
- Compatible with iOS 7 or Android 4.4
- Up to 8.5 minutes of flight time
Google Pixel XL vs Samsung Galaxy Note 7 first look
Google has taken the wraps off the Pixel XL, their new flagship handset, so it is only natural to compare it to one of our all-time favorite series. In this post we are putting the new Google Pixel XL right up against the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. Shall we get started?
Right off the bat you can tell these are two very different smartphones. The Google Pixel XL brings forth a style we have grown very used to in the industry. It has a metal design and a sleek body that has become a standard in the high-end market. Meanwhile, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 sports the same metal edge and glass front and back currently recognizable in all the latest Samsung handsets.
But that is all looks, right? Which one looks and feels best is a matter of preference. What we can tell you more about is resistance. The Google Pixel XL rocks an IP53 rating, which makes it dust and splash resistant. Meanwhile, Samsung goes all out with an IP68 rating – it is dust tight and can be immersed in water up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 also has that now-iconic curve along the edges of the front. This doesn’t do too much in terms of functionality, but it does make the phone feel thinner and more comfortable in the hand. The Google Pixel XL is also a beauty to hold, though. It’s just a matter of whether you like metal or glass better. What we can say is that the Google Pixel XL feels very solid. It is manufactured by HTC, after all. Samsung phones do tend to feel a little more fragile.
In terms of color choices both handsets have a few, but the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 will grant more options. Sammy’s handset comes in Silver, Gold Platinum, Blue Coral, Black Onyx. Meanwhile, Google’s new phone has three variants: Very Silver, Quite Black and Really Blue (yes, that’s what they are calling these colors).
USB Type-C continues to become the standard and now we can see both handset featuring the new port. It can still be hard to adapt to it, due to lack of adoption, but it is the future and does provide certain improvements. A reversible connector, faster transfer speeds and better compatibility are only a few examples.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 comes with a slightly larger screen, but the quality turns out to be nearly as good in both cases. Google’s Pixel XL features a 5.5-inch AMOLED display with a 2560×1440 resolution, while Samsung’s phablet touts a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED panel with the same definition.
High-end specs can only get so good nowadays, and both phones are nearing the current threshold.
In terms of performance we should see nearly identical results. High-end specs can only get so good nowadays, and both phones are nearing the current threshold. The Pixel features a powerful Snapdragon 821 processor with 4 GB of RAM, and the Note 7 is not far behind with its Exynos 8890. But when it comes to internal storage the Google Pixel XL has the upper hand, as it comes in variations of 32 and 128 GB. The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is limited to a single 64 GB version.
Things change once we start considering external memory, though. Google has built no expandable storage support into the new Pixel phones, and Samsung’s device can take microSD cards.
Battery life should also be pretty similar, as both phones feature nearly identical specs. The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 does have a bigger 3,500 mAh battery, but it only beats the Pixel XL by 50 mAh. The Galaxy Note 7 does win this round too, though, as it has better options for charging. Both come with fast-charging capabilities, but this time around Google is doing away with wireless charging, something many of us consider disappointing.
Shall we talk security? These handsets have great fingerprint readers with super fast recognition, but Samsung is bringing something interesting to the table – an iris scanner, which uses a dedicated camera near the selfie cam to search for a registered set of eyes to unlock the phone.
At first sight it may seem like these cameras are very similar, but there are a few key differences to be noted. The 12.3 MP Pixel XL camera has no OIS, but does promise large pixels (better light intake), super fast laser auto-focus, an f/2.0 aperture, slow motion and 4K video capture.
See also: Shootout: How good is the new Pixel XL camera?54
The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 doesn’t fall behind, though, and some may say it is better. Its 12 MP sensor does have a better f/1.7 aperture, optical image stabilization and a dual pixel set-up for improved light intake. You can be sure we will be testing sample photos further. For now we really can’t pass judgement on which is better.
Overall, the user experience of these phones will predicate on Android and multitasking preferences. The Note 7 has a myriad of features to boast, including all of the different methods of multitasking that include the Multi Window and the Pop-Up View – and, of course, the S Pen brings its own very long list of features to the fold. Sharing is easier than ever in the Note, with tools like Screen Write, the Notes application that consolidates pretty much all ways of working with digital notes, and the Smart Select that now has a tool for recording 15 second GIFs of (almost) anything that is going on in the given frame. And for the users who need a constant reminder of any piece of information, the Screen Off Memo can pin notes to the Always on Display so that it is constantly within view.
Also read:
- Samsung Galaxy Note 7 review
- Google Pixel and Pixel XL hands-on
- Google Pixel and Pixel XL vs the competition
The Google Pixel XL is limited by what the vanilla Android experience has to offer. It is a better option for those who prefer a cleaner experience with no bells and whistles, but we also can’t deny Samsung’s improvements have proven to be very convenient to many of you. One thing is for sure, the UI on Google’s software will be easier on the eyes and much more simplified.
The huge benefit Pixel users get is the promise of quick Android updates. Remember this is the replacement to the Nexus brand, which promises to keep you on the bleeding edge of Android software. And I must say, Android Nougat is so far quite delightful, bringing a lot of refinements to what we are used to in Marshmallow, including better ways of handling tasks and notifications as well as a bit more eye candy to please the design-minded.
The Pixel XL also packs a couple of features that are going to stay exclusive to it: the most important is Google Assistant, the greatly improved replacement to Google Now. But you also get unlimited original format photo and video storage, an integrated support app, and a customized launcher you won’t see on other devices.
Now, let’s talk money. The Google Pixel XL starts from $769, which is expensive, but then the Note 7 is even more pricey, costing as much as $900 at US carriers.
See also: Here’s where you can buy a Google Pixel in the US18
The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 does show some advantages, mainly in software optimization, an iris scanner, S-Pen features and certain camera specs, but the Google Pixel XL offers performance, a clean software, Google Assistant, a metal construction and timely updates for what could be a slightly lower price point. Android purists will definitely choose Google’s phone any day.
But tell us what you think! Which phone will you go for?
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