Author: angel

The carrier is focused on using its C-Band spectrum for improved 5G, but it’s feeling the pressure from rivals, its earnings report shows.Verizon is feeling the competitive heat. The nation’s largest wireless carrier suffered a decline in the first quarter and warned that its earnings growth would be at the lower end of its previous expectations.

Verizon lost 292,000 consumer postpaid phone subscriptions, the metric used by the industry as an indicator of success. In a Friday press release on its earnings for the quarter, Verizon chalked the loss up to “competitive dynamics.” On Thursday, rival AT&T reported first-quarter subscriber gains.

Verizon’s losses were largely offset by 256,000 business postpaid phone net additions, but the carrier is still concerned about the consumer losses, which mostly happened in March, when the first quarter closed, and into April, suggesting additional slowdown in the second quarter.

“We will continue to take appropriate measures to be competitive in the market,” Verizon Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Matt Ellis said during the earnings call, though he didn’t offer specifics beyond comments about relying on the carrier’s network and flexible plans.

Still, overall wireless services revenue was up 11.2% over last year, thanks in part to existing customers moving to pricier plans, as well as revenue from prepaid mobile company Tracfone, which appeared on Verizon’s books for the first time after the carrier finished acquiring the company last November. Verizon reported a loss of 80,000 Tracfone net phone subscriptions over the quarter, which the carrier pegged to the sunsetting of generous pandemic mobile service subsidies that benefited the prepaid company’s customer base.

Verizon’s focus on wireless and broadband internet may take some time to attract more customers and offset losses, especially as it spends this year building out coverage of its so-called C-band range of 5G, which launched in January. The carrier is betting big on C-band radio frequencies as a lure for customers, with higher speeds and wider coverage of its 5G Ultra Wideband network. But this quarter’s losses suggest customers aren’t yet convinced.

After reaching C-band 5G coverage of 100 million people in January, Verizon has continued to activate more service and is on track to reach 175 million people by the end of 2022. At Verizon’s investor day in March, the carrier said it had reached agreements with satellite companies to access more C-band spectrum, which will speed up coverage of 40 million people in certain markets, a year ahead of Verizon’s expectations.

Verizon has continued encouraging its existing customers to upgrade their phones, and 40% of customers are now using 5G handsets. That’s not much higher than the 33% reported in January. Numbers will slowly grow over the next year, with the carrier expecting six out of 10 customers to be using 5G phones by the end of 2023.

Verizon’s Fios fixed broadband added a modest 55,000 subscribers while its fixed wireless access, called Verizon 5G Home, continues to grow, with 112,000 net new customers. The carrier credited this to the wider availability of 5G Home thanks to the continued rollout of C-band service. Under current expansion plans, the service will cover 50 million households and 14 million businesses by the end of 2025.

Verizon posted $33.6 billion in revenue in the first quarter, up 2.1% from the same period last year. With Tracfone in its portfolio, wireless revenue grew to $15.2 billion, up from $13.7 billion in the first quarter of 2021. This is partially offset by the lost revenue from Verizon Media Group, sold last year, which dropped service and other revenue by 2.5%.

The carrier reported net income of $4.7 billion, or earnings of $1.09 per share. Its adjusted earnings came in at $1.35 per share, which is in line with analyst expectations per Yahoo Finance, but down slightly from $1.36 a share a year ago.

WWDC 2022 is just weeks away. Here’s everything we want Apple to add and fix in its next big iPhone update.

The next major version of the iPhone’s software will likely be called iOS 16 and debut at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference in early June. Apple is expected to share previews of iOS 16, iPadOS 16, WatchOS 9, MacOS and other software. We’re most excited about the next version of iOS since it usually includes a few impressive changes for the iPhone.

Rumors for iOS 16 are relatively sparse, which is typical for unreleased Apple software. So it will truly be a surprise to see what new iOS features are revealed.

The last three versions of iOS have been similar. iOS 15 feels like a riff of iOS 14 which felt like a continuation of iOS 13. Any visual changes are able to be turned on-and-off instead of being forced onto your iPhone. For example, if you don’t like home screen widgets or Focus mode, you don’t have to use them. Even if you opt out of the more conspicuous changes, running iOS 15 brings a bunch of background improvements to keep your iPhone running smoothly and securely. And that will likely be the case with iOS 16.

iOS 15 has been out for seven months and the operating system has been relatively stable with very few bugs. Some features, such as Universal Control and SharePlay, took a while to roll out but everything seems to be up and running now. iOS 16 will likely continue where iOS 15 leaves off, adding new features to its existing design.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t things Apple needs to add or improve. My colleagues and I came up with a list of improvements, additions and fixes that we’d like Apple to make for iOS 16. Some are big, like adding support for the Apple Pencil, and others are small but significant, like giving home screen widgets more functionality. We’ll have to wait until June to see what Apple actually does.

iOS 16: The Photos app needs copy and paste for edits
We use iPhones to take photos and videos all the time, and editing photos is just as satisfying as taking them. Most people’s place to edit is the iPhone’s Photos app: The interface is straightforward, and there are an abundance of tools for getting the exact look you want.

But the MacOS version of the Photos app has one useful feature that would improve editing on the iPhone: the ability to copy and paste edits between photos. This is especially helpful when you take several photos at the same place, such as at a restaurant or party. Since all of the photos were taken under the same lighting and conditions, you can just edit one photo and then copy and paste those adjustments to the others.Instead, in iOS 15, you’re left making those adjustments one-by-one for each photo on the iPhone. It’s tedious.

In iOS 16, it would be great to see a similar copy and paste feature on the iPhone. We’d give iOS 16 bonus points if the edits you made in the Photos app on the Mac could be applied to the Photos app on the iPhone, and vice versa. But, one step at a time.

T-Mobile’s home internet service is growing, and is now available to 40 million homes.Just over a year after its launch, T-Mobile is sharing some updates for its 5G Home Internet service. On Wednesday the carrier revealed that it now has 1 million customers on the $50 per month internet option and has expanded the service’s availability from 30 million “eligible households” to 40 million.

T-Mobile ended 2021 with 646,000 home internet subscribers and revealed during its most recent earnings that it had added 224,000 home internet users during the fourth quarter of the year. The company has increasingly promoted the new service, including in a Super Bowl spot featuring Scrubs actors Donald Faison and Zach Braff. T-Mobile is set to report its 2022 first-quarter earnings on April 27.

Touted as an alternative to traditional cable service, T-Mobile’s option doesn’t have data caps or annual contacts and includes a modem and router in its $50 monthly price (assuming you have automatic payments enabled). The carrier has previously said it aims to have 7-8 million customers for its home internet service by 2025.

While the carrier is expanding home internet availability to another 10 million households today, it still lacks a map for quickly seeing if your home can sign up. Instead, those interested still need to enter their addresses and information into T-Mobile’s website to see if the option is available where you live.

T-Mobile isn’t the only wireless carrier using 5G to provide home internet. Verizon recently has begun rolling out an updated version of its own $50 per month, 5G broadband option and in February announced that this service is available to over 30 million households. Verizon will report its first-quarter earnings on April 22.

Workers at Apple’s Grand Central Station store in New York have announced a plan to start a union.

If their bid is successful it would be the first union at one of the tech giant’s US stores.

The group of staff known as Fruit Stand Workers United must get signatures of support from 30% of colleagues at the store to qualify for a union election.

The move follows unionisation drives by staff at Starbucks and Amazon. Apple has not commented on the announcement.

A statement on a campaign website for the prospective union said: “Grand Central is an extraordinary store with unique working conditions that make a union necessary to ensure our team has the best possible standards of living.

The group described themselves as working in “extraordinary times with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and once-in-a-generation consumer price inflation,” though their website did not disclose the name of staff members leading the effort.

The group said it also wants a $30 (£23) minimum hourly wage for all workers, additional holiday time and information on more robust safety protocols at the Grand Central location.

The campaign is connected to Workers United, an affiliate of the national Service Employees International Union, which was established in 2009 from several earlier unions.

The Apple effort comes as a Starbucks unionisation drive backed by Workers United has spread nationally after election victories last year in New York.

Amazon is also facing a growing challenge from unions after an upstart campaign won an election at a warehouse in nearby Staten Island earlier this month.

Employees working in at least three other Apple stores are also attempting to organize, according to The Washington Post.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the BBC.

A group of employees at Manhattan’s Grand Central Terminal store has started formally collecting signatures to form a union, says a report.

A group of workers at Apple’s flagship retail store in Manhattan has begun formally gathering signatures to form a union, The Washington Post reported Saturday. Organizers at Apple’s Grand Central Terminal store say they voted Feb. 21 to affiliate with Workers United, the national labor union involved in recent efforts to unionize at Starbucks outlets, the paper reported.

If the organizers can collect enough signatures and then either bring about a successful union vote or prompt Apple to voluntarily recognize a union, the iPhone maker’s Grand Central store would, the Post said, become the first of its retail outlets to unionize. At least three additional Apple stores are working toward forming unions, the Post said, citing anonymous employees.

A website put together by the Grand Central organizers, who are calling themselves the Fruit Stand Workers United, says a union is needed “to ensure our team has the best possible standards of living in what have proven to be extraordinary times with the ongoing covid-19 pandemic and once-in-a-generation consumer price inflation,” the Post said.

The news comes just over two weeks after workers at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, New York, voted in favor of joining a union, a first for Amazon’s US facilities.

Apple didn’t respond to CNET’s request for comment. The Post said the company wouldn’t say if it would support or push back against the organizing effort. Instead, it provided a general statement of appreciation for its retail employees, along with an overview of benefits it provides them, including health care, tuition reimbursement and new parental leave.

Apple is reportedly testing a range of new Macs with its next generation of silicon, the M2 chips, which could be released later this year.

Apple is actively testing the next generation of in-house chips, the M2 series, in several different new Mac models, according to a Bloomberg report.

The company is testing four different types of M2 chips across nine new Macs. While detail about the machines being tested is scant, the report claims that the models tested with the base M2 chip include a MacBook Air, Mac mini and an entry-level MacBook Pro.

Other test models have reportedly packed an M2 Pro chip, including a Mac mini and both 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros. An M2 Max chip is also being tested with both sizes of MacBook Pros, and a Mac Pro desktop will use a successor to the M1 Ultra chip that debuted in the recently unveiled Mac Studio.

Read more: Best MacBook for 2022

Apple is also testing models with different configurations of existing chips, like a Mac mini with an M1 Pro and an M1 Max, but the report was unsure whether their overlap with the Mac Studio would keep them from being released.

While the report stressed that these models may not all reach production, those that are destined for store shelves could launch later this year. Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Delivery dates for certain models like the MacBook Pro could be delayed until June.

Apple is facing production woes for its MacBook Pros, with delivery dates being pushed back into June, according to a report from Bloomberg. As a result of China’s zero-tolerance policy for COVID-19 outbreaks, more than 30 Taiwanese companies, including major laptop manufacturer Quanta, have suspended production in China, the news outlet reported.

For Apple’s highest-end MacBook Pro, delivery times are estimated as late as June 16, while deliveries of lower-end configurations of the 14-inch MacBook Pro are set back until the end of May, Bloomberg said. The majority of other Apple laptop models like the 13-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air haven’t been impacted and still offer same-day delivery or delivery within a few days of ordering, the report said. So far, no delays in iPhone shipments have been reported.

The latest MacBook Pros, which range in price from $999 to $6,000 or more, are powered by Apple’s expanded M1, M1 Pro and M1 Max chips.

Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on production delays.

Apple’s CEO also pushes back against charges that its app store controls are anti-competitive.

Calling it “one of the most essential battles of our time,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said Tuesday that his company will continue to fight for data privacy protections that are in the best interests of consumers.

Cook also pushed back against charges that his company’s tight controls over its app store are anti-competitive. While Apple maintains that the controls protect consumer security and privacy, the store is the only official way to download apps to iPhones, iPads, Apple TVs and Apple Watches.

Speaking at the International Association of Privacy Professionals’ Global Privacy Summit, Cook said privacy continues to be threatened by the “data industrial complex,” which seeks to collect information about everything from the restaurants where people eat and the stores where they shop to the websites they browse.

While those companies say they’re collecting that data in order to provide consumers with a more custom experience, they usually don’t give consumers a choice about it, Cook noted.

“Who would stand for such a thing if it were unfolding in a physical world?” he asked, noting that few people would actually agree to have someone with a camera follow them as they took their child to school, or watch them as they worked on their laptop.

“You wouldn’t call that a service, you’d call that an emergency,” he said. “In the digital world it is one too.”

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Cook pointed to several features designed to protect data privacy that Apple has introduced in recent years, noting that users can now decide for themselves if their apps should be able to track their activity across their devices, as well as take steps to mask their location and shield their email addresses if they desire.

He also pointed to Apple’s efforts to minimize the data it collects and maximize the amount of processing that’s done on device, rather than in the cloud, reducing the risk that consumer data could be stolen by cybercriminals.

While Cook said the company remains in favor of strong privacy regulations like the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, and continues to call for such a law in the US, he said new regulations being debated in this country could put security and privacy at risk.

There’s been fierce debate both in the public and within the tech industry about how much power tech giants should wield over their respective app stores and platforms.

Lawmakers, regulators and developers have argued that Apple, in particular, should loosen its restrictions, which don’t allow developers to offer alternative app stores or to use alternative payment processors for in-app purchases of digital goods like new looks for a character in a game. Apple and Google both charge commissions of between 15% and 30% for those purchases, which they say help fund the technology and administration of their respective stores.

Some of the largest developers in the industry have taken strong stances against the current app store system. One of them, Fortnite maker Epic Games, sued both Apple and Google over the way they restrict payments on their respective app stores. The game maker, whose online battle royale game has become an international sensation, unsuccessfully argued to a California District Court Judge last year that Apple’s actions ran afoul of antitrust laws. It is appealing that decision.

Cook argued Tuesday that allowing the downloading of apps from outside sources could let companies subvert Apple’s privacy protections, as well as put the security of consumer data at risk. While not naming Google’s Android operating system specifically, he pointed to the recent case of a malicious app that spread ransomware on devices other than Apple’s after users downloaded it from outside of the official app store.

It’s shaping up to be a big year for smartwatches. While we’re expecting to see typical updates like the next-generation Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch, 2022 might also mark some notable milestones. Google, for example, is rumored to launch its first Pixel Watch in the spring or fall. Fitbit, which Google owns, could also release its first watch running on Wear OS.

A Pew Research Report from 2020 says 1 in 5 Americans use a smartwatch or fitness tracker, while Counterpoint Research’s data says the smartwatch industry grew by 24% year-over-year in 2021. With that in mind, it wouldn’t be surprising to see companies like Apple, Google, Samsung and others further their wearable tech ambitions this year.

Here’s a look at the most interesting rumored smartwatches we’re hoping to see this year.

Apple Watch Explorer Edition
Apple might add a new rugged to its smartwatch lineup this year known as the Explorer Edition, according to Bloomberg. This would be a more rugged version of the Apple Watch geared toward those who engage in outdoor activities and extreme sports, the report says. It’s expected to have the same functionality as Apple’s regular smartwatches, but with more impact protection similar to Casio’s G-Shock watches.

The watch is sometimes referred to as the “Explorer Edition” inside Apple, according to the report, but it’s unclear if the product would go by that name. Bloomberg previously said the new rugged Apple Watch could arrive in 2022, so there’s a chance we might see it during Apple’s annual fall product event. Apple already began taking a step in this direction by making the Apple Watch Series 7’s front crystal more durable.

I’m not the target audience for a watch like this, but I’m still excited to see what Apple’s take on the rugged smartwatch could look like. There’s an opportunity for Apple to reach more than just extreme athletes with a more durable smartwatch. A rugged Apple Watch could also be ideal for those with physically demanding occupations, such as construction workers, brick masons, landscapers and mechanics.

Apple Watch Series 8
There’s also the Apple Watch Series 8, which is expected to debut this fall in typical Apple fashion. The biggest upgrade will likely be the addition of a body temperature sensor, according to Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal. The thermometer might be designed to help wearers with fertility planning, the Journal’s report says. Adding the ability to measure temperature would also help Apple catch up to other wellness trackers from Oura and Fitbit in this regard.

But Apple’s more significant health-tracking updates — like glucose and blood pressure monitoring — are still expected to be years away, according to the reports. That makes me believe the Series 8 might be another incremental upgrade with processing and design improvements.

Still, I’m looking forward to learning how Apple would incorporate temperature sensing into the Apple Watch’s suite of health features, if at all. Otherwise, I’m hoping to see longer battery life, more detailed sleep tracking and metrics that focus on recovering from workouts in the next Apple Watch.

Apple Watch SE 2
While the rumored Apple Watch Series 8 will likely demand much of the attention this fall, I’m personally more excited about a next-generation Apple Watch SE. The main differences between Apple’s flagship watches and the SE usually involve sophisticated health tracking features — such as blood oxygen saturation and the ability to take an ECG. But the Apple Watch SE still has most of the Apple Watch’s most important features for $120 less than the Series 7, making it feel like the right model for most people. Such features include activity tracking, fall detection, irregular heart rate notifications, Apple Pay support and iPhone notifications.

Apple hasn’t released a new Apple Watch SE since 2020, so I’m hoping to see an update this year. We don’t know much about what to expect from the next Apple Watch SE, but a June 2021 Bloomberg report said a new version may arrive later this year. Based on Apple’s previous releases, a newer processor, some design tweaks and new color options seem like plausible additions. But this is just speculation based on Apple’s previous launches.

The SE’s lower price means its functionality will be more limited than Apple’s next flagship watch. Aside from the absence of those health features mentioned above, the current SE also has a smaller screen than the Series 7, lacks an always-on display and doesn’t charge as quickly.

If Apple brings any of these features to the next-generation SE, I’m hoping it’s the always-on display. Having a screen capable of staying on even when the watch is idle makes the Apple Watch much more useful as a timepiece. It’s one of the few features I find myself missing in everyday use when switching between Apple’s high-end watch and the SE. Apple could still distinguish the Series 8 from the SE with its wider selection of health features and larger screen. Since Apple might discontinue the $199 Apple Watch Series 3 soon, a new SE would round out Apple’s lineup with a new budget-friendly option.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 5
Samsung’s Galaxy Watch is one of the best smartwatches available for Android device owners, and rumors suggest a new Galaxy Watch 5 could be coming this year. It’ll likely have a round screen and Google’s Wear OS software just like the Galaxy Watch 4, but with a bigger battery and a temperature sensor. That’s according to rumors from blog SamMobile, which claims to have found the device’s battery in a regulatory filing, and Korean outlet ETNews.

These rumored upgrades suggest the Galaxy Watch 5 may be a refinement of the Watch 4 rather than a dramatic upgrade. But considering the Galaxy Watch 4 already does a lot of things right, from its smooth performance and vibrant screen to its wide array of health features, I’m fine with that.

One of CNET’s biggest criticisms was the watch’s battery life, and it sounds like the Galaxy Watch 5 might address this shortcoming. The bigger update we’re hoping to see, however, is tighter integration with Google’s apps and services. Such a change could give the Galaxy Watch 5 a more seamless Android experience, rather than feeling split between Google and Samsung’s ecosystems.

Google Pixel Watch
Google owns Fitbit and makes software for Android-friendly smartwatches, but it doesn’t have a smartwatch of its own. That could all change this year as Google is expected to release its first consumer smartwatch, according to reports from Insider and YouTuber Jon Prosser.

Details on the watch are scarce, but Prosser shared purportedly leaked marketing materials indicating it could have a round design. Considering other Wear OS watches are also round, it’s not much of a surprise. An old report from German blog WinFuture also suggests the Pixel Watch could come in three different versions. Insider says we can also expect heart rate monitoring and basic health tracking features.

At a higher level, I’m hoping Google’s smartwatch takes a page from its Pixel phones. Google has made its mobile devices stand out by giving them clever software features that are either exclusive to Pixel phones, or arrive on Pixel devices before trickling down to other Android devices. Google has an opportunity to do the same for smartwatches, potentially creating a blueprint for what the Android smartwatch experience should be like.

Fitbit’s Wear OS Watch
Fitbit is working on a new premium smartwatch powered by Google and Samsung’s new Wear OS software, CNET’s Scott Stein reported last year. It’ll likely have high-end features that might even be an upgrade from the Fitbit Sense, the company’s most expensive watch, along with cellular connectivity and Google’s apps.

It would be a big step forward for Fitbit, which currently sells smartwatches that run its own Fitbit OS software. While I’ve always appreciated Fitbit’s wide selection of health features, detailed sleep tracking and long battery life, I’ve always felt its software could use some work. The experience doesn’t feel as polished as the software on watches from Apple and Samsung, and there aren’t as many apps. But that could all change with Wear OS.

Yet Fitbit might not be completely abandoning its Fitbit OS either. A next-generation version of the Fitbit Versa and Fitbit Sense watch may be in the works according to 9to5Google, which wouldn’t run on Wear OS.

Of course, only Apple, Samsung and Fitbit truly know what products are in their respective pipelines. But whatever their plans may be, health monitoring will likely continue to be a big focus for the smartwatch industry at large. Current smartwatches can already track an assortment of data points about our bodies, from how much time we spent asleep to our resting heart rate and blood oxygen saturation. Experts believe making better sense of such data is a big part of where wearable devices are going next.

The same quadcopters you can buy at Amazon are on the front lines of the battle for Ukraine.

Ukrainian nonprofit Come Back Alive has collected ammunition, rifle stands and radios to help the country’s soldiers fight Russia’s invasion. This week, it also delivered items more commonly used to pep up YouTube videos than fight a war: 24 DJI Mavic 3 drones.

“Our drones are our eyes,” said one Ukrainian military officer who’s worked with drones since 2015 and spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons. The Ukrainian military has no official drone unit, the officer said, but soldiers and civilians use them to see what’s in the next village or along the next kilometer of road. “If Russian artillery is preparing to strike, we can shift civilians. … It’s a possibility to make a preventive strike and to save Ukrainian people.”

From commercial quadcopters to fixed-wing military models, drones have proved important to Ukraine, giving its outgunned defense better chances against the huge Russian military. Early in the war, a civilian drone team called Aerorozvidka worked with military units to help Ukraine stall a convoy of armored vehicles headed toward Kyiv, the country’s capital. During a nighttime ambush, the unmanned aircraft dropped small explosives on the lead vehicles, which along with mines caused a pileup. The team also helped Ukraine repel Russia’s initial attempt to seize the airport near Kyiv.

Unmanned aircraft have been used in warfare as far back as 1849. Japan sent balloon bombs over the Pacific Ocean to the US during World War II. The term “drone” became mainstream when General Atomics’ hulking MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper drones caught on in US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. By 2011, the US military had 11,000 of the big, expensive systems.

Rarely, however, have drones played the role they’re taking on in the asymmetric war between Ukraine’s low budget forces and Russia’s gargantuan military. Miniaturization has improved the cost, flight time and range of commercial drones, while Ukrainians have used military drones successfully against Russian armored vehicles that can cost millions of dollars. Drones are rewriting the rules of war.

“The tank was key at one point,” said John Parachini, a Rand Corp. military researcher. “Now drones may be the more decisive weapons system.”

Though commercial drones are useful mostly for reconnaissance, Ukraine’s fleet of military drones has proved important to delivering the actual attack. The large Turkish built Bayraktar TB2 has been used to destroy Russian resupply vehicles and surface-to-air missile launchers. One Ukrainian company, UA Dynamics, makes the low-profile surveillance drone called Punisher that can carry a 4-pound bomb. The US Defense Department is shipping more than 100 smaller military drones called Switchblades and Pumas from US manufacturer AeroVironment.

Ukrainians are using about 1,000 drones in the war effort, the military officer estimated. Many are mere “toys,” he said, “but we have what we have.”

Sales of military drones are expected to increase about 7% per year, to $18 billion, in 2026 from $13 billion in 2021, according to Business Research Company.

US drone makers get involved with Ukraine
Other US drone makers are delivering drones to Ukraine for humanitarian or noncombat uses:

Draganfly has sold 10 drones and donated three more for delivering blood, vaccines, antibiotics, insulin and other medical products that must be refrigerated. Partners for that work include Coldchain Delivery Systems and Revived Soldiers Ukraine. Some are being fitted with lidar and magnetometer sensors to detect landmines, too. It plans to send 200 drones by August, said CEO Cameron Chell.
Aquiline Drones has donated 40 of its $3,000 Spartacus Hurricane drones to Ukraine for inspections, search and rescue, and sending relief items like medication and water, said CEO Barry Alexander. With a boost from donations, it hopes to send 1,000 of the drones to Ukraine.
Skydio, whose drones dodge trees and houses using autonomous navigation, has donated dozens of drones, worth about $100,000 in total, to support humanitarian and relief efforts in Ukraine, said CEO Adam Bry. Though Skydio focuses on commercial uses, it also sells drones to the US Army for surveillance.
“If you’re taking fire, the first thing you do is take cover and understand where the fire is coming from,” said Chuck McGraw, who leads Skydio’s federal sales and deployed drones as a Navy SEAL in Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the world. “You can pop up a drone in 60 seconds or less and put eyes on the threat.”

The Russians have their own drones and air defense systems for counteracting Ukrainian drones. Ukrainian photos show Russians have the same DJI Mavic 3 drones that Ukraine is using. But when it comes to Russian military drones, careful accounting in the open source intelligence movement has shown significant losses, with 21 downed or captured Russian drones so far.

“The Russians are a little behind in this game, and the Ukrainians have proved extremely inventive,” RAND’s Parachini said.

The drone advantage in Ukraine isn’t permanent, as militaries add new abilities to destroy drones or jam the radio transmissions they rely on. And though Russian air defense systems apparently didn’t work as well as expected in Ukraine, militaries are investing in counter-drone technology, Parachini said.

Drones are dangerous to use in war, the Ukrainian officer added. Enemy forces can fire on operators when they see a drone take off and can use DJI’s AeroScope technology to locate drones. “In Ukrainian we have a joke: Every time we have a new mouse, someone will construct a new mouse catcher,” the officer said.

DJI didn’t respond to a request for comment but tweeted in response to Ukrainian criticism that military use of its drones is “inappropriate.”

AeroVironment military drones head to Ukraine
Drones can occupy a middle ground between human piloted aircraft and missiles. AeroVironment’s Switchblade 300 and 600 models are “loitering missiles” that unfold their wings like a pocket knife with a lot of blades and can stay airborne until a targeting system tells them where to go.

The 300 weighs 5.5 pounds, fits into a backpack and is launched from a compact tube. It can fly for 15 minutes – covering more than 6 miles – before colliding into its target. The 50-pound Switchblade 600 is designed for more serious targets like armored vehicles. It can fly up to 25 miles and loiter for 40 minutes.

AeroVironment also sells the Puma line of reconnaissance drones that can stay aloft for as long as six and a half hours. After being launched with a throw, catapult or truck, they can be used to spot targets and transfer coordinates wirelessly to Switchblades for an attack.

“A two-person team with a Switchblade drone can be miles away and take out a $50 million piece of equipment with five people in it,” said Michael Robbins, head of government affairs for a US industry group, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.

The US military began sending 100 Switchblades to Ukraine in late March as part of an $800 million military aid package, then announced a further $300 million package on April 1 that includes both Pumas and Switchblades. The Pentagon declined to comment on which models, but the latter package includes Switchblade 600s, according to Bloomberg. AeroVironment declined to comment for this story.

The Turkish Bayraktar TB2, with a 40-foot wingspan, can navigate without GPS and carry laser-guided munitions. They cost about $1 million each, Robbins said.

“The Bayraktar TB2 has been used to fairly devastating effect against ground forces,” Robbins said. “It’s become a rallying cry in Ukraine.”

The huge drone has become so successful in frustrating the Russians that it’s inspired a music video to sing its praises.

“Russian bandits are made into ghosts by Bayraktar,” says a translation of the lyrics.