Is there anything cooler than remotely controlling a tiny vehicle and having it take off on some sweet jumps? RC cars were the highlight of many a childhood back in the day, but with so many new tech toys on the market, it can be hard to capture that same magic with a Christmas gift. Unless, of course, that gift just so happens to be a drone.
Though the more professional drones can cost upwards of $1,000, there are plenty of more affordable options available for beginners — and they make excellent holiday gifts. We’ve rounded up 5 drones under $50 that you can still get before Christmas.
Most drones, even the more affordable ones, offer connectivity to your smartphone, and this one is no exception. You can use either your smartphone or the remote control to maneuver the Sky Rider. Stream live video to your smartphone or VR goggles for a deeply immersive, and slightly disorienting experience. With a flight time of up to 20 minutes and 3 speeds, this little drone is perfect for flips and tricks.
Normally priced at $60, this quadcopter is on sale for just $35 from Walmart.
Though most drones offer a live feed via your smartphone, there aren’t many under $50 that actually come with the screen. Powered by 4 rotors and a durable lightweight body, the Mini Orion lets you take to the sky with ease. It even comes with a fixed altitude feature to make filming smooth and easy. The LCD screen on the remote will give you a live look at whatever the drone is seeing.
Normally priced at $100, this little drone is down to just $35 at Walmart right now.
Affordable nano drones are often difficult to control due to their small stature and complicated controls, but this Potensic model does not have that problem. It comes with an altitude hold mode, so when you release the throttle stick, this mini-drone will be locked at a certain height. This allows kids and beginners to learn how to fly without worrying about crashing into a tree or a wall.
Normally priced at $50, this DJI Spark lookalike is on sale for just $40 on Amazon.
Drones are great for photography, video, and racing, but what about stunts? Turns out they are great for that, too — assuming they were built for it. This affordable stunt drone was made for beginners looking to master flips, barrel rolls, and other awesome aerial stunts. It also comes with autopilot to help you focus on the stunts.
Normally priced at $95, this stunt drone is down to just $50 from Walmart right now. It also comes with fast and free 2-day shipping.
If you’re looking for a safe and affordable drone for kids, look no further than the Air Hogs Supernova. Made with play in mind, this hand-controlled drone has up to 30 moves and 9 great tricks. Motion sensitive lights and sensors will respond to your commands and all you need to do to activate it is toss it into the air.
Normally priced at $39, this gravity-defying orb is down to just $30 from Walmart.
Looking for more great stuff? Find the best Black Friday drone deals, Amazon deals, last-minute gifts, stocking stuffers, and much more on our curated deals page.
AI companies spend enormous amounts of time convincing us their technology is safe and secure. But what happens when those same companies become targets of increasingly sophisticated AI-powered attacks? Anthropic, the company behind Claude, is now facing that question. According to a Washington Post report, cybersecurity startup Cathedral discovered vulnerabilities that let its researchers access sensitive information in Anthropic's internal systems.
The researchers used AI agents to identify potential entry points in less than 12 hours. Interestingly, they didn't need to crack Claude itself. Instead, they exploited weaknesses in third-party business applications that Anthropic uses for everyday operations. Anthropic's security testing program disclosed the findings, which allows outside researchers to identify and report vulnerabilities.
Military working dogs charge into places the rest of us would flee. So, I understand why anyone would want to breed tougher, healthier dogs for the job.
Warhound, a new startup from Colossal Biosciences co-founder Ben Lamm and Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey, has stepped out of stealth with $200 million to clone and gene-edit working dogs for American troops, police departments, and emergency services (via TechCrunch).
AI can describe a picture, identify objects, and answer questions about what a camera sees. But when a blind user needs a quick answer, getting an entire spoken essay about the scene isn't exactly helpful. Researchers at the University of Maryland (UMD) have found that AI-powered visual assistance can leave blind users doing too much work to get the information they actually need.
The study, titled Say It My Way: Exploring Control in Conversational Visual Question Answering with Blind Users, examined how people interact with Be My AI, an AI-powered feature of the Be My Eyes app. The researchers found that users often received lengthy descriptions that didn't adequately address their immediate goals, forcing them to ask follow-up questions or find ways to steer the AI towards a more useful answer.