Technology

Apple today announced a pair of initiatives that will allow its customers to support AmericaNational Parks. Starting tomorrow, August 24, and continuing through the 31st, Apple says it will donate $1 to the National Park Foundation for every purchase made using Apple Pay online at apple.com, or through the Apple Store app in the U.S. Italso introducing a National Park-themed Apple Watch Activity Challenge to accompany the donation program.

Starting on September 1, Apple Watch users worldwide who either walk, run, or do a wheelchair workout of 50 minutes or more will earn an Activity app award and stickers that are inspired by national parks. The 50 minutes is a tribute to Redwood National Park50th anniversary, which is this year.

Related to these efforts, the App Store will also feature a round-up of some of the best apps to use to explore the U.S. National Parks.

Apple says the proceeds from the donation program will support theNational Park Foundationmission to protect national parks. This includes projects focused on habitat restoration, historic preservation, and the Open OutDoors for Kids program.

&Americanational parks are treasures everyone should experience, and we&re proud to support them again this month by donating a dollar for every purchase made with Apple Pay at one of our stores,& said AppleCEO Tim Cook, in a statement about the program. &These awe-inspiring places are our national inheritance, and Apple is doing our part to pass them on to future generations — just as extraordinary, beautiful and wild as we found them.&

The company also took the time today to highlight the success of a related initiative, saying it has protected and created enough sustainably managed forests to cover its current and future paper use. In partnership with The Conversation Fund, Apple has protected 36,000 acres of U.S. forests that are sustainably managed, it noted.

This is not the first time Apple has hosted such a challenge for the U.S. National Parks.

Last year, it ran the same event, making mention of the fact that Apple Pay was accepted at some national parks, likeYellowstone, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon and Muir Woods National Monument, for example. The event itself now has political undertones, given the current administrationrethinking of national parks, and its interest in deregulating the oil and gas extraction on public lands.

The Mavic Pro was a revelation. Introduced in 2016, the folding drone wasn&t perfect, but it helped usher in a new era of devices for DJI and the industry at large. The original Mavic helped make consumer drones more portable and accessible, and spurred a line that now includes the Mavic Air and Mavic Spark.

Two years later, the worldlargest drone manufacturer hit New York City to unveil the productsuccessor. Like the original Pro, imaging is at the heart of the upgrade. In fact, the Mavic 2 is being positioned as two distinct devices — the Mavic 2 Pro and Mavic 2 Zoom, the on-board camera being the only real difference between the two.

Ita confusing bit of branding, perhaps, for two products that amount to little more than different SKUs of the same device, but DJI wants to make it clear that the camerathe thing here. Understandably so — photographers and videographers have long been a core demographic for the company. And more to the point, really, beyond camera upgrades, the Mavic 2 doesn&t represent a huge upgrade over its predecessor.

The company called the products &our most technologically advanced drones& at a press unveiling in New York City this morning. A few of the camera features have been upgraded across the board, including the addition of enhanced dynamic range, for better shots in mixed lighting settings.

The Mavic 2 Pro is, as the name implies, the pricier of the two models. Itthe first DJI device to bask in the fruit of the drone-maker2017 acquisition of Hasselblad. The camera is much larger than the one on the Zoom, bringing with it improved image quality over its predecessor.

The camera captures 20 megapixel shots and uses Hasselbladproprietary Natural Color Solution (HNCS) tech to get more accurate color reproduction. The aperture is adjustable as well, giving shooters between f/2.8-f/11 for various lighting conditions.

The Mavic 2 Zoom, meanwhile, is pretty much what it sounds like. The big focus here is the 2x optical (24-48mm) and 2x digital zoom, which combine to simulate the effects of a 96mm lens. The 12-megapixel camera also uses a new &Super Resolution& feature that stitches nine zoomed-in photos for a super high-res 48-megapixel shot, a feature targeted at landscape photography.

Zoom is a solid addition here, given how difficult it can be to try to get a drone close to a subject, for any number of reasons.

Therealso the very cool Dolly Zoom shot mode. This one might be my favorite of the bunch, though while we had the opportunity to fly the new drone atop a Manhattan rooftop, we didn&t have the clearance to try out the new feature, which requires the kind of room that we just weren&t zoned for. The new addition zooms in on an object while the drone flies in the opposite direction, creating a disorienting shot familiar to anyone whoever seen a Hitchcock film.

There are a number of other additional preprogrammed Hyperlapse shots on-board, as well. I&ll defer to DJIdescription of those:

• Free & pilots the drone manually while shooting a Hyperlapse video.
• Circle & automatically flies the drone in a circular pattern around a subject you select to create a timelapse video that captures the action.
• Course Lock & keeps the camera fixed on shooting subject while the drone flies in a straight direction to create a unique perspective.
• Waypoint & plans a complex flight path based on both altitude and GPS coordinates to capture complex shots.

DJIdone a solid job of creating these sort of single touch features that make you look like a much more competent photographer than you actually are.

The cameras aren&t swappable — thatwhy DJI opted to go with two distinct SKUs on this one. Ita bit of a bummer for photogs, but a modular camera system is certainly the kind of thing that could make sense for future upgrades.

The dronebody has been tweaked to make it more aerodynamic. DJI says the new design reduces body drag by up to 19 percent, which helps the drone achieve speeds of up to 44 miles per hour. Making the drone larger is a bit of a surprising choice, given how key portability is to the line, though obviously DJI has even more portable choices on the market now for those who prioritize size over everything else.

The propellers have a raked design on the wing tips, designed to help cut down on air drag and reduce sound. The drone is a bit quieter than the first Mavic, though you&re still not going to be able to sneak up on anyone with the thing.

The battery has been increased ever so slightly, as well, in part to compensate for the newer, larger size. Now the drone is capable of flying up to 31 minutes on a charge. Thatnot a huge boost from its predecessor28 minutes, but when it comes to keeping a drone in the air, well, you take what you can get.

Obstacle avoidance has been beefed up here — definitely a good thing, given our past track record with Mavics. So too has the Advanced Pilot Assistance System (APAS), helping the drone fly around obstacles rather than simply stopping to avoid collisions. There also are lights on the bottom of the drone to help improve landings in low light.

ActiveTrack, meanwhile, now utilizes three on-board front facing cameras to create a 3D map of its subject, in order to better follow along.

We had the opportunity to fly the drone around a bit on a Manhattan. I wouldn&t recommend flying on a city rooftop for first times, but the drone handled fairly well and was pretty responsive to the included controller. I&ve flown a few other models in the Mavic line and found the handling to be more or less on-par, while a loud alarm sounded every time it came within several feet of an obstacle. Better safe than sorry.

We&ll be able to say a bit more when we&re able to spend a bit more hands-on time with the product, which should be in the very near future.

The 2 Pro and 2 Zoom run $1,499 and $1,249, respectively. Therealso the standard DJI Fly More kit, which includes a bunch of extras, like two batteries, a multi-battery charging hub, extra propellers and a bag to carry all of that around. That$319 and can be purchased at any point.

The drones are available starting today through DJI.

Oh, and for those who love to anthropomorphize their devices, herean image of the Zoom and Pro, gasping and screaming, apparently witness something horrific happening, just out of frame:

Pets are expensive. I&ll be the first to admit that. The adoption fees, the shots, the food, the medical care. But at the end of the day, itworth it for the judgement-free, uninhibited love of a furry companion.

If you&re looking to save a buck a two, a robotic dog is probably not the way to go. Not this robotic dog, at least. For all of its many charms, the rebooted Sony Aibo ain&t cheap. At an event today in New York City, the electronics giant offered a bit more insight into the long-awaited robotic pet, including its $2,899 price tag.

For all of the new Aibocharms (and there are many), any suggestion that the product might be anything but a niche device can now be laid to rest. While Sony North America President and COO Mike Fasulo tells me that the company has its sights on playing a key role in the home robotics moving forward, Aibo is not the mainstream device we&ve been promised for decades.

Rather, the robotic dog is a kind of sign post of what we&re capable in this current moment. Itan opportunity for Sony to showcase the state of the industry of consumer robotics in 2018 — what happens when current artificial intelligence is used to build the foundation of a consumer product. The result, it turns out, is fairly adorable. I was at the companyCES press conference, when the new Aibo was unveiled for the first time, and there was a collective gasp. It takes a lot to melt the hearts of a roomful of jaded tech journalists, and Aibo succeeded at that in spades.

&It shows our capability of innovation,& Fasulo tells TechCrunch. &There4,000 parts in this product. Its eyes are made of OLEd, which makes it adorable, but also makes it a great device for photo capturing. The core technology inside is built around our image sensors. Itgot 22 axes of movement and more flexibility than I&ve seen in a robot. Itshowing Sonyinnovation and commit to the future and probably a bit of branding along the way.

Conventional wisdom has it that the first generation of the product was ahead of its time. Consumer AI, cloud technology and any number of other aspects that have since come to fruition simple weren&t in place at the time. But have the advancements the industry has made in the intervening 19 years been enough to create a truly compelling robotic pet

Sony is certainly hedging its bets with the new Aibo. At $2,899, the product is too expensive to appeal to all but the most enthusiastic early adopters. That said, the product sold surprisingly well in Japan, at around 20,000 units — more than Sony bargained for, apparently. The goal for the U.S. market is &in the thousands,& according to Fasulo.

But while Aibo isn&t destined to be a mainstream product and future generations likely won&t see a major price cut, the companycommitted to the line for a few years at least, this time around. The robot will be available in the U.S. as the &First Litter Edition,& which ships with a three-year AI Cloud Plan, meaning the dog should be kicking for that long at least.

Those looking for an insanely expensive holiday gift can purchase Aibo starting in September. It will also be on display at the Sony Square store in New York, through late October.