Google Assistant finally comes to Dish’s receivers

It only took half a year, but Dish's receivers are finally ready to work with Google Assistant. The satellite TV provider has started rolling out an update for Hoppers that lets you use the voice remote to check the weather, control your smart home...

I drove an autonomous delivery truck from 1,200 miles away

With all the talk of 5G phones at MWC this week, it's easy to forget about the practical uses for the public, enterprise and more. Applications across a range of industries are on display in Barcelona, and one of the most interesting is from Einride....

Air Hogs’ new racer is the Spider-Man of remote-controlled cars

Spin Master's AirHogs brand is, like it says in the name, primarily a toy aircraft line today. Remote-controlled planes, helicopters and, of course, drones. But occasionally it will hit the ground with some cool land vehicles like race cars, tanks or...

DJI Smart Remote Is a Pro-quality Drone Controller

DJI is a maker of all sorts of slick drones that are meant for the series amateur or pro photographer wanting images from the sky. At CES 2019 DJI has announced a new Smart Remote controller with an integrated display. It allows users to pilot the drone without needing a smartphone or tablet.

It has a 5.5-inch screen and works with the Mavic 2 Zoom and Mavic 2 Pro drones. The display is designed for use in sunlight, and has a 1000 cd/m2 brightness rating. The screen allows pilots to view a crisp image of the drone’s camera feed. It can also livestream the drone footage to Facebook, Instagram, and WeChat. It runs a custom version of Android that provides support for third-party editing programs.

The controller has a battery good for 2.5 hours of runtime per charge and can transfer power from the controller to your mobile device to keep you texting and talking on the go. The DJI Smart Controller is available now and sells for $649. Combo packs with the Smart Controller and Mavic 2 Pro or Mavic 2 Zoom are also available.

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!: Crash and Rebuild Monster Trucks

I’d wager most people that played with LEGO growing up made cars and trucks with the bricks and promptly crashed them. Hammacher Schlemmer is offering a set of RC toy monster trucks which takes that idea and runs with it.

Crash and Rebuild Monster Trucks aren’t made from LEGO, but they do seem LEGO-like in how the bodies and drivers click into the chassis. The trucks can go up to 9 mph, and if you have a head-on collision, the driver unseats and flies through the air, as body panels go flying.


The set comes with two chassis, four bodies, and four drivers. Also included is a pair of 2.4GHz remote controllers, which work from up to 49-feet away. Power comes from rechargeable batteries inside the car chassis that charges via a USB port and provides up to 30 minutes of driving per charge. These aren’t cheap at $99.95 for the set, but they do look like lots of fun for kids.

Parrot ANAFI Folding Drone Records 4K Stabilized Video

Parrot has introduced a new drone that looks set to take on the DJI Mavic Air, and it looks pretty sweet. The Parrot ANAFI drone is made specifically to take high-quality photos and video from the air, while being portable enough to tote in a backpack.

The ANAFI is a foldable drone designed specifically to make it easy to take with you and store.  It has an attached 4K HDR camera that can tilt on a 180-degree gimbal and has 2.8x lossless zoom. The camera also has three-axis image stabilization to eliminate any shake caused by wind or weather. Parrot designed the drone for quiet operation and to be resistant to weather conditions. An internal battery makes the drone good for flights of 25 minutes per charge.

AI is embedded to allow the drone to fly in autonomous modes to capture pro-quality shots, like automatically framing or following a subject. The camera uses a 1/2.4″ 21 megapixel CMOS Sony sensor with a wide-angle f/2.4 ASPH lens, and the still images it shoots can be output in Adobe DNG/RAW format for optimal quality. The ANAFI is priced at just $699.99, with additional batteries going for $99. It’s available for pre-order today from the Parrot website, with shipping starting on July 2, 2018.

 

3-foot-long USS Arizona Model Sets Sail via Remote Control

Hammacher Schlemmer is THE place to go if you have some loot burning a hole in your pocket, and you want something of questionable use that happens to be awesome at the same time. This is the exact case with this detailed USS Arizona model kit. The USS Arizona was one of the battleships sunk in Pearl Harbor in 1941.

The kit has over 1,000 parts and is a 1:200 scale version of the battleship, measuring in at approximately 3-feet long. Once your build is complete, the fun isn’t over. The battleship can be remotely controlled with 2.4GHz radio gear that allows control of four brass propellers and the rudder.

You get forward, backward, and left/right movement from up to 300-feet away. You can also swivel the four main turrets left and right and raise or lower them. They even boom like you fired the guns. Liquid smoke comes from the smokestack and there is a pair of swiveling anti-aircraft guns on deck.

An airbrush paint set and decals are also included. The kit is priced at a whopping $899.95, and it is available now at Hammacher Schlemmer.