Drone season is raging so hard right now. I am positively itchy with drones. The Mavic 2 Pro, however, is the first one whose footage has made my tongue fall out of my mouth and unroll like a Loony Toon. Not only is the video quality incredible, but it's gotten way better at tracking subjects. There's also the Mavic 2 Zoom to consider, the Pro's plucky sibling.

ATAQ, YEMEN – The United States has waged a drone war in Yemen for 16 years, trying to suppress al-Qaida's branch there. But the campaign has had a hidden cost: civilians cut down by the drones' missiles. There is no comprehensive count of civilian deaths because of the difficulty of confirming identities and allegiances of those killed. But in an examination of drone strikes this year alone, AP found that at least 30 of the dead likely did not belong to al-Qaida. That is around a third of all those killed in drone strikes so far in 2018.

If you're a nefarious sort, you might use a commercial drone to smuggle drugs, carry explosives, or to just spy on your neighbors. Drones are appealing to criminals in part because they seem fairly anonymous, flitting through the sky with an invisible digital tether to its owner. But anonymity is no longer a safe bet. In the hands of crime investigators, a drone can reveal a range of personal and financial information about its owner. Most of these details are stored in memory chips inside the drone's circuit board.

Mobile phone carrier KDDI Corp. said Thursday it plans to start using drones to support rescue operations and search for missing hikers on Mount Fuji from next summer, aiming to eventually expand the service to other areas. KDDI successfully conducted a trial in conjunction with the Gotemba Municipal Government, a city to the west of the 3,776-meter-high peak; Yamap Inc., a developer of smartphone map applications; and weather information provider Weathernews Inc. During a simulated search operation carried out in late October, the drone was able to locate the position of a missing hiker who was carrying a device with global positioning capabilities, and help observe the status of the person in need of assistance. Coupled with a newly developed system that monitors and forecasts weather conditions, a drone operator selected the most suitable flight route to the location of the missing person so that rescuers could be mobilized. KDDI said it plans to add a microphone and a speaker to the drone in the future so that rescuers and hikers can communicate.

The next generation of unmanned drones will act more like birds than machines, thanks to new study by researchers from RMIT University in Melbourne and ISAE-Supaéro in Toulouse. The study includes experiments with drones that can sense wind gusts and thermals, then use them to gain speed or altitude, just like birds do. Dr Abdulghani Mohamed, who leads a large research program into bio-inspired technology in RMIT's Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) research team, said the world-first project had exceeded expectations. "The results of our gust soaring system were remarkable and represent a big leap in energy harvesting for drones," Mohamed said. "This technology not only allows a drone to gain kinetic energy to fly faster but also means less work and more efficiency for the propulsion system, potentially enabling the next generation of drones to increase their flight time on limited resources."

The Hover Camera Passport foldable drone made quite the impression when it first launched a little over two years ago, and then it received a major update in April last year, which added a smartphone-free mode that automatically tracks and records its owner. Save for the rumored Snap acquisition deal (which Zero Zero Robotics still denies today), we had barely heard from the drone maker since then, but today it's back with a surprise announcement: The launch of its second selfie drone, Hover 2. As you'd expect, the Hover 2 has inherited all the best bits of the Passport, especially its small foldable form factor, sturdy carbon fibre cage enclosure, Qualcomm Snapdragon processor (model not specified but it's "four times more powerful than" before), 4K 30fps video capture, face tracking and body tracking. The two drones look similar from afar, though the newer model benefits from more than double the original flight time, jumping from a mere 10 minutes to 19 minutes (but maximum flight time is 23 minutes; more on that later). This may explain the heavier weight of 490 grams or about 1.1 pounds -- almost twice as much as before. When switched on, you'll notice a new major feature on the Hover 2: Its swiveling "Optical Radar" that pops out of the top of the body.

This 2018 handout image provided by the Ali family, shows a photo of Ammer Ali, in Yemen. A drone struck a car carrying Ali who was returning to Marib with a relative after dropping his family at a house of relatives. Nearly 70 kilometers from Marib, at 3:00 p.m. the drone struck the car and killed the Ali the other driver survived. This 2018 handout image provided by the Sarima family, shows a photo of Mohammed Abu Sarima, who was killed in a drone strike, in Yemen. The Pentagon confirmed a drone strike on the same day in the province of Bayda, saying they were targeting al-Qaida.

This July 11, 2018, photo, shows a fragment of a US-made missile fired from a drone that struck a vehicle, killing all seven men inside on Jan. 26, 2018, instantly ending their lives, shredding their bodies into pieces, in Shabwa, Yemen. ATAQ, Yemen – Al-Qaida was giving away motorcycles up in the mountains -- that's what the kids in town were saying the day Abdullah disappeared. Early that morning, Mohsanaa Salem woke her 14-year-old son to go buy vegetables. The sun had just risen above the mountain ridge, and winter light filled the ravine where their mud brick house sat at the foot of a slope. "Let me sleep," Abdullah groaned from a mattress on the floor, surrounded by his brothers and sisters. One word from his father, though, and the boy was up and dressed, trudging out of the house to the market in a neighboring village. Three hours later, when he still hadn't returned, Mohsanaa and her husband began to worry.

The UK government is actively funding the development of flying "killer robots" despite publicly stating it has no plans to develop them, a study claims. Research into fully autonomous drone weapons by the campaign group Drone Wars UK revealed the UK's Defence and Security Accelerator (Dasa) is funding research for developing weapons able to kill without direct human input. The report, titled Off the Leash: The Development of Autonomous Military Drones in the UK, highlighted the Taranis drone, which is capable of autonomously flying, plotting routes and locating targets. Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session A man looks at an exhibit entitled'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar.

The whole idea behind drones is that they fly free. Unattached to the traffic-clogged, obstacle-riddled surface, they promise to change the way we move our stuff and even ourselves. So it's strange to hear that one startup thinks the best way to fly drones is by tying them to the ground. In that tether, CyPhy Works sees a different sort of liberty: freedom from short-lived batteries. The typical commercial drone can stay aloft for 20 to 30 minutes.