The Hexo+ drone is taking Kickstarter by storm this week. It’s an autonomous flying machine that can follow you around and film your every move. The craft is aimed primarily at action-sports enthusiasts who want the ability to film their adrenalin-fueled exploits without the need of a camera operator. It determines your location by connecting with its app on your smartphone. Then it just follows you around. The distance between you and the drone can be set to a maximum of 50 meters. While a top speed of 45 mph means it should be able to keep up with just about any activity. The Hexo+ smashed through its $50,000 funding target in just a few hours, and you can reserve one minus the camera for 500 bucks.
At the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans, it was a case of good news and bad news for the Nissan ZEOD RC. The plug-in hybrid race car was able to achieve Nissan’s goal of a first-ever all-electric lap of Le Mans’ Circuit, but the car didn’t last much longer, retiring just 23 minutes into the race with a gearbox problem. Nissan says it was a case of a “new tech” car being shut down by an “old tech” issue. However, the “new tech” parts of the powertrain performed flawlessly during the ZEOD’s short time on the track. The triangular racer actually set a speed record for electric power at Le Mans, hitting 186 mph in qualifying. Nissan will go off to lick its wounds, and plans to return to Le Mans next year in a big way, fielding a car in the top LMP1 category.
It turns out that a new Xbox One commercial featuring Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul, is inadvertently powering up people’s Xbox machines without their permission. In the ad, Paul sits on a couch and issues the voice command “Xbox on” to power up his console and play a video game. But just as the Xbox in the commercial is actively listening for his voice command, so are all the other Xbox Ones sitting in people’s living rooms. So when the commercial plays on TV, gamers at-home may notice their own Xbox perking up as well. Now the real question is: Was this just some unintended consequence of the commercial or part of Microsoft’s master plan to subtly encourage gamers to play their Xbox One as much as possible?
