When DJI revealed its tiny $200 Neo drone, I immediately saw how it could fit into my vlogger’s toolkit to supplement my Mini 4 Pro and Mavic 3 Pro. Flying those sophisticated drones is a whole thing that requires planning. But the Neo can be launched spontaneously to grab quick and fun shots, thanks to features like palm takeoff and voice control. That ease of use also makes it ideal for the social media influencers.
Though beginner-friendly, it’s quite powerful. You get features from DJI’s bigger drones like ActiveTrack, FPV capabilities and even support for DJI’s Mic 2. And forget about the fuzzy video you may have seen on other cheap drones. The Neo can record in sharp 4K, making it suitable for content creators who need affordable aerial video.
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The DJI Neo may be an inexpensive, beginner-friendly drone, but has powerful features like subject tracking and quick shots.
It’s not perfect though, as the Neo is noisy and lacks vertical video, something influencers will likely want. Still, it looked like the kind of product that could appeal to all types of people, even creators like myself who already have multiple drones. To see how it performed, we put it through a variety of scenarios from events to weddings — and even flying just for fun.
Design and features
With a softly sculpted design and protective propeller guards, the Neo gives off safe, friendly vibes. It’s DJI’s lightest drone by far at 135 grams, less than half the Mini 4’s heft, and is small enough to fit into a large jacket pocket. The device’s diminutive size also means it’s exempt from any drone license requirements.
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The Neo has a rich feature set, but all you need to start flying is your hand. Simply place the Neo in your palm, press the new mode button at front and it’ll take off and perform one of six preprogrammed “smart shots.” Those are Follow (the drone tracks and follows you around), Dronie (it starts tight on your face then flies up and away from you), Circle (flies around you), Rocket (starts at face level and flies straight up), Spotlight (keeps you centered in the frame but doesn’t move) and Direction Track (for vlogging). After you complete the shot, stick out your hand under the Neo to land it.
Another great option for newbies is voice control, which lets you fly and record video by speaking into the Fly More app. I wasn’t able to try this feature in my initial hands-on tests, but it has now been enabled via a firmware update. You can either tap on the voice button to say a command or enable the wake word settings. Then, you can just say, “Hey Fly” to activate it.
For instance, saying the word “dronie” will activate the dronie flight pattern and start recording. You can then change parameters using commands like “closer,” “farther” and “higher.” It also includes the safety commands “land,” “stop” and “brake.”
The setting is a great way to give users some control over the social media-oriented quick shots without the need to touch a controller. It was straightforward to set up, and I found that it responded quickly and reliably to my commands. However, you’ll need to keep the phone’s mic close to your mouth when the Neo is nearby, or the propeller wailing will drown out your voice.
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The Neo is also DJI’s first drone that can be piloted using a smartphone alone. Switching the app into manual mode brings up a touch screen with full maneuvering controls. It also offers a camera/video mode and return-to-home toggle. There’s a serious caveat to using it, though, as I’ll detail shortly. For more serious piloting, the Neo supports multiple DJI controllers (sold separately), including the RC N3 model that requires a smartphone. You can even use it as an FPV drone with DJI’s RC Motion 3 and DJI Goggles 3. Those controllers offer most of the features available on other DJI camera drones, like cinema, normal and sport modes, along with auto and manual video settings.
What you won’t see are any obstacle detection sensors, which is one reason the Neo is so cheap. The only crash protection measures are the camera’s subject detection AI, a downward facing IR landing sensor and a rugged design that resists minor accidents.
As for storage, there’s no microSD card slot, so the Neo relies on the 22GB of internal memory that holds 40 minutes of 4K footage or 55 minutes of 1080p video. You can transfer the files to a PC or other device via the rear USB-C charging port. Again, this is less than ideal, but it keeps the price down.
Performance
If you have low performance expectations for a 5-ounce, $200 drone, get ready to be pleasantly surprised — the Neo is maneuverable, fast and fun. It can hit speeds up to 18 mph in sport mode, which is half that of the Mini 4 Pro, but still at the upper end of this category. You can even fly it in fairly blustery winds up to 18 mph, though it could get blown into another county if you let it get too far away.
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The Neo can also fly twice that speed in manual mode, another feature that arrived in a post-launch firmware update, but requires DJI’s FPV Controller 3. With that controller and the firmware update, I pushed it to its top speed. 36 mph is faster than any drone this size by far, but it never felt out of control. However, at that speed the noise level resembles a swarm of particularly irate hornets.
The FPV Controller 3 also opens up the possibility of acrobatic (acro) flying, letting you perform flips, spins and other maneuvers. That’s a lot of fun, especially knowing that the drone is not only crash resistant but costs just $200 — a pittance by drone standards. I’m not an acro pilot, but in the hands of an expert like quadmovr, the Neo can rip through some unbelievable moves.
For novices who want to try first-person video flying (FPV) but aren’t ready for the tricky-to-use Controller 3, DJI’s Goggles 3 and RC Motion 3 are better for FPV newbs. It’s certainly not as nimble and quick as the Avata 2, but it’s still a lot of fun. In fact, it’s a great learning tool for wannabe FPV pilots with either of those controllers, thanks to the durability and low price.
The Neo is ideal for event videography too, as you can maneuver it almost anywhere to get some cool or dramatic shots. At the same time, the propeller guards make it safe to use around people. Again, it’s very noisy, so it’s obviously not suitable to fly through something like a wedding or a best man’s speech.
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The modes ActiveTrack, Spotlight and Point of Interest (POI) work just as they do on other DJI drones to track or follow you. A key mode for content creators is Direction Track, which lets you do walk-and-talk vlogging while keeping your face in view. With that setting, the Neo is usually flying backwards with no rear obstacle sensor, so you’ll need a clear path. When I tested this, the drone veered into some tree branches and was thrown off course, but it kept on flying.
I never try to crash drones on purpose, but did have a few mishaps. The Neo hit some trees before falling to the ground a couple of times, and bonked a hard interior floor on one occasion. It not only continued to function perfectly, but had nary a visible scratch, so DJI has done a good job with durability. That said, you can purchase a one-year insurance plan for the Neo at just $22, which covers accidents and loss of the drone.
With a controller and DJI’s O4 transmission, the Neo has a 6.2 mile line-of-sight range in the US, or 3.7 miles in Europe where transmission power is limited. That’s exactly half that of the Mini Pro 4, but pretty extraordinary given the size — though I’m not sure who’d ever want to fly such a lightweight drone that far away. I flew it about half a mile away with no loss of signal, and that was plenty far for my comfort level. Maximum altitude, meanwhile, is unlimited and set by the user.
When using smartphone Wi-Fi control, maximum range is just 165 feet, so it’s really just for indoor or nearby outdoor use. This is based on Wi-Fi limits, but it also effectively serves as a geofence for novices (the drone just stops and hovers if it gets out of Wi-Fi range). In addition, if you’re using the palm or voice control, altitude is limited to around 100 feet.
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While small and light, the Neo’s 1,435mAh lithium-ion Intelligent Flight Batteries support up to 17 minutes of flying time, or around 13 to 14 minutes in the real world — not bad in this category. With the Neo alone, it takes an hour to charge a single battery directly within the drone. However, if you spring for the $289 combo kit (including the drone, two extra batteries and a three-battery charger), you can juice three batteries in that same 60 minutes.
Camera
The gimbal is tucked into a protective housing and can tilt up 60 degrees and down 90. The camera has a 1/2-inch 12-megapixel sensor with an ultra-wide 13mm equivalent focal length and f/2.8 aperture — about what you’d expect on a decent smartphone.
The Neo’s video specs are weaker than other DJI drones, but I was pretty happy with my footage considering the price of the Neo. It can shoot 4K 30p video and 1080p at up to 60fps, certainly good enough for most social media users. It also supports 4K in a 4:3 aspect ratio at 30fps, or 1080p in the same aspect ratio but up to 60fps.
The camera doesn’t tilt sideways like it does on the Mini 4 Pro, which means it can’t do vertical video. That’s unfortunate considering the target market, but adding that capability would also increase complexity and, no doubt, the price. The best bet for social media users is to shoot in 4K and then crop to a 1080×1920 9:16 resolution.
There’s also no D-LogM capability to boost dynamic range as seen on most other DJI drones, and with such a small sensor, low-light capability is poor. However, video is sharp and color accurate, which is well above what you’d expect in this price range. The 12-megapixel photos are also good enough for hobbyists and social media users. I expect the average buyer taking aerial shots of their home, family and vacations will be more than pleased.
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The Neo also incorporates DJI’s software-based RockSteady stabilization along with gimbal tilt stabilization. That should provide smooth enough video for most users, or you can disable the stabilization altogether and use DJI’s GyroFlow app in post for better results. The Neo also supports HorizonBalancing, providing level video even if the drone banks up to 45 degrees. Note that for the 4:3 video modes, there’s no electronic image stabilization, so you need to stabilize the footage later using GyroFlow or another app.
The Neo can even capture audio with your phone just by tapping the Fly More app’s audio record button. You’ll get better quality by connecting an external microphone or using DJI’s Mic 2. Since the Neo is extremely noisy, the Mic 2 will cancel out much of that prop screeching, leaving your voice clear and legible, albeit with some distortion.
Wrap-up
DJI’s Neo might be small in stature, but it can shoot good quality video and photos safely around people, and does so at a very reasonable price. It has clearly captured the public’s imagination, as it’s already been sold out on DJI’s site despite only being on sale for a couple of weeks.
Potential buyers range from novices up to experienced hands who want a small, people-friendly drone for Instagram stories and more. It’s ideal for TikTok and other creators because it can act as a robot videographer, helping you record content by yourself. The main issues you’ll have to live with are the noise, lack of vertical video and limited battery life.
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For $200, or $289 if you opt for the combo kit with three batteries and a charger, the Neo is a no-brainer for many creators. The only real competition is the $350 HoverAir X1, which costs more and offers lower-resolution video. But by providing higher quality video for less money, the Neo is a better value.
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When you talk to a chatbot like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, your responses are largely linear. You often have to ask follow-up questions to get more information. For instance, when you are planning a trip, you might first ask the chatbot about the place and follow it up with questions on meal planning, activities, tips for the trip, and a packing list.
A team of former Google Maps engineers is building an infinite board interface called Cove. This design should help you generate several responses based on one question or prompt to an AI bot.
The startup founded by Stephen Chau, Andy Szybalski, and Mike Chu has raised $6 million in a seed round from Sequoia Capital, Elad Gil, Homebrew, Adverb, Scott Belsky, Lenny Rachitsky along with other angel investors.
The team has previously worked on some well known Google Maps features like Street View. Both Chau and Szybalski later joined Uber and were part of the team that worked on launching Uber Eats. Jess Lee, who is the lead investor for Sequoia for this round was also a colleague of Cove co-founders at Google Maps.
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When they started working on this product, the trio felt that AI could be much more helpful in a collaborative space, especially for tasks like planning, writing, storyboarding, and research. On a call with TechCrunch, Chau said that thinking is a messy process, and you constantly iterate in your head while working on something. Your brain progressively creates branched-out thoughts.
“A lot of inspiration for Cove is really thinking about how we are used to human-to-human collaboration. When we work with other folks, we have a shared space, like a room where there is a shared context, and then we can communicate together on something. That’s what we wanted to build with Cove,” said Chau, expanding on why the startup chose to have an infinite canvas as an interface.
He opined that a chat interface for AI is very linear and not editable. For the most complex projects, having to deal with multiple conversation threads can be cumbersome.
The product
Cove has an infinite board interface on the web with a chatbot window in the bottom right corner. The bot shows you some suggestions for the projects you can work on through prompts so that you are not just staring at the blank space, thinking about how to get started. These examples include typical prompts like “Help me pick a birthday gift for my mom who likes gardening,” or “Help me plan a week-long trip to Yosemite for a family of four.”
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When you click on any of these prompts, Cove will generate multiple response cards with tables and lists related to the prompt. For instance, if you ask the chatbot about trip planning, it can generate cards for meal planning, packing essentials, general tips, a list of hikes, and even create an itinerary.
You can edit any part of these cards by selecting some text and prompting it. You can also create a spin-off card or add more points, lists, or table elements to existing cards.
Users can add PDFs, links through a built-in browser, images, or a new blank card to add more context. They can also ask Cove questions about specific elements by referencing different cards and mentioning them.
Since this is a collaborative board, you can share the link with anyone. Just like in Google Docs, you can share it as a “view only” board or with editing abilities, depending on your needs. When people are collaborating on one board, all of them can invoke AI separately.
The startup has also released a Chrome extension. When you are browsing a website, you can invoke the extension, ask the AI bot about the site and content on screen, and add that to one of your projects or cards.
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Opportunity and limitations
There are plenty of whiteboarding tools for collaborations, including Miro, TLDraw, Kosmik, and Visual Electric (which is also backed by Sequoia).
Cove feels that its AI features can attract a different kind of audience to use its product. The startup said that it is using a variety of models — including models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta (Llama) and Perplexity — to balance out costs of querying and deliverying quick answers.
Currently, Cove only works on the web interface, so the best way to use it is on the desktop. While you can access the boards on mobile, the small screen is not an ideal way to view them.
The founders said that people are using the tool for planning home renovation, business growth, and finding new sales projects. The company itself has used Cove to see customer feedback and generate better support articles.
“There are products where AI does the work for you and there are products where you do all the work. Cove is designed in a way where AI is more of your thought partner and collaborator. Think of it as an assistant that helps you rather than an oracle that tells you what to do,” Sequoia’s Lee said.
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Cove is free to use with a limit of 100 cards. To unlock unlimited cards and get early access to new features, users will have to pay $10 a month.
A man covering his head with Halloween pumpkin sits as trees’ leaves turns the colors of the autumn season at Central Park in New York, United States on October 30, 2023.
Fatih Aktas | Anadolu | Getty Images
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This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.
Rebound rally U.S. stocks rebounded on Tuesday, with all major indexes rising. Technology stocks, in particular, rallied to lift the Nasdaq Composite. APAC
Google, it’s not me, it’s you Breaking up Google is one recommendation the U.S. Department of Justice made to remedy the tech giant’s monopoly in the search market – a ruling the courts reached in August after the U.S. government filed a case against Google in 2020. Legal experts, however, think a break-up isn’t very likely and that the courts will order Google to pursue other remedies.
Cooling oil prices Crude oil prices fell on Tuesday amid reports by The New York Times and The Jerusalem Post that Israel might focus on striking Iran’s military sites in retaliation for its missile attacks. Both West Texas Intermediate and Brent futures retreated 4.63% during U.S. trading hours Tuesday, halting the red-hot rally oil prices have experienced the past week.
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New Zealand cuts rates The Reserve Bank of New Zealand slashed interest rates by half a percentage point on Wednesday. It’s the second consecutive cut after the RBNZ unexpectedly lowered rates by a quarter point in August. The central bank’s likely to make another half-point cut in November, Paul Bloxham, HSBC’s chief economist for Australia and New Zealand, told CNBC.
[PRO] Time to invest in China? China’s blue-chip CSI 300 index popped 5.93% on Tuesday after markets returned from their seven-day Golden Week holiday. However, there are signs the sizzling rally is cooling. The CSI 300 is currently down around 5.6% as of Wednesday morning. On the back of such turbulence, CNBC Pro asks two strategists whether now’s the time to invest in China.
October in the U.S. is the season for pumpkin spice, but the month also harbors the dangerous edge of Halloween.
And getting spooked and soothed alternately is indeed what markets are doing in October.
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After falling 0.96% on Monday, the S&P 500 added 0.97% on Tuesday. (Though it should be noted that doesn’t necessarily mean the S&P erased its losses and is up 1 basis point from Monday to Tuesday. Percentages are hard.)
October, then, is truly living up to its reputation as the most volatile month for stocks. But investors should keep in mind the uncomfortable swings in markets aren’t always a good signal for the underlying health of stocks.
“While our expectation is for October to remain choppy, we don’t view the overall market action to be bearish and encourage investors to maintain perspective on the longer-term trends,” Robert Sluymer, technical strategist at RBC Wealth Management, wrote to clients in a Tuesday note.
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Investment bank Piper Sandler has the same opinion on October’s turbulence. “October is historically a ‘backing and filling’ month as investors react to Q3 earnings results,” Craig Johnson, chief market technician, wrote in a Tuesday note.
In fact, when stocks dip because of mild repricing or a correction, that’s a good opportunity for investors to swoop in, according to Johnson.
The see-saw motion of stocks in October isn’t all that bad, then, if investors can seize the right time to enter the market or solidify their positions further. It doesn’t have to be spooky season all the time.
– CNBC’s Hakyung Kim, Samantha Subin and Alex Harring contributed to this story.
MediaTek has formally announced its new flagship mobile chipset, the Dimensity 9400. It has the year-over-year spec bumps we’d expect to see, along with a few future-looking features just to cover all the bases.
The 9400 is built on a 3nm process and is “up to 40 percent more power-efficient” than its predecessor, the 9300. It comprises one ArmCortex-X925 core running at 3.62GHz, along with three Arm Cortex-X4 and four Cortex-A720 cores, both of which were announced at last year’s Computex. MediaTek says that this combination results in 35 percent faster single-core performance and 28 percent faster multi-core performance compared to the 9300. The chipset also includes Arm’s new 12-core Immortalis-G925 GPU with 40 percent faster ray tracing.
That’s the basic stuff. On the more futuristic side, there’s MediaTek’s own eighth-generation NPU with support for training certain kinds of lightweight AI models on-device, with “80 percent faster large language model prompt performance.” It also supports AI video generation and provides a developer framework for creating agentic applications, which is AI that can actually do things for you. In theory, that’s the next big turn in AI, with everyone from Apple to Rabbit working out how to make it a reality.
In all likelihood, the Dimensity 9400 will be ready long before the most futuristic features it supports; MediaTek says that the 9400 will be available in the market in Q4 of this year. The company’s high-end chips tend to appear in flagship phones from Chinese OEMs like Vivo and Oppo. As such, the 9400 may not make it to the US, where Qualcomm chipsets dominate the popular Android flagships.
Strands is the NYT’s latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it’s great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
NYT Strands today (game #220) – hint #1 – today’s theme
What is the theme of today’s NYT Strands?
• Today’s NYT Strands theme is… Full house
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NYT Strands today (game #220) – hint #2 – clue words
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
BIFF
FRAME
ITCH
PANT
ROLL
DUST
NYT Strands today (game #220) – hint #3 – spangram
What is a hint for today’s spangram?
• Where the heart is
NYT Strands today (game #220) – hint #4 – spangram position
What are two sides of the board that today’s spangram touches?
First: right, 5th row
Last: left, 5th row
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
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NYT Strands today (game #220) – the answers
The answers to today’s Strands, game #220, are…
HALL
OFFICE
STUDY
KITCHEN
LIBRARY
PANTRY
FOYER
SPANGRAM: HOMEROOM
My rating: Moderate
My score: Perfect
Either the staff of the NYT live in far bigger houses than I do or they’re taking a few liberties with the answers here, because my home contains neither an OFFICE, LIBRARY, PANTRY or FOYER; I’m not an aristocrat… Still, the central theme of ‘rooms in a house’ is fair enough, were it not for the fact that the spangram is HOMEROOM, which is a different thing entirely.
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Setting that aside, it’s not too tricky. The biggest problem is that so many rooms have the word, um, ROOM in them – meaning the likes of bedroom, bathroom, dining room etc were all ruled out. The challenge was therefore to think of rooms that don’t contain the actual word ‘room’, which took me a while.
Yesterday’s NYT Strands answers (Tuesday 8 October, game #219)
LOCK
PASSWORD
SAFE
BACKUP
FIREWALL
ENCRYPTION
SPANGRAM: SECURITY
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT’s new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It’s now out of beta so is a fully fledged member of the NYT’s games stable and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
I’ve got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you’re struggling to beat it each day.
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