A Texas man has been charged for allegedly flying a DJI Inspire drone loaded with drugs and other contraband into a Fort Worth prison.

Marine biology researchers have for several years used drones for periodical collection of data to evaluate the health of whales, but now they’ve developed a way to pilot a DJI M210 to gently and discreetly attach electronic tags to monitor the creatures for extended periods.

Less than two weeks after Ukraine officials called on drone-owning citizens to volunteer their craft for use defending the country from invading Russian forces, some of those non-military craft have now been reportedly weaponized to drop Molotov cocktails on targets below.

First announce during AirWorks 2018, DJI has released a new flight simulator to help train the growing number of both consumer and commercial pilots. The new DJI Flight Simulator allows pilots to test a variety of different drones in various weather conditions for a number of different applications. The goal of the new DJI Flight Simulator is to safely train pilots using the equipment they will operate prior to flying their drone.

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We came across photos this morning that seem to show an upgrade to the DJI Inspire 2 drone. Wedged between the batteries and mounted to the bottom of the Inspire 2 is a device that seems to provide 360-degree or omnidirectional obstacle avoidance. It is hard to say if we are looking at a prototype, a test device or whether this is an almost final design. Judging by the photos this may well be the final design and 360-degree obstacle avoidance may be added to the DJI Inspire 2 soon.

Update: somebody with knowledge of the matter has informed us that these photos are from the original design process for what became the Inspire 2. These photos do not show a prototype or anything that is going to go into production. 

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Today we came across an interesting post on Facebook. Daniel de Ruiter from the Netherlands had posted a photo of his Inspire 2 flying with an Insta360 Pro mounted underneath it. This is a pretty pricey setup to fly. The drone retails for at least $2999, and the 360-degree camera that provides 8K video goes for $3499. To mount the Insta360 Pro camera to the drone, De Ruiter had bought a 3D printed mount from a company in Spain. According to the post on Facebook, the drone and camera were used for an Adidas commercial.  He said:

“Did something new this weekend with the Insta360Pro and Inspire 2. Shooting in 360 in 8K. Inspire 2 handled great 👊”

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Are you excited for tonight’s DJI event? We’ll have live coverage here so come back at 5PM PT/8PM ET.

But…Spoiler alert: we have what we think are some images and specs of what is to be revealed. We saw a sneak peak earlier this week but this is the real deal. Only click below if you don’t mind knowing a lot about the sick new DJI Zenmuse X7 cinematic 6K camera…
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The BBC reported that a DJI Inspire drone, used as a fire service drone on behalf of Jersey’s Department for the Environment, got attacked by Asian hornets as it was out to survey the nest. The sound of the propellers must have alarmed the hornets as they ‘swarmed out’ and sprayed the Inspire with venom. The nest found in the Channel Islands is thought to contain 6000 hornets.

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