Haye Kesteloo is the Editor in Chief and Main Writer at DroneDJ, where he covers all drone-related news and writes product reviews. He also contributes to the other sites in the 9to5Mac group such as; 9to5Mac, 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, and Electrek.
Haye can be reached at haye@dronedj.com or @hayekesteloo
Good morning, Here are the headlines you may have missed yesterday. The first ever successful drone delivery in Ireland took place last week. And a small helicopter drone is planned to accompany the Mars 2020 rover mission. Lastly, we have a beautiful video of the Colosseum in Pula, Croatia. Jump right in!
AN Post made the first successful delivery of a package by drone in Ireland. The unmanned aerial system (UAS), nicknamed “Postman Padraig” delivered the small parcel from Roonagh pier in Mayo to a postal operative on Clare Island, around 3:30 pm, last Thursday.
Good morning, hope you guys had a great weekend. We have some very interesting headlines for you this morning, starting with what is almost certainly the first leaked photo of the new DJI Mavic 2. And apart from the drone in that photo, there is also a very interesting wheel in the background that surfaced in a DJI patent. Be sure to check out that article by Billy Kyle. Furthermore, we have headlines about a Yuneec firmware update, road-repair drone and more. Grab your coffee and jump in!
Just now we received an email with what seems to be the first real photo of the upcoming DJI Mavic 2. Interestingly enough this new drone from DJI is called the Mavic 2 and not the Mavic Pro 2, meaning that there might indeed be two different models as some people have speculated online. The two different camera/gimbal combinations visible in the photo do seem to indicate that. Let’s take a closer look.
Even though, DJI just postponed their July 18th event “See the Bigger Picture”, some lucky few have already signed NDA’s and have had hands-on experience with DJI’s new drone, that is widely expected to be the successor of the DJI Mavic Pro. Unfortunately, so far any concrete information on the new unmanned aerial system has been hard to come by, but just a few hours ago our ‘friendly leaker’ posted some photos on Twitter that may show on optical zoom lens as one of the main features of the new drone.
Good morning, if you haven’t heard already, brace yourself… Yesterday we received an email from DJI letting us know that they had made the difficult decision to push back the “See the Bigger Picture” event to a yet to be determined date. At this point, it is unclear whether this is due to a hardware or software-related issue. However for the Chinese drone maker to postpone a global product launch is a big deal. We will talk more about this today and in the coming days as we learn more. Besides this main news item, we have more news for you as well and a sweet drone video from Siberia. Check it out!
While many of you were celebrating the fourth of July, DJI quietly released a new firmware update (v01.04.0400) for the DJI Mavic Pro. So far the first feedback from users seems to be pretty positive with reports of improved video transmission and hardly any problems after installing this latest version. Please note that this version cannot be rolled back to an earlier firmware version.
Last week, I flew from New York to the Netherlands with a stopover at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, where I noticed DJI’s marketing campaign “Now it’s Epic”, to promote their Mavic Air drone. We got in touch with JCDecaux, one of the world’s largest display advertising companies, to find out more about the drone makers latest campaign, and they informed us that the 10-second-long promotional video runs at five different airports around the world and is planned in conjunction with DJI’s partnership with TripAdvisor to promote what is supposed to be the ultimate travel drone.
Good morning, I hope all of our American readers have had a great 4th of July celebration. As usual, we have the headlines from yesterday, that you may have missed. One article is about drone flying and fireworks and the second one shows Casey Neistat surfing on New York’s East River behind a drone. Check it out!
To celebrate the 4th of July, Casey Neistat just released this video on YouTube of him drone surfing on New York City’s East River. A lot of the footage in the short film is really quite stunning as the city provides an awesome backdrop for all his stunts, not just in this video. Regardless of what you think of his FAA rules-breaking drone flying, you have to admit that Casey has a nick for attention-grabbing videos. Check out his latest video and the behind the scenes video below and let us know what you think. Is he celebrating the 4 of July or his seemingly independence of the drone rules that do apply to the rest of us?
Good morning, Today we have an amazing drone video for you as well as yesterday’s headlines with news about a DJI/TripAdvisor partnership to promote the ‘epic’ DJI Mavic Air, a U-boat shipwreck in England, U-Space in Switzerland and a James Bond-style escape from a French prison. Grab your coffee and jump right in!
A couple of days ago, drone enthusiast David Eighteen took his Yuneec Typhoon H (not the Plus) to the waterfront of the River Medway and sort of stumbled upon this almost 100-year-old U-boat while flying his drone. David’s hi-res aerial photos and some additional research into this shipwreck make for a very interesting story and it is a great example of how drones can open up a new world that otherwise may go unnoticed.
Chinese drone-maker DJI just announced a partnership with TripAdvisor for what seems to be an epic push ahead of their new product launch on July 18th. The campaign is titled ‘Everyday Epic‘ and suggests a list of breathtaking locations just outside major cities in Australia, the USA, Germany, France and the UK that are both easily accessible but also provide the perfect setting for your next travel memory… captured with the DJI Mavic Air for instance.
Good morning, hope everybody is well today. Yesterday I had the chance to meet up with Wiebe de Jager from the Dutch website DroneWatch.nl here in Noordwijk, which was both fun and informative. Wiebe is an expert on drone regulation in The Netherlands and many other EU countries. Furthermore, here are the headlines from yesterday and an interesting drone video from Autel Robotics warning about an avalanche in the summer… I think they might be referring to an avalanche of orders for DJI’s new product as soon as it’s released on July 18th! ;-)
Have you ever heard of drone fishing? No, well check this out. These guys are catching massive sharks by dropping their bait as far as 1,000 feet, well beyond the distance you’d be able to get to from the beach otherwise.
The commercial jetliner was flying around 7,000 feet when the incident occurred after taking off from Luton Airport in the UK. The drone and its operator were in the wrong twice as the aircraft was flown too high (legal limit is at 400 feet) and too close to the airport. The drone incident took place on May 6th this year.
Good morning, we hope you had a great weekend. Here are the headlines you may have missed over the last few days. Tons of news and interesting articles, such as the first impressions on Autel’s Evo drone from our new writer Billy Kyle. Furthermore, DroneDJ has teamed up with InterDrone to help promote commercial drone applications. We will be at their event in Las Vegas later this year and hope to see you there. And we have a nice video of a drone-tooth removal. So, grab your coffee and jump right in!
National Geographic has just announced the winning photos of its popular Travel Photographer of the Year 2018 photo contest. The grand prize went to Japanese photographer Reiko Takahashi, who shot the amazing photo, titled ‘Mermaid’, of a humpback whale calf’s tail. However, as you might expect there were many drone photos among the entries, one of which took the 2nd place in the category ‘Cities’. The photo is called ‘Geometry of the Sun‘ and was taken by Enrico Pescantini in Mexico.
Time to update your DJI GO 4 app to version 4.2.22 for iOS if you (or your phone) haven’t done so already. This time around there isn’t much new going on. DJI only mentions “fixed occasional DJI GO 4 crash issues” and “general bug fixes and improvements.”
According to Intel 300 of its ‘Shooting Star’ drones lit up the skies during the LGBTQ event in Folsom, California. Intel’s drones displayed many different shapes in the sky, including the Pride flag and same-sex symbols, underscoring “the company’s commitment to equality.”
The world’s largest drone-maker, DJI announced that they will exhibit at InterDrone, the industry’s largest dedicated commercial UAV show, in Las Vegas this year. It will be DJI Enterprise’s first major presence at the expo with a 40 x 40-foot booth as part of their big push into the commercial drone market. The event will take place from September 5-7 at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas.
Check out this spectacular drone footage of a blue whale mother and her calf. The footage was shot by Domenic Biagini near San Diego on June 26. Reportedly the whales were circling their boat and according to the San Diego Whale Watch, the calf might have been nursing.
Drone company DroneUp from Chesapeake, VA is assisting in the search for a Williamsburg couple that went missing earlier this month in California. William and Susan Schmeirer were on a cross-country road trip when they disappeared in the Mojave Desert in California. On June 13th, their car was found abandoned at the Amboy Crater Trailhead parking lot.
Good morning, How are you today? We have for you the following headlines; DroneDeploy raises serious funds, drone interferes with first responders, drone-drugs smugglers get jail-time, DJI Matrice 210 and Flir. We also have a video for you that shows Haiti like you have probably never seen before. So kick back, grab that coffee and jump right in!