The Draganflyer X6 “is a remotely operated, unmanned, miniature helicopter designed to carry wireless video cameras and still cameras”.
It’s also one of the most bad-add R/C copters ever made.
Features include a six rotor co-axial configuration that makes the Draganflyer X6 compact, stable, and powerful, a full carbon fiber folding frame that also makes it light and easy to carry, and 11 on-board sensors that make the X6 the easiest copter to fly in its class, including three gyros, three accelerometers, three magnetometers, one barometric pressure sensor, and one GPS receiver.
Loose radio connection?
No problem; the Draganflyer X6 simply lands itself and waits for you to return.
Loose an engine?
Again, no problem. The Draganflyer is able to continue flying, even with one engine entirely out of commission.
With camera options that range from anti-vibration mounts and digital still camera holds to HD video, low light, thermal infrared and micro video cameras, there’s even a payload option to match every need.
Urban Monarch and Modern Drunkard put together two great guides about how to score free drinks when you go out. Put down the credit card, and slowly step away.
Artist Felix Beck created a non-visual graffiti project called Soundbombs, “innocuous-looking 6-inch plastic shells that broadcast short clips (lines from Shakespeare, flatulence, or anything else you record) to unwitting passersby”. He doesn’t sell them, but instead takes applications, and prospective users must tell him where they will use it and how much they’re willing to pay. Get loud.
Sodium Laurel Sulfate, and ingredient in toothpaste, blocks sweet sensors on your tongue, which explains why orange juice tastes so bad after you brush.
Stuart Haygarth created the Tide Chandelier out of man made debris that washed up along a stretch of the Kent coastline. “The sphere is an analogy for the moon which effects the tides which in turn wash up the debris”.
Spark Fun Electronics took apart the Nike + iPod sensor to see how it works, and the internals are surprisingly simple (or so they say, it looks pretty complex to me). Instead of an accelerometer, the sensor uses a piezoelectric sensor to monitor how long your weight is on your foot (the faster your run, the shorter amount of time spent on one foot). Their goal is to use the sensor as an RFID transmitter, allowing you to do a variety of things (such as open doors or turn on lights with RFID switches) without having to swipe a card like a traditional RFID transmitter. Even if you don’t intend on hacking your own sensor, it’s an interesting peek inside the workings of such a complicatedly simple device.
Though I didn’t expect any of my predictions to actually come true (I hoped they would, but didn’t expect they would, and I think I ended up with 0 out of 8 correct), Apple dropped a bomb in the form of the iPhone that caught everyone by surprise. I even got a few Apple fanboy goosebumps when the full specs were announced. Combining “a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searching”, the iPhone will do it all and then slip away into your pocket. Features include:
3.5-inch widescreen display
Multi-touch input
OS X based operating system
Bluetooth 2.0
Wi-Fi
EDGE/GSM
5 hours of talk/video/browsing time
16 hours of audio playback
Weighs in at only 4.8 ounces
Comes in either a 4 or 8 GB versions
There’s also a sensor to know when you’re rotating it so it can change the orientation of the screen, a sensor to know its proximity to your face so your cheek doesn’t make any unintentional phone calls, and a sensor to turn up and down the brightness depending on how much you need
Oh yeah, and it’s beautiful
Since this thing is already clogging all of the Internet’s tubes, I figure I’d give the readers of DYH a little something different. First off, let’s see how the 10 people whose reputations relied on the iPhone did.
Kevin Rose got the January launch date right but missed out on the Cingular exclusive, was definitely wrong on the size, number of batteries, and slide-out keyboard; but he was right on the number and size of the models, and somewhat right on the touchscreen.
Rebecca Runkle from Morgan Stanley got the number and size of the models right, dimensions right, colors wrong, Cingular right, virtual clickwheel wrong, and full screen LCD right.
Think Secret got the fact that their would be a camera right, EDGE/GSM right; but got the megapixel count and the display size wrong.
The rest of the 10 just put their money on their actually being an iPhone, and though they were right, though it wasn’t too hard to figure that one out.
What I find interesting is that if you combine everyone’s information and pick and choose the good stuff, you could have had a pretty good idea of the specs of the actual iPhone. Most got the fact that there would be two models in 4 and 8 GB form right, Kevin predicted the January launch date and the touchscreen, Rebecca got the pricing very close, the size close, the Cingular exclusivity right on, and the LCD screen size right on, and Think Secret got the GSM/EDGE thing right as well as the inclusion of a camera.
Besides the iPhone, Apple (as they’re now officially being called after they announced they’ve dropped the word Computer from their name) finalized the specs on the Apple TV (the now official name for the iTV). Designed to bridge the gap between your iTunes and your TV in a wireless way, the Apple TV features its own Intel processor, a 40 GB hard drive, 802.11n networking, and does 720p high def video. Plus, it’s scheduled to ship in February.
Lastly, Apple secretly updated their Airport Extreme Base Station to 802.11n specs and changed the form factor to a more Mac Mini style. Very sneaky.
Overall, some great stuff, though some definite shockers. No iLife update? No cameras in the monitors (Is that one really that hard to include)? I did like what I saw though, and Apple definitely managed to show that the first 30 years were just the beginning.
