DJI’s new foldable drone, the Mavic Pro, looks incredible. The announcement comes about one week after the GoPro Karma, another foldable drone, was announced. So how do the two flexy drones stack up against each other? It depends who is flying and under what conditions. On basic specs, the DJI Mavic Pro seems to have bested the GoPro Karma in several categories. It has a faster top speed (40 mph versus 35 mph), it has a longer battery life (27 minutes versus 20 minutes), and it can even be outfitted with any phone or tablet you want. The Mavic Pro is also small enough to fit uncomfortably into a pair of jean pockets. The Karma, on the other hand, requires a backpack (or similarly-sized vessel) to be transported from place to place. The first difference you’ll notice between both drones is the controllers. The GoPro Karma ships with a controller using a built-in display and packs up nicely into the little backpack that comes with the Karma. The Mavic Pro has an optional controller, meaning you can instead operate the device from your phone.

The controller that DJI sells separately can be paired with any phone if you want to see preview preview video while you’re flying. Going deeper, the Mavic Pro comes with five-camera obstacle avoidance system similar to the one in the Phantom 4. The GoPro Karma doesn’t have any obstacle avoidance features, though, as one of our testers found out the hard way, DJI’s sensors don’t work in every scenario. DJI’s camera system also enables some cool features such as gesture control. backpack koaFor example, moving your hands in the shape of a square prompts the drone to take a picture from the drone’s camera. cpo backpackIt’s a neat trick (especially during a live demo), but my guess is that the gesture controls won’t be nearly as practical in real life. hess backpack

The Mavic Pro also comes with some cool follow modes. The drone can lead you in front, follow you at a profile and do a cool trick where it files circles around you as you move. The smart flying capabilities are enabled by the cameras and sensors on the drone. It’s still unclear whether the GoPro Karma will offer a follow me function, but we’re really hope so given the adventure-loving customer base.One aspect that could be the difference maker for these competing foldable drone systems is their camera systems. buy asus rog backpackThe DJI Mavic Pro ships with a camera that shoots 4K video, but it’s bolted to the drone, so you can’t exactly use it while you’re not flying the drone around. 17 inch laptop backpack tsaThe GoPro Karma was built to combat these type of situations. backpack yard sprayer

It can be outfitted with the new GoPro Hero 5 Black, the Hero 5 Session, Hero 4, and Hero 3 cameras. If you already own one of theses cameras, the Karma is a great way to get them airborne, but if you still need to buy one, it could just make the cost of your aerial rig a lot more expensive. Another neat feature of the GoPro Karma is its removable stabilizer that can be used as a handheld gimbal for shooting nice clean shots on or off the drone. When it comes to versatility of video recording, the GoPro Karma easily beats DJI.As for price, the DJI Mavic Pro sells for $750 without the remote control (which means you’d have to use your phone or tablet to control it) or $1,000 with the controller. The GoPro Karma sells for a flat price of $800 and comes with a controller that uses a built-in display. The total cost depends on what camera you strap to it. It costs $1000 with a GoPro Hero 5 Session, and $1100 with a GoPro Hero 5 Black. When it comes to drones and budgets, there’s not a one-size-fits-all situation, so the perfect foldable drone will be a matter of preference.

Without spending too much time flying either drone, though, it looks like the DJI has a slight edge in terms of performance and value.Obviously, we’ll need to take both of these drones out for a true head-to-head test flight in order to determine which is the best. We’re hoping to get our hands on both drones in the coming weeks so we can really test the claims both companies are making. Ahead of that head-to-head battle, it looks like DJI has the slight edge, at least on paper.Please, wait while we are validating your browser The lack of electricity in rural parts of the Ivory Coast sometimes makes it hard for children to study after dark. Our Observer found an answer to this problem. He created a backpack covered with solar panels, which power a lamp that can provide students with enough light to do their homework. An estimated 700 million Africans still don’t have regular access to electricity. Most of the people with the least access to electricity live in remote areas.

Our Observer, Evariste Akoumian, decided to tackle this problem by building a school bag adorned with a small solar panel hooked up to a lamp. When the child carries his or her backpack to school, the sun charges the battery. Later, if the child is at home and wants to study after dark, they can just plug the lamp into the battery using a USB cable. When empty, the backpack only weighs 350 grammes, according to our Observer. The lamp can run for up to five hours. “Kids only have about an hour of daylight left to study when they get home from school” Evariste Akoumian created this special backpack, which he called the "Solarpak". I work for a company that delivers computer hardware. When I was travelling around the country for work, I noticed that most households in rural areas only have one gas lamp to provide light after dark. Often, there are five or ten people living in one household and, obviously, the parents monopolise the use of the light. A child finishes school at 4:30 pm.

In September, when the school year begins, the sun sets around 6pm. That means that by the time a child gets home from school, he or she only has about an hour of daylight to study by – if that. These are not the right conditions for children to make academic progress. I keep thinking about how it wasn’t fair that these children in rural areas don’t have the same chance for success as children living in cities with electricity. Our Observer, Evariste, gives backpacks to Ivorian schoolkids. “I have already given out 200 of these backpacks” I thought to myself that the solution would need to be a simple device that could provide energy without too much effort. I started thinking about backpacks with built-in solar panels that could collect energy while the child walks to school [Editor’s note: Similar solar-power backpacks are already in use in some places in South Africa and Togo]. In just one day, the solar panels can soak up enough energy to keep the lamp going for four or five hours.

I invested a lot of my own money in this project: about 32 million francs CFA [about 48,000 euros]. With that, I was able to make 500 backpacks. I have given out 200 of them in the villages of Afféry and Songon, to the south of Abidjan. “With a little help, I could create up to 100 jobs through this project” For the time being, Evariste has not found sponsors for his project, even if the US Embassy in the Ivory Coast has publicised it. For now, he is importing the backpacks and the solar panels from Asia, and assembling the final product in the Ivory Coast. However, Evariste soon hopes to change that. For now, I have about 10 people working on this project. I pay some of them while others are volunteers. In a few months, I hope to be able to start manufacturing the backpacks in the Ivory Coast, and hire between 50 and 100 people. I want to build partnerships with schools and NGOs in order to give out as many of these backpacks as possible. I will also sell some of these backpacks, but I have decided to charge no more than 10,000 francs CFA [about 15 euros] for each .