Your Have to be registered with FFA to own a Drone

The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday that US residents must register hobbyist drones by February 19 at its drone registration website. Registration opens December 21 and is free through January 20, the agency said.

After that, the FAA will charge $5 for registration. The new rule covers all unmanned aircraft weighing more than 0.55 pounds. And yes, this applies to the drone you're getting for Christmas.

MIT Self-flying Drone knows how to swerve to avoid crashes

A researcher from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) has developed an obstacle-detection system that allows a drone to autonomously dip, dart and dive through a tree-filled field at upwards of 30 miles per hour. 

“Everyone is building drones these days, but nobody knows how to get them to stop running into things,” says CSAIL PhD student Andrew Barry, who developed the system as part of his thesis with MIT professor Russ Tedrake.

"SKEYE" The World's Smallest Nano Drone

The SKEYE is a QuadCopter, a tiny helicopter that is lifted and propelled by four rotors. As the market is explored with many easy-to-fly drones and aerial photography system. But this time around TRNDLabs have come up with even more potential uses by making the drone so small (1.57″ x 1.57″ x 0.87) that it could fit inside a matchbox.

The SKEYE nano drone offers three flight modes: Beginners, for those aiming to become proficient at flight basics,

Advanced, for those experienced in piloting a craft and an Expert modus. Bright, built-in LEDs make it easy to see the SKEYE Nano Drone in low-light conditions.

Like Amazon, Alibaba tested drone deliveries

After Amazon and Google, Alibaba’s consumer facing e-commerce platform, Taobao, has started a pilot delivering whisk ginger tea to a limited set of consumers through drone service in China’s capital city, Beijing, and business hubs Shanghai and Guangzhou. The service will be limited to just three days and a few areas of the above Chinese cities.

The Chinese internet group has teamed up with delivery company Shanghai YTO Express Logistics to launch a drone delivery trial in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou on Wednesday, according to a blog post on Alibaba's e-commerce news website Alizila.

Bebop Drone will be available in stores in December just for $500

Parrot just dropped the price of high-definition drones. The firm’s Bebop drone will hit stores next month with a starting price of $500. That’s several hundred less than DJI’s entry-level Phantom drone even though it packs the same quality camera and several novel tricks including being controllable from a smartphone or tablet..

The Bebop is a big upgrade from the cheaper AR Drone, which, in part, helped install drones in the public’s mindset. Like with the AR Drone before it, Parrot equipped serious drone technology in the Bebop yet managed to keep the price down and safe to fly indoors. Compared to the similar DJI Phantom, the Bebop packs a lot of the same flight capabilities. And with the more expensive range extender controller, the Bebop has about the same range, too, with a 2 kilometer limit.
The drone is capable of streaming the captured video back to a smartphone and it uses built-in GPS and downward facing cameras to help keep the drone in place during high-altitude flying. The Bebop relies on a software-based 3-axis image stabilization to keep the image fixed and without distortion. Parrot explains the system take the image captured by the 14MP camera and cuts out the stable part, throwing away the bits on the edge that show the drone’s movement. This allows for the camera to be packed into the Bebop’s sleek body rather than dangling underneath.

Parrot also developed a dedicated controller for the Bebop that extends the Bebop’s range from 200 meets to 2 kilometers and allows for the pilot to view the drone’s camera output in AR glasses including the Oculus Rift. The controller amplifies the connected smartphone or tablet’s wifi signal and provides analog joysticks and buttons for more precise control. But this extra fun comes at a price: A Bebop with the SkyController costs $900. Both the standard and SkyController editions will hit Best Buy and Apple stores in December for $500 and $900, respectively.