DroneDJ

Dronavia, a French company that manufactures drone accessories, has released a new range of safety solutions for DJI’s industrial drones such as the Inspire 3, Matrice 350, Matrice 300, and Mavic 3.

This week Yifei and Seth discuss the implications of Snap’s total recall of its Pixy “flying camera” and catch up with some of the delivery news from the week.

Enjoy the podcast? Shop DJI, Autel, or other drones at Amazon to support The Buzz!

Australia’s contender in the world’s emerging advanced air mobility (AAM) activities, AMSL Aero, has announced a significant development in its domestic market with a deal for 10 of its Vertiia hybrid hydrogen and electric vertical takeoff and landing planes (eVTOL).

Indoor 3D models can come in handy in various scenarios such as during real estate showcases or construction planning. But mapping interiors with a drone is easier said than done, especially because not all drones can be flown safely indoors. DJI Avata is one of the few readily available, off-the-shelf consumer drones in the market that can be flown both indoors and outdoors. And, now, you can use it to create accurate and detailed 3D models of indoor spaces, leveraging a free account on SkyeBrowse.

It should go without saying, the area around Sunday’s Super Bowl LVIII will be a strictly enforced no-fly zone, but recent drone intrusions of National Football League (NFL) games has led the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to announce not only a broad flight ban in host city Las Vegas – but also a multi-day order starting today.

China’s top air taxi developer, EHang, not only beat its international rivals to become the world’s first startup to secure certification of its electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle (eVTOL), but it went a step further this month in becoming one of the very few manufacturers in the sector to reveal the list price of its craft – and an exceptionally low one, at that.

DJI has released a new firmware update for its latest audio recording solution, Mic 2. This is the first firmware update for the product that came out last month.

DJI has released a new firmware update for its handheld gimbal camera, Osmo Pocket 3. The new firmware is v01.03.05.02, up from v01.02.06.04 which came out in November.

It’s poor form to speak badly of the dead, but we’re not Mary Poppins, so hard cheese: Pixy, arguably the dumbest product idea ever – and definitely the most egregious bastardization of drone tech – may well be quite logically no more, bereft of life, resting in peace, pushing up the daisies, off the twig, kicked the bucket, shuffled off this mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleeding choir invisible; but it’s now being yanked from its well deserved early grave by a recall for posing a potential threat to the people who made the shameful error of buying one in the first place.

Swiss specialized local weather forecasting company Meteomatics is set to get a boost from aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, which is reportedly moving to provide funding to scale the startup’s drone-based meteorological activities, which in turn may help fill a gap in the US group’s own climatic monitoring profile.

It may not be ready to rival Amazon as a teaming marketplace where virtually any legal product can be bought and transported rapidly, but Germany’s LieferMichel drone delivery project spiriting goods to remote communities is starting to attract an impressive array of participating retailers.

Amazon’s Prime Air service hasn’t had a surfeit of good news to report about its aerial activities, but the drone delivery unit did get a notable shout-out in this week’s company round-up of the online marketplace’s 2023 work to get orders to clients faster.

Photographer and video maestro Tucker Wooding has carved out a place for himself in surfing history by using drones to get close to waves and capture images of riders deep inside them, yet somehow making it out. Now he offers footage of a UAV that didn’t.

DJI’s Mini drones are easily one the most popular consumer drones in the market because they are affordable, portable, easy to fly, and can capture unique aerial perspectives. But while DJI has several budget-friendly options for beginners exploring aerial photography and videography, the top three products where you wouldn’t have to compromise on flight time, camera quality, and stability are the Mini 4 Pro, Mini 3 Pro, and Mini 3. Let’s find out how they compare to each other…

Sphere Drones, one of Australia’s largest drone service providers, has developed a mobile drone platform that can collect aerial data with a click of a button. The solution, called HubX, comes with its own internet connection and solar battery system so it can work across any terrain, even in very remote areas.

The prototype of a new drone capable of long-distance surveillance operations over oceans has been revealed by the MITRE corporation, which says the 3D printed craft can recharge itself during extended flights using solar panels on its wings.

A barrage of aerial and ground infrastructure trials have been held this month by the UK’s Open Skies Cornwall consortium, which is seeking to organize airspace into which regular UAV activities – including ship-to-shore operations – can be integrated above and around Falmouth Harbour, and enable future ship-to-shore and other operations. 

This week Yifei and Seth discussion the appearance of a possible DJI competitor out of Japan, and DJI provides a rare response to data security issues.

Enjoy the podcast? Shop DJI, Autel, or other drones at Amazon to support The Buzz!

The continued and extremely effective innovation in deploying what at their origin are consumer and enterprise drone technologies – notably first-person view craft (FPV) – have been essential to Ukraine’s defense against the larger and better equipped invading Russian Army. Now it appears technicians in Kyiv have again attained an aerial advantage by flying swarms of UAVs overseen by a craft acting as a kind of “queen” bee in those operations.

Tech giant DJI has released a new firmware package for its most affordable travel-friendly drone, the Mini 2 SE. This is the first update for the $299 drone since March last year.

DJI has released a new firmware update for the sub-250-gram Mini 3 drone. This update is especially important for pilots who use their Mini 3 with an Intelligent Flight Battery Plus.

Specialized cargo drone developer MightyFly has unveiled the third generation of its Centro hybrid electric vertical takeoff and landing craft (eVTOL), equipped with additional features and performance enhancements the startup will demonstrate during events later this year.