Use a Drone Simulator to Practice Before You Buy. No one wants to buy a 5. Practice on a simulator before you buy one, just to be safe and show off in front of friends. Practice is an important factor in mastering any skill. You want the hours you put in to be asRead more Read. Drone simulators are perfect for honing your skills or finding out if you even care about the hobby at all. Besides replicating the physics of quadcopter flight, drone simulators offer other features like a variety of locations to practice, multiplayer action, and support for gear you already have at home. Low Barrier to Entry. The best part about learning to fly on a drone simulator is the low barrier to entry. And by low, I mean free. Research Resources. A Subject Tracer Information Blog developed and created by Internet expert, author, keynote speaker and consultant Marcus P. Zillman. Blog con recursos para docentes y actividades interactivas para todos los niveles educativos. The Drone Racing League offers its PC and Mac compatible simulator gratis, so you can simply download, install, and start flying. Not only does that mean everyone can get into drone racing provided they have a PC or Mac that meets the minimum requirements, it means you can do it all without spending a penny. No Drone or Controller Required. Pro drone pilots use specific RC controllers worth hundreds of dollars with a variety of settings specific to quadcopter control. If you, like me, dont have a few hundred bucks to spend on a specialized controller to practice, you can always use the ones you have. If you can connect your gaming controller I use an Xbox 3. Your monitor shows off the first person view, so you wont need any expensive flight goggles either. Faster Resetting Means Faster Learning. Crashing an actual drone instantly grinds your high flying party to a halt. Now youve got to get up, find the crash site, and make sure your quadcopter is still functional before hitting the gas and going for another run. If youre crashing in a drone simulator, pressing a single button instantly resets your position and gets you ready to fly again. Its perfect for nailing down basics like flying between some trees or a box without having to sit in the heat or walk through a park to retrieve your precious equipment. Compete Against Actual Pilots. The Drone Racing League simulator offers an online multiplayer mode, letting you compete with other pilots. If youre interested in the competitive aspect, online play will put you against other pilots, some of whom are actual professionals. Theres no need to travel to an event when you can race in your own. Practice Makes Perfect. After spending a few days practicing, I can safely say that drone racing is an incredibly difficult skill to master. Its a very smart way to test your skill as a drone pilot, or practice before you bite the bullet and get a drone of your own. My fascination with drone racing was grounded in reality after a few days of playing. In short, I suck, though I can thank the simulator for saving me a few hundred bucks on some starter quadcopter. With the 2. 01. 7 Drone Racing League season debuting on ESPN2 this year, and the finals taking place on July 8, I think Ill watch the pros play instead. Turn Chrome OS into a powerhouse with the best Chromebook apps. Chromebooks have won a well deserved reputation as affordable, lightweight laptops designed around streaming and collaboration. This makes them popular among budget conscious individuals, even if its the apps and extensions that can really make Chrome OS worthwhile. The best Chromebook apps further the operating systems functionality, allowing you to quickly save content for offline viewing and diagram the small intricacies that make up photosynthesis, among a slew of other actions. So why not amp up your laptop with a few of our favorites Check them out below. Many of us love VLC, but did you know there is a version readily available for Chromebook users The free media player can handle a variety of media formats including MP4, AVI, FLAC, MOV, and AAC, among others and offers multi track audio, subtitles, auto rotation, support for 3. Keep in mind, however, that Chromebooks arent designed to hold many movies, so dont store those files on your internal hard drive if you can help it. After all, youll need space for some of these other apps Evernote is a versatile note taking and content saving app if you know how to use it properly. The service allows you to save and share notes, lets you type up quick lists, allows you to save webpages or attach related images, and provides organizationsearch capabilities so you wont lose what you were working on. Evernote also features excellent syncing capabilities, too, meaning you can easily save information when working on another device. If you dont need a dedicated note taker, we suggest using the Evernote Web Clipper, which will allow you to save webpage information for future reference. Microsoft provides Office Online for those who want the basic Office suite Word, Excel, Power. Point, One. Note, and Sway in a simplified, web based format. All your files will still be in the Office format, and youll be able to access all the familiar features youve grown accustomed to over the years. It wont take up any room on your laptop, either, which a boon to Chromebook users already watching their storage space. This handy extension makes using the suite faster and more organic, rendering it ideal for students or workers who need to manage or create Windows friendly when they arent on a Windows machine. Download now from Chrome Web Store. Polarr Photo Editor. Best Chromebooks apps Polarr. More. If you frequently work or play with photos, you need a lightweight but capable photo editing app. Thankfully, Polarr is happy to help. This robust editor includes both basic capabilities like face detection and skin tone editing, as well as more advanced tools for adjusting gradients, editing spots, and managing layers. It also supports RAW formatting for exports you probably dont want to save a RAW file on your Chromebook. The list goes on, and Polarr incorporates additional tools with most updates, so check out the editor and see if it has what youre looking for. Download now from Amazon. Chrome Web Store. Enjoy Music Player. Best Chromebooks apps Enjoy Player. More. The Chrome Web Store has a ton of music players, but Enjoy stands out as one of the best, particularly when it comes to organizing and playing music both on a hard drive and in the cloud. Enjoy allows you to save music to either your computer or to Google Drive, and play it at will. The softwares minimalist layout includes a variety of categorization options, too, as well as an equalizer and mini mode. Its rare to find a player so well tuned to the Google aesthetic and Chromebook use in particular. Download now from Chrome Web Store. Inbox by Gmail. Best Chromebooks apps Inbox. More. Youre probably already well acquainted with Gmail, but if you use it frequently for work related purposes, you should probably install Inbox by Gmail. This app adds a bunch of organizational features to Gmail, including the ability to bundle messages together that all need similar responses, review highlights of messages without opening them, snooze emails that you want to put off for a while, and more. Its one of the best Chromebook apps for a busy Gmail inbox, though if you use email clients other than Gmail, you may want to opt for Newton Mail instead. Download now from Chrome Web Store. Kami. Best Chromebooks apps Kami. More. Kami is a notation and markup tool that allows you to collaborate on a number of documents, notably PDFs and images. If youre receiving PDFs or other docs from sources outside Google Drive and still need a way to mark and discuss them, Kami is your best bet. If your markup and collaboration needs are school related, then youll be happy to know Kami also works with Google Classroom. Download now from Amazon. Chrome Web Store. Save to Google Drive. Best Chromebooks apps Save to Google Drive. More. If you have a Chromebook, youll often be using Google Drive to save documents and other forms of content. This extension is particularly powerful in that regard, because it allows you to save web content and screenshots instantly to Drive. You can save an entire webpage, or right click to save specific hyperlinks or media there are also options for customizing how the save feature functions. This is one of the best Chromebook apps for those who use Google Drive when researching or brainstorming. Download now from Chrome Web Store. Simple. Undo. Close. Best Chromebooks apps Simple. Undo. Close. More. Dont let the weird name fool you, this app is simple but invaluable if you use a Chromebook. It adds a toolbar button that, when clicked, shows you all your recently closed tabs and allows you to reopen any of them at will. It saves the day when you need to consult a recent website youve forgotten the name of, when youve accidentally closed a browser tab, and when Chrome crashes and you need to bring back your work. The settings menu allows you to customize how closed sites are shown and managed, too, so you can find the ideal layout for your work habits. Download now from Chrome Web Store. Paperpile. Best Chromebooks apps Paperpile. More. Ideal for the student or researcher, Paperpile allows you to save article references, PDFs, and published papers to Google Drive and auto cite them in Google Docs. The app currently integrates with publishing platforms such as Google Scholar, Pub. Med, and Ar. Xiv, among others. It basically takes the grunt work out of research papers, allowing you to get back to the content youre writing ASAP. Download now from Chrome Web Store. Ultidash. Best Chromebooks apps Ultidash. More. Ultidash is a must have for anyone looking to get things done. The app adds a dashboard chock full of productivity tools, providing you with a to do list, a chart that measures your computer activity, a site tracker that shows how youre spending time online, a blocker to help avoid distractions, and icons that showcase everything from weather forecasts to unread emails. Its like a dozen apps in one, and an invaluable tool for those who want to improve productivity and keep an eye on their tasks. Download now from Chrome Web Store. Weather. Bug. Best Chromebooks apps Weatherbug. More. Weather apps are a dime a dozen you can visit any number of sites or download thousands of extensions to show you local weather data. Weather. Bug is not youre run of the mill weather app, however, mostly because of the way it packages information.