Amazon

Amazon has published an online gift guide for the holiday season and for the first time has also sent a paper toy catalog in the mail. We will take a look at the drones that made the list and some of the drones that didn’t. We also have the inside scoop on how products make it on the list. It turns out that it’s not actually top-reviewed products or editors picks that are selected for the Amazon gift guide. Surprise! There’s money involved.

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A couple of drones on Amazon have been catching my eye lately, the Holy Stone HS100 (about $250) and HS100G (about $280). It hasn’t been the specifications of these drones that have been grabbing my attention. Rather, it has been the stellar Amazon reviews (4.6 stars) and the number of Amazon reviews (over 1,300) that I have noticed. The question is, “can you trust these reviews?”

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DJI upgrades their official Amazon store. Not only does it look better now, but it also creates a distinction between other parties selling DJI products and the official DJI store. Making it clear who you are buying your drone or drone accessories from. They even included a ‘Deal‘ page where you can find discounted, often refurbished, products from the world largest drone maker.

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Lower prices on DJI’s drones will help enthusiasts into the air according to the Chinese drone maker. The world’s largest drone manufacturer will offer discounts up to $300 for drones like the Spark and Mavic Pro as part of the Amazon Prime day promotion, that will start on July 16 at 12 pm EDT and will run for 36 hours. People looking to pick up one of these discounted drones will be able to do so at the official DJI store on Amazon and the regular DJI online store for Canadian and US customers.

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Amazon’s vision of delivering packages to customers via drones is still in progress a new patent was filed by the e-commerce giant based out of Seattle. The biggest challenge they face is safety. With drones flying throughout the sky, autonomously, they need to prove that they are a safe means of delivering items to get the approval from the government and Federal Aviation Association (FAA).

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Two weeks the U.S. Department of Transportation announced the 10 successful UAS Integration Pilot Program applications. To everybody’s surprise, Amazon and the State of New York, which according to Governor Cuomo is building “the most advanced drone testing in the country,” were not among the lucky few. News that Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi (D-Utica) said was “boggling.”

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Yesterday the U.S. Department of Transportation announced the 10 pilot programmes that have been approved under President Trump’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Pilot Program (UAS IPP) in an effort to bring the country up to speed when it comes to drone experimentation. Yesterday we published the list of awardees and today we are reporting on the companies that made the list such as Airbus, Alphabet (Google), Apple, AT&T, Microsoft, FedEx, Uber, and others. As well as the ones that did not make the list, most notably Amazon and DJI.

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Amazon, Apple, Intel, Qualcomm and Airbus are among the companies hoping to be granted permission for a new series of experimental drone flights as part of the U.S. initiative launched by President Trump last year.

The government has opened up applications to companies interested in being able to conduct flights beyond line-of-sight, at night or over people that are not allowed under the current FAA rules.

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The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a patent to Amazon for a delivery drone that responds to human gestures, such as flailing arms as well as screaming voices. The patent includes several interesting illustrations. In one, a person is shown outside their house waving his arms in an “unwelcoming manner” accompanied with a voice bubble, indicating that the drone would be able to hear the person and possibly respond to the input.

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Drone delivery is a hot topic this week. Last Tuesday, Amazon received yet another patent that may help to make a more efficient and greener way to deliver packages, a reality sooner than you think. This latest patent protects a method to literally ‘drop’ packages from as high as 25 feet on your doorstep or patio. The packages and their contents would be protected by an airbag.

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Amazon Prime Air and other companies may begin delivering packages by drone as soon as this summer, according to federal regulators and industry officials. Since late last year, the White House has started to put more pressure on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to work with companies to make delivering packages by drone and other drone applications a reality.

At the FAA UAS Symposium last week, it became clear that drone deliveries may be here sooner than we think as federal officials promised drone proponents: “We’ll help you get there.”

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One of the best examples of drone deliveries must be Zipline’s blood and medical supply delivery system in Rwanda. The San Francisco-based company has successfully used drones to fly “more than 187,500 miles, delivering 7,000 units of blood over 7,500 flights” since they launched their service in Africa. Could medical cargo benefitting from using a drone to deliver supplies open up the skies for more routine drone deliveries?

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During last week’s FAA Symposium in Baltimore, Amazon, Boeing, GE, and Google announced that they are ready to start working on the development of a private Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) system for drones. Testing in conjunction with NASA is supposed to start in the next three months. The system will enable swarms of drones to fly a couple of hundred feet above the ground using cellular and web applications to avoid collisions and allow for remote tracking.

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The UK’s National Air Traffic Control Service (NATS) is planning to scrap the rule that prevents drone pilots to fly their unmanned aerial vehicles beyond line-of-sight. This would open up the opportunity for companies like Amazon to start making deliveries by drone to customers as early as 2019.

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Check out this special bundle. One of our all-time favorite drones the DJI Mavic Pro with 2 batteries for $929 at Amazon Prime. If you were to buy the same set from DJI directly you’d pay $988 USD, so Amazon gives you a $59 USD discount. It is Amazon Prime so you should be able to get it before Christmas without too much trouble. Currently, there are only 5 left in stock.

Check out our Christmas drone buying guide here to help you make the right decision.

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Bell Helicopter showcases a delivery drone that one day may well bring you your Amazon orders. The Fort Worth-based aviation company is aggressively moving into the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) space and introduced this week the all-electric APT, short for Automatic Pod Transport. A drone that could be used for military purposes or retailers like Amazon.

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On November 28th, Amazon was granted a patent for the “directed fragmentation of an unmanned aerial vehicle” or a self-destructing delivery drone. Oftentimes patents are simply filed to claim and protect a certain idea. The actual invention may never be developed or built at all. That may apply to this patent filing for a self-destructing delivery drone from Amazon as well.

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