Hawk attacks drone in a battle of claw versus machine

Those who own drones better keep an eye on where their precious quadcopters are flying. A hawk could jump out and down your drone at any minute.

Drones have it kind of tough nowadays. Not only do people think drones flying around are annoying (or worse), camera-toting remote-controlled gizmos often find themselves attacked by planes, sharks and, now, hawks.

The drone in the above video, owned by Christopher Schmidt, is just minding its business flying around the skies above Magazine Beach Park in Cambridge, Mass., when a hawk seemingly comes out of nowhere and, in one fell swoop, throws the drone to the ground.

The hawk, a natural predator, likely thought the drone was invading its turf, and, according to Schmidt's report, happily retreated after defeating its prey. Fortunately, both the hawk and the drone came away from the brief scuttle unscathed.

As drones become more popular, we'll likely see mother nature fighting even more aggressively to keep these unwanted beasts out of the food chain, and to keep us humans entertained.

After the scuffle, the drone said, "I fought the hawk, and the hawk won." Video screenshot by Anthony Domanico/CNET

(Via Sploid)

Anthony Domanico Crave freelancer Anthony Domanico is passionate about all kinds of gadgets and apps. When not making words for the Internet, he can be found watching "Star Wars" or "Doctor Who" for like the zillionth time. His other car is a Tardis. See full bio

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Versus: Microsoft Office vs Apple iWork vs Google Docs: which is best?

The clash of the office suites is a hard fought battle indeed

The services provided by Apple, Google and Microsoft are becoming more alike, both in terms of use and spread. Apple has revamped its cloud offerings, moving the iWork suite into iCloud and allowing use on Windows machines.

Microsoft is in the process of dramatically increasing the functionality of Office 365, adding additional security and storage space. Google Docs has become one of the go-to web-based services for writing, creating a slideshow and so on, with no subscription or specific operating system needed.

For many years Apple has been seen as a company for those who are "creative", offering top of the range creative software such as Final Cut and Sound Track. As businesses became more interested in Apple's technology – mainly because of the iPad – the company has had to up its game in terms of office software, improving the iWork suite through a serious of both visual and functional updates.

Unlike Apple, Microsoft has never had the problem of being the underdog in terms of businesses using its software and hardware. An increasing amount of Microsoft's revenue comes from enterprise, with over one billion people using Office. That hasn't stopped the company from innovating, adding new visual and functional changes over the years. In 2014, Microsoft brought Office to the iPad, again increasing the reach and usage of the software.

Office for iPad is a very smartly designed app

Google's offering, Google Docs, came about after the firm's success with email. The software is, like all things Google, free to use and relies on a network connection (unless you run the Chrome browser, in which case you can set it up for offline access, albeit with some important features missing such as spell checking, for example).

Google recently introduced the Chromebook, opening up manufacturing to various OEMs just as it did with Android. While some may see the need for an internet connection to be a flaw, it's not so much of an issue with the prevalence of Wi-Fi these days, and faster mobile connections (4G LTE) becoming more and more commonplace, especially in and around cities.

But which of these services is the best? All three of the big companies have stepped up their game, meaning that the differences are becoming more and more difficult to see – but don't be fooled, they are still present. In this article, we're presenting our opinion on who wins and who loses this particular battle.

First off, on the basis of the usability of each service, the three are too close to call. Apple and Microsoft's solutions work fully offline, whereas the same can't be said for Google's, and that is perhaps the one major difference between them all for the everyday user – with the stress on everyday. If you need to write five hundred words quickly or create a slideshow, all three options will work quickly and effectively.

The biggest advantage of Apple's solution, iWork, is that it ties in so well with its other apps and services. iCloud provides constant syncing between the OS X and iOS versions of iWork, which includes Pages, Keynote and Numbers.

The integration also extends to Apple TV, a device that is becoming more and more popular in both homes and the workplace. "Beaming" slides and the whole screen via AirPlay could set Apple's hardware and software apart, especially when the competition has no comparable service.

iCloud's ability to sync between devices means that projects can be started on the go and finished in the office, all without losing a single bullet point. Apple offers a tiered data storage system which boasts up to 200GB of storage for customers at significantly cheaper prices than Dropbox and Google Drive.

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Versus: Samsung Galaxy Note 4 vs Galaxy S5

Samsung is often accused of making stacks of slightly different devices to fit every conceivable market niche, but the Galaxy Note isn't one of them. It's designed for a very specific task: to combine smartphones and tablets together to deliver the best of both worlds, giving you a phone that you don't have to squint at when you watch videos and a tablet that doesn't require enormous cargo pants to lug around.

This year's Note, the Galaxy Note 4, improves on its predecessor in several key areas. It has a better screen, a faster, 64-bit processor and more RAM, a better GPU, a better camera and a fingerprint scanner. Some models will even get flexible, curved screens. Even the S Pen has been improved.

That means Samsung has not one, but two mobile flagships: the Galaxy Note 4 phablet and the Galaxy S5 smartphone. They're both impressive devices but there are significant differences between them.

When we reviewed the Galaxy S5 we liked it a lot, but we weren't exactly impressed by its "creaky" design: "it certainly isn't up to the same level as the likes of Apple and HTC". The standard Note 4 is similarly functional, although there will also be a premium version that swaps the plastic chassis for a metal one.

In addition to the standard black and white options there will be two colours: Electric Blue and Copper Gold. Like the Galaxy S5, the Note 4 is dust and water resistant.

Both the Galaxy S5 and the Note 4 boast Samsung's superbly bright and readable Super AMOLED displays, but where the S5 has a 5.1-inch, full HD display the Note 4 has a 5.7-inch quad HD (QHD, aka 2K) screen - not the 5.9-inch screen many rumours predicted. That delivers a resolution of 2560 x 1440 compared to the S5's 1080x1920. QHD screens don't make a lot of sense in smaller devices, but once you start getting into the high five inches and above they make a big difference to video and photos.

Samsung is also reportedly working on a Note equivalent of the Samsung Galaxy Round, which would have a three-sided display using a curved AMOLED screen that wraps around the side of the device, removing the bezel and enabling additional swipes to control the device.

The Galaxy S5's camera is a speedy 16MP model, and the Note packs the same number of megapixels while adding optical image stabilisation and a 3.7MP front-facing snapper for selfies. That's a big improvement over the Galaxy S5's 2.1MP front-facing camera. Samsung reportedly considered an even bigger 20MP sensor for the rear camera, but couldn't slim it down enough to work with the super-skinny chassis design.

The Samsung Galaxy S5's battery life is excellent thanks to the combination of battery saving technology and a 2800mAh battery pack. The Note 4's battery is bigger still at a whopping 3600mAh, although of course its bigger screen draws more power than the one in the Galaxy S5.

Where the Galaxy S5 has a snappy Snapdragon 801 processor and Adreno 330 GPU, the Note 4 gets a 2.5GHz Snapdragon 805 paired with an Adreno 420 GPU (in the US and Asia) or an Exynos 5433 with quad-core Cortex A-53 and A-57 (everywhere else). The Exyonos model of the Galaxy Note 4 is 64-bit.

With 3GB of RAM, the Note 4 has 1GB more memory than the Galaxy S5.

The Note 4 comes in 16, 32 and 64GB varieties and its microSD card slot supports cards of up to 128GB. The Galaxy S5 can also handle 128GB microSD cards, but its internal storage options are limited to 16GB and 32GB only.

The Galaxy Note 4 runs Android KitKat (Android L will follow when it's officially released by Google) and features the familiar S Pen, but there's a new addition: the fingerprint scanner and heart rate sensor we've already seen in the Galaxy S5.

The heart rate sensor is part of the growing S Health system, and on the Note 4 S Health also gets UV sensing to warn you if you're spending too much time in the sun. The sensor works by holding the phone to the sun at a 60-degree angle and tells you just how dangerous the rays currently are. A reading of 0-2 means there's minimal risk of skin damage while a rating of 11+ means you're probably on fire.

While the fingerprint sensor is familiar, the Galaxy Note 4 has two new uses for it: Fingerprint Shortcuts turn individual fingers into app launchers, so for example a flick of your index finger might launch one app and your ring finger another, while Web Sign-In will use the fingerprint scanner as a way to login to websites without having to enter user IDs and passwords.

The Galaxy S5 currently costs around £550 SIM-free (US$650, AU$900), and while Samsung hasn't announced prices for the Note 4 yet a listing on Indonesian site Erafone predicts roughly £490 (US$810, AU$870). That sounds about right, as it doesn't take local taxes such as VAT (currently 20% in the UK) or sales taxes into account.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 is widely available, but while the Galaxy Note 4 was released on the 3rd of September it hasn't reached shop shelves yet. Expect to see it in late September.

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Versus: Samsung Galaxy Note 4 vs Galaxy Note 3

Page 1 of 2Design, screen and camera The annual update to the Note range is a welcome advance

Less than a year after the previous Samsung phablet was launched, the Galaxy Note 4 keeps a familiar leather-effect rear, but encompasses it in a more premium-feeling metal frame. It's also equipped with a larger 5.7-inch Super AMOLED screen with a QHD resolution of 2,560 x 1,440, and packs extra grunt from a 2.3GHz Qualcomm 805 under the hood - compared to the Note 3's 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800.

The success of the Galaxy Note line raised a few eyebrows at first, but is now credited with leading other brands to take phablets seriously. Samsung's last model, the Galaxy Note 3, was a particular success, so it should come as no surprise, then, that their latest refinement in the stylus-toting lineup has cleared up a lot of the criticisms of cheap build quality that have been thrown at Samsung phones of late.

Following the recent announcement of their similarly metal-framed Samsung Galaxy Alpha, it's clear the top Korean outfit is changing its own design language, and moving away from the all-plastic bodies found in the S5, towards a more premium-feeling chassis to rival the competition. With an improved aesthetic and welcome specification upgrades all round, Samsung should again have the phablet market sown up - unless Apple rocks the cart in just a few short days time.

With faux leather back and plastic shell the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 struck a somewhat awkward balance between a rear that felt tactile and premium, and sides and front that felt somewhat cheaper than they should have. The overall package, though, was greeted with approval from most who gave it a whirl.

With the Galaxy Note 4, there's been a obvious effort to maintain prominence in the ocean of big-screened phones. Samsung has dropped the plastic found on the Note 3 in favour of a body that could be compared to the favourably received iPhone 5s and HTC One M8.

While the Note 4 now feels more refined than the Note 3, it's still not a full metal body construction, with Samsung opting for a metal frame surrounding a plastic chassis that at 152 x 80 x 7.6 mm and 163g. This means it's still both thinner and lighter than the Note 3's 151.2 x 79.2 x 8.3 mm form.

On the rear you'll still find the fake leather material, but the skeuomorphic fake stitching has been removed in favour of much cleaner, simpler lines. On the front, the trim either side of the screen has lost the brushed aluminium effect in favour of glossy black bars - though there's a few millimetres less of it all round to make way for the increased screen size.

The Note 4 comes with the same fingerprint sensor already seen on the Galaxy S5 along with matching dust and water-resistant credentials, and heart-rate monitor nestled in next to the rear camera's LED flash.

After Korean rivals LG stole the limelight with the G3 - the first widely-available handset to feature a QHD display - it's no surprise that Samsung has bumped the screen resolution from 1,080p up to 2,560 x 1,440, while keeping the vivid Super AMOLED technology found in the Note 3.

Those additional pixels come with a extra 0.2 inches of real estate, taking the 5.5-inch 368ppi screen found in the Galaxy Note 3 to a pin-sharp 515ppi 5.7-inch panel in the Note 4. Thanks to the even slimmer bezels around the screen, there's no noticeable increase in physical size, and the extra resolution makes using the newly improved S-Pen even more of a joy.

Last year the 13MP camera on the Galaxy Note 3 was more than adequate, but with top-end smartphones such as the Xperia Z2 and Nokia Lumia 930 upping their game to top 20MP, it was expected that Samsung would make the same gains.

It came as a little bit of a surprise, then, that the included sensor is only 16MP (the same as the S5), but it does pack proper optical image stabilisation, and 30fps HD video recording up to 3,840 x 2,160 - or as the marketing bods prefer to call it, 4K.

The front-facing camera on the Note 4 takes a reasonable upgrade from the predecessor's 2MP sensor to a 3.7MP sensor with a wide-angle lens. There's also now a side-mounted capacitive button known as Side Touch which can be used instead of the touchscreen to take photos, as well as responding to a variety of gestures that work even when the screen is off.

Page 1 of 2Design, screen and camera

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