Welcome to the drone club, Windows users! Quadrocopter maker partners with Microsoft

By Andrew Couts Published November 21, 2013

Good news, Windows users! Popular drone maker Parrot has partnered with Microsoft to allow you to control the UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) Parrot AR Drone 2.0 quadrocopter with your Windows machine. The new versions of Parrot’s control software include both the Parrot AR FreeFlight app, as well as Parrot’s Audio Suite app, which lets you control the Parrot Zik headphones using a Windows Phone 8 device.

While Audio Suite is available now, the FreeFlight app for Windows 8 won’t arrive until “early December,” according to Parrot. So don’t fire up your Surface tablet just yet. The Windows Phone 8 version of FreeFlight, which will work with applicable Nokia and HTC handsets, is expected to arrive sometime at the beginning of 2014.

Recommended Videos

The Parrot AR.Drone quadrocopters have been compatible with iOS and Android devices for some time. The addition of Windows arrived after Parrot brought Microsoft’s outgoing CEO Steve Ballmer into the office to try out its high-tech flying robot.

“We have been working for months with Microsoft to ensure the compatibility of Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 devices with Parrot products,” said Henri Seydoux, founder and CEO of Parrot in a statement.

As we saw recently with Instagram, which released its Windows Phone app with a number of key features missing, creating apps for the Windows Phone operating system appears to be a challenge. Hopefully, Parrot AR.Drone users will get the full shebang when the FreeFlight app hits next year.

Want to learn more about getting started in the world of drones? Check out our beginners guide here.

Former Staff Writer

Features Editor for Digital Trends, Andrew Couts covers a wide swath of consumer technology topics, with particular focus on…

Topics

Emerging Tech

Everything is not okay with DuckDuckGo and its AI

A coordinated Reddit campaign appears to have tricked multiple AI search assistants into spreading false information.

DuckDuckGo has built its reputation on privacy-first search, but this week, its AI assistant landed in hot water for an entirely different reason. Apparently, Duck.ai confidently claimed that U.S. President Donald Trump had died of rabies earlier this month, complete with fabricated details about Vice President JD Vance, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and fake supporting news reports. None of it was true.

A fake Reddit campaign managed to fool Duck's AI

Emerging Tech

Stanford scientists built an AI that can design healthier, greener burgers

The new system balances nutrition, taste, cost, and environmental impact to create better recipes.

Burger, Food, Food Presentation - Man picking a burger

Artificial intelligence has already helped write code, discover drugs, and generate videos. Now, it's trying to make a better burger. Researchers at Stanford University have unveiled BurgerAI, a new AI system that designs burger recipes by balancing taste, nutrition, sustainability, and cost. The surprising part? In blind taste tests, diners liked some of the AI-created burgers just as much as, and in some cases more than, a popular fast-food burger.

BurgerAI is designed to invent recipes, not copy them

Emerging Tech

OpenAI reveals its most advanced GPT-5.6 model, but you can’t access it yet

GPT-5.6 brings new reasoning, autonomy, and cybersecurity capabilities, but its rollout is currently limited to government-approved customers.

OpenAI ChatGPT 5.6 Sol Terra Luna Announced

OpenAI has officially taken the wraps off GPT-5.6, its most advanced family of AI models to date. There's just one catch: unless you're one of a handful of approved customers, you won't be able to try it anytime soon. Instead of a broad launch, the company is beginning with a tightly controlled preview while it works through a new U.S. government review process.

GPT-5.6 is here, but only a few people can use it