It seems as if you can hardly go to a public park, beach, or natural site without someone buzzing a drone overhead. All things considered the US seems pretty drone-friendly. Why, then, is Amazon going to Britain to test its delivery drones? It turns out that while the US seems drone-friendly, Federal Aviation Administration laws don’t allow for the kind of testing Amazon needs to do.
So, off to Britain Amazon will go to polish up its drones’ so-called “sense and avoid” technology, which allows the drones to pilot themselves autonomously, out of sight of an operator, and detect and avoid any objects which could cause a collision. See, the US doesn’t allow for the autonomous drone flight tests below 400 feet that Amazon needs to do. Though, that will clearly have to change if Amazon intends to make its drone delivery program work.
Xbox One goes on sale
Microsoft just cut the price of the Xbox One down to $250 ahead of the Xbox One S launch, which takes place one week from today on August 2nd. That’s a pretty nice price on a great console, so if you don’t need the 4K video capabilities and you don’t lust after the slimmed down chassis of the Xbox One S, which has no power brick to deal with either, then you might want to get in on that action.
As a reminder, the Xbox One S does not offer 4K gaming. We’ll have to wait for project Scorpio to come to reality for that, and that’s probably about a year out.
Nintendo NX details leaked
And as long as we’re on the topic of gaming systems, a recent Eurogamer leak has pretty much pulled the curtains back on the Nintendo NX, and it looks like Nintendo is going full-on portable.
If the leak is legit, Nintendo is going with a fully portable console which works on battery power when away from home and offers removable on-board controls. When back at home, the console will sit in a docking station where it will receive power and be connected to a large-screen TV. The NX will ditch discs for cartridges which will reportedly cap out at 32GB in storage. And that means the graphics will definitely not compete with the competition’s.
But graphics haven’t really been Nintendo’s focus anyway. They clearly are big on bringing the best mobile gaming experience possible. We’ll have to see if that’s how the NX plays out. Nintendo could use a boost after the Pokemon Go bubble bursts, which should happen right around the time the NX is debuted.
