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Xiaomi Unveils Budget-Friendly Mi Drone, $460 For 4K Or $380 For 1080p (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Chinese consumer electronics company Xiaomi has officially journeyed into the drones product category. The Xiaomi Mi Drone is a quadcopter with a three-axis gimbal, 4K camera, and a remote control that uses your Mi smartphone as a viewfinder. The 4K version retails for about $460 while the 1080p model retails for about $380. When compared to drones from DJI or Yuneec, the Mi Drone seriously undercuts them as they typically retail for more than $1,000. Some other features of the Mi Drone center around modularity and serviceability -- the camera module and rotors are detachable. The 5,100 mAh battery that Xiaomi claims can last 27 minutes of continuous flight time on a single charge is also replaceable. It uses GPS and GLONASS for positioning. It even features a visual positioning system on the rear that allows itself to remain stable when flying at low altitudes in environments where a satellite signal cannot be reached. Some of the autonomous flight modes include: takeoff, landing, return to home, waypoint navigation and orbit, with the ability to create a geofence to limit its movement. The 1080p Mi Drone "will be crowdfunded on the Mi Hope app starting May 26, 2016," while the 4K Mi Drone "will be available for testing via an open beta program at the end of July." With such an affordable price tag relative to the competition, the Xiaomi Mi Drone may help increase revenues for the company whose sales barely grew last year.
3) Spying on people from above or looking in their windows
These are all quite dangerous ways to use drones. Short of banning drones entirely, there's no way to stop this from occurring. Therefore, drones need to be banned.
I recommend a Mossberg 500 with, say... an M choke to give you the best compromise on pellet spread but you might want to experiment with that. According to Popular Mechanics you want number 8 bird shot shells with the largest pellet count you can find No. 10 or even 12 bird shot is even better if you can find it. If you live in an urban area blasting at drones with a shotgun might be a problem so your best urban-legal go-to option might be water based. Perhaps a powerful hose, or the most powerful super-soaker you can find but even that would probably not have the range of the shotgun. A more expensive option would be to build you own hunter-killer drone or a drone that snatches the offending one out of the sky and brings it to the ground so you can hold it to ransom. That last solution appeals to my inner nerd, my inner hill-billy likes the shotgun option best while shooting down drones with a super-soaker makes for a fun activity you can engage in with your kids. I also reserve a certain degree of admiration for this Russian reenactor who shot a drone out of the sky with a hand thrown spear.