I took the drone out for some outdoor flying at the local oval however seems even though Melbourne put on a spectacular sunny day (28 degrees) it brought gusty windows up to 30km/h which made flying a real challenge.
Suffice to say I ended up crashing quite a few times and gave up after 1 battery and damaging the indoor hull by breaking the outer spar. I was able to repair the hull with some epoxy glue and tape and expect a few more of these and will need a new hull eventually.
The video from the front facing 720p camera was spectacular especially during low high speed runs.
Looking forward to a less windy day to really put this thing through it’s paces!
OMG I knew these were cool but I had no idea just how cool the Parrot AR Drone 2.0 Quadracopter really was!
Seriously if you can get your hands on one of these do it! I’ve driven and flown other RC models before and helicopters are the hardest to learn to fly but this thing takes all the hard work out of it and makes it easy to learn and become quite proficient quickly and with very little damage.
Did I say very little damage?
Yep this thing is built like a tank, well almost! It’s airframe is made of graphite composite surrounded by a dense polystyrene outer safety cell and comes with a full ring type polystyrene indoor hull that protects the 4 properller blades from damage. Speaking of the blades these are also quite sturdy and flexable and after a few hours flight time mine have a few nicks and scrapes but overall are intact. I’ve crashed my drone at least 2 dozen times complete with a couple of high speed flips and burrows and I’ve only managed to crack the outer indoor hull once which I repaired with epoxy glue and tape.
This thing hovers automatically. If you take your hands off the controls it immediately stops in its tracks and goes into auto hover mode which is great if you get into trouble. Just let go and it stops even at high speed with a sudden correction in the opposite direction and just stops mid-air! It’s unbelievable at the smarts this thing has which is helped by an array of sensors built into the electronics. Did I mention this has 2 cameras on board? The forward facing camera is a 720p HD camera and there is a SD camera in the belly you can use for arial recon and the brains uses the belly camera to lock onto targets to hover over. There is also an ultrasonic transmitter and receiver as well which tells it how far it is off the ground up to 3 meters. Top this off with a full gyro and some other neat stuff and some very smart software this is quite a powerful piece of kit and yet at under $350 retail is a bargain for what it can do compared to many more expensive RC helicopters and even quadracopters!
I’ve gotten about 3.5 hours total flight time on my drone so far. Battery life is on average about 10-12 minutes but if you start doing some funky spins and flips (yes I said flips!!!) or your flying in high winds the battery life drains considerably. You can get aftermarket batteries which can almost double the flight time. Suffice to say it pays to pick up a few spare batteries and chargers. Batteries retail for about $50 and chargers about $40 and it’s a good idea to buy one charger per battery as these packs take up to 90 minutes per charge and it pays to at least have a 2-1 battery to charger ratio so you always have a pack ready to go!
Ok getting back to flips. Yes this drone can flip itself left or right or front or back completely in a 360 degree flip and recover mid-air and keep flying. You need to be at least 1 to 2 meters off the ground to do this especially in high winds otherwise the drone tends to bump the ground when it comes out of the flip but usually can keep flying. All you need to do a flip is get it up high enough off the ground and activate the flip command in whatever direction you want and away it goes! The controlling apps you can get for the AR Drone can be programmed to do other stunts as well but the flip is especially built into the firmware as Parrot have obviously spent a lot of time and parts working out how to get this drone to do this!
Speaking of the controlling apps, this drone is controlled using your iPhone or iPad or Android phone using either the factory Parrot apps or many aftermarket apps which have more features including a dance app that allows you to sequence many preprogrammed dance moves into a sequence to control 1 or more drones in a dance routine. Quite cool to watch! The app connects to the drone using 802.11n WiFi networkin using an adhoc network and range depends on the device you use, channel, and other interference around but I found I could easily fly 30-50 meters without getting out of range. You can also use a WiFi range extender/repeater to help extend the control range.
But what happens if you get out of range you ask? Well Parrot thought of this too and whenever the drone loses its control signal will immediately halt and hover. If it is above safe hover height (3 meters due to ultrasonice range) then it will slowly lower itself down until it detects something underneath and will then continue to hover until you come back into range or it runs out of battery at which point it will auto land when it gets down to an emergency level. This also works when in range if you get down to below 5% battery it will immediately land before it runs out of enough power to safely control itself in a landing.
Below is a short 5 minute video I compiled with my first few hours of flight including some spectacular crashes and stunts:
So after a few hours of flight I have to tell you I am totally addicted. I plan on getting some spares soon especially a new hull and props just in case but I plan on putting this drone through its paces over the next couple of weeks including some outdoor flying on an oval around the corner from my home. There is an extensive modding community for the AR Drone complete with aftermarket parts, software and other mod ideas to make it more fun to fly.
I totally recommend anyone who is into flying or RC models to check the Parrot AR Drone 2.0 out. Stay tuned over coming days as I post other articles and ideas on the AR Drone as I get more into this addiction err i mean hobby
The new products Apple have just announced, well all I can say is WOW!
The iPad mini looks good, it’s size is just about right for those who want a small mini tablet for email and calendar functions etc just like a PDA! And even the price isn’t too bad. People can experience an iOS device with a great screen and touch surface for a much lower price than the larger iPad. I won’t bother with one of course as I already have 2 iPad’s and see no need for a smaller one at this stage but the idea of using one for an in-car media player suddenly springs to mind as I write this!
The new iMac is a very nice piece of kit, the ultra thin screen looks really good and would be even better if it was retina but even still with the power and options on the new model desktop users should be more than happy! Not to mention the cheap as Mac Mini which can be used as a server or a small media PC in your loungeroom. Again the in-car idea springs to mind!
I’m a little peeved at the annoucement of the new iPad 4 model complete with A6 chip, 4G (LTE) and lightning connectors. I just got my iPad 3 only a couple of months ago and would surely have waited for this one especially as it compares with my new iPhone 5 feature wise. Even so the next iPad surely should have some even better features. I can understand the update especially to bring it into line with the launch cycle of the iPad mini. I can see Apple releasing both at the same time with comparable feature sets but different sizes in the future.
The new iBooks sounds interesting as well as the sharing features, I was recently miffed at the fact that a book I purchased on iBooks was not also readable on my Macbook Pro when in fact Apple promotes the ability to share your content amongst all your iDevices but seemingly forgot about this at the time!
It really looks like Apple is on the warpath marketing wise and is really pushing out the product the last 18 months, with an uptake of their mobile OS known as iOS with a recent major upgrade over 600 million devices recently upgraded to iOS 6 in the last 2 months… amazing!
What will the next 18 month have in store for us from Apple?
Which means it’s Apple’s media event day, or as we all like to thin iPhone 5 launch day!
Actually for us in Australia its the early hours of Thursday morning. First think I’ll be doing that morning is watching the keynote address to see all the big news.
Speculation has been rife and many leaked photos and videos so it’s going to be interesting how much of all that turns out to be hype or truth!
So what are you looking for in the new iPhone? I never went to the 4S as I considered it not to be enough of an upgrade. Here’s my wish list:
Larger screen – Not sure if I like the look of the new screen, it’s longer not wider.
Near Field Chip – Hoping to store my digital passes onto the one device.
Retina Display – Loving my iPad 3 screen, can’t wait for larger hi res screen on the iPhone.
iOS 6 – Been testing a beta of this, coupled with new phone should be awesome.
Increased capacity – I use mine to store a lot of music, iCloud and music match isn’t quite there yet.
Headphone jack at the bottom – makes sense!
Increased durability – metal back should be better, no more shattered backs!
Guess we’ll all be back here in 2 days to comment about all the new features released. Then the fun begins on watching the stock hunt as it gets released and sells out.
I’m wondering if Apple will continue its practise of a slow controlled release of stock to keep up the demand/hype. It certainly works in marketing terms but it’s a pain in the ass when you have to shop around half of Melbourne to find stock!
Yes I know I said I was back, and yes I am but I’ve been so busy with work/life stuff that I just get no time to spend updating this blog much.
But I’m here now so stop yer nagging!
Seems there is going to be a new iPhone in town!
No not the iPhone 5, they are dropping the model number just like the “New iPad” this year it will be just known as the “New iPhone”.
All reports so far point out to a larger screen, smaller dock connecter, 2 tone look amongst many other new features. It’s looking like a September 12 announcement with a September 21 launch date.
Just scored myself a new iPad a couple of weeks ago, and i’m running iOS 6 Beta 3 on it along with my iPhone 4 and it’s just magic and a huge improvement over the iPad 2 as far as speed and graphics go. It’s been interesting to have Siri on board the iPad even if she did mistake something I said for the word “bitch”
Speaking of iOS 6 and OS updates, who has updated to OSX Mountain Lion yet? I’ve been using the beta’s for a few months and found it pretty good in testing but the public release seems nice and stable and is everything they said it would be.
I’m back after a long hiatus, yes it’s been awhile!
It indeed has been a crazy time, work and personal commitments have kept me busy and the motivation to keep updates going was just not there.
But I’ll try to keep things updated a bit more.
So what’s been going on? LOTS!
We saw lots of Apple things happening, indeed the IT sector has been buzzing like never before with the OS wars, the tablet wars, the smartphone wars, patent wars and lots of new shiney gadgets and fuzzy feel good marketing to make us part with our hard earned dollars.
I’ve yet to update to a new iPad 3, although I’ve seen how good they are and Apple doesn’t disappoint!
It will be interesting to see what the next iteration of the iPhone will bring. Rumours suggest a larger screen, faster, more storage and more internal gadgets to make us want one.
Apple is expected to rapidly deploy support for the new 802.11ac specification this year, adding so called “Gigabit WiFi” to new AirPort base stations, Time Capsule, Apple TV,notebooks and potentially its mobile devices.
The new 802.11ac standard achieves much faster wireless networking speeds than the existing 802.11n specification (in use on the latest Mac, AirPort and iOS devices) by using 2 to 4 times the frequency bandwidth (from 80 to 160MHz), more efficient data transfers through sophisticated modulation, and more antennas (up to 8; existing standards support up to 4, while Apple’s Macs currently use up to 3).
While not yet finalized as an official standard by the 802.11 Working Group, progress on the new 802.11.ac standard is occurring faster than previous efforts in wireless networking have.
Multiple suppliers have already issued chipsets supporting 802.11ac for consumer grade applications. Key Apple component maker Broadcom announced chips supporting the standard earlier this month at CES.
In addition to reaching networking speeds above 1 Gigabit (about three times as fast as 802.11n networks can manage), 802.11ac promises better networking range, improved reliability, and more power efficient chips, thanks to parallel advances in reducing chip size and enhancing power management.
Apple popularizes WiFi with AirPort
While Apple wasn’t the first company to sell wireless devices, it was first to bring the technology into the mainstream beginning in 1999, when Steve Jobs dramatically demonstrated Apple’s initial AirPort technology onstage at the July Macworld Expo as “one more thing” after showing off the company’s new consumer iBook notebook.
Jobs pretended to hold his new iBook notebook up to provide a clear view for the camera operator, but he then continued to use the web as he walked across the stage to the delight of the audience that suddenly realized the new notebook had a wireless connection.
While Intel and others were promoting wired home networking schemes using landline phone wiring, Apple quickly brought WiFi into common use with support for AirPort across its Mac desktop and laptop line and its new AirPort branded base stations, making secure wireless technology both affordable and easy to use.
The WiFi technology Jobs demonstrated was second generation 802.11b; an earlier 802.11 version had previously been developed but only offered a tenth of the speed, making it less than practical for mainstream users. At the same time, 802.11b wasn’t formally ratified until September of 1999, making Apple’s inclusion on the iBook a forward-looking innovation. It also made the iBook the first mainstream computer sold with integrated WiFi.
In January 2003, Apple launched AirPort Extreme, its brand name for the improved 802.11g standard. While backwardly compatible with 802.11b devices, the new AirPort Extreme base station and compliant computers could now achieve wireless networking speeds up to five times faster. The 802.11g standard wasn’t formally ratified for another six months after Apple released its first implementation of it.
Apple sneaks out 802.11n
In September 2006, Apple offered a sneak peek at Apple TV. It seemed immediately obvious that Apple would empower this using the new 802.11n standard, but it was widely doubted at the time that Apple could release support for the much faster new version of WiFi before the standard was ratified.
However, in January 2007 Apple announced that Apple TV did indeed use 802.11n, alongside new AirPort base stations also supporting a draft version of the still unfinished specification. The company also acknowledged that it had secretly included support for the fast new “draft n” specification in all of its previously released Core 2 Duo Macs.
Due to accounting concerns, Apple planned to charge a nominal $4.99 fee for distributing the drivers needed to activate this unadvertised hardware feature on recent Macs. After a hailstorm of caustic criticism, Apple dropped the fee to $1.99, and subsequently included the drivers into the next version of Mac OS X for free.
The 802.11n standard wasn’t formally ratified until October of 2009, nearly three years after Apple began rolling it out. By May 2008, Apple was recognized by NDP Group as having a 10.6 percent share of WiFi base station sales, and AirPort Extreme was named the top selling 802.11n router in the US.
AirPort advances since 802.11n
The new 802.11ac isn’t expected to be fully approved as a finished standard until late next year, but Apple is poised to adopt it well before then. Since the initial rollout of 802.11n Macs, AirPort base stations and Apple TV in early 2007, Apple has incrementally advanced support for new facets of the 802.11n specification and has also developed new practical applications tied to wireless connectivity.
In 2008 Apple launched support for 802.11n base stations and clients operating in the 5GHz band at the launch of Time Capsule. In this frequency band, WiFi devices can double their bandwidth allocation to a wide 40 MHz to allow faster networking speeds, nearly doubling the theoretical maximum. For existing Macs, this boosted top speeds from 130 to 300 Mbps.
In 2009 Apple enhanced AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule products with support for simultaneous 2.4 and 5GHz band operation and guest access.
The following year, Apple launched iPad with support for both 802.11n and 5GHz networks. iPhone 4 followed with support for 802.11n, although it could not connect to 5GHz networks.
Last year, Apple’s Thunderbolt Macs silently incorporated support for three send and receive antennas, enabling them to achieve a top data rate of 450 Mbps on 5GHz networks with wide channels.
Apple also enhanced its AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule last summer, increasing their range and radio power output and adding support for new Mac’s triple antennas while extending simultaneous operation to automatically use both 2.4 and 5GHz bands.
Software applications for WiFi
In addition to hardware advances, Apple has introduced a variety of technologies that focus on WiFi networking, including Bonjour-discoverable disk and printer sharing from AirPort Extreme base stations, AirTunes wireless audio distribution introduced alongside AirPort Express, and Mac OS X Leopard’s Time Machine backups designed to work with Time Capsule.
Last year, Apple introduced AirPlay as a replacement for AirTunes, enabling iTunes and iOS devices to wirelessly stream both audio and video to Apple TV. AirPlay Mirroring on iPad 2 and iPhone 4S enable those devices to export their primary video display to an HDTV via Apple TV.
In Mac OS X Lion, Apple introduced support for AirDrop, enabling nearby users to share files without configuring a WiFi network.
The tremendous speed gains possible with 802.11ac will continue to make Apple’s wireless technologies from AirPlay to Time Machine faster and more efficient, virtually erasing any advantage in using wired network cabling in most cases.
Wednesday July 13, 2011 7:38 am PDT by Eric Slivka on MacRumours
As noted by TiPb, the third beta of iOS 5 released earlier this week has activated new AirPlay streaming support for FaceTime video calling. The feature allows users to display FaceTime video calls directly on a large-screen TV for easy viewing by larger groups of people.
If this makes it into the final release — and not everything does — it’ll be fantastic for families and businesses alike.
The ability to easily start a video call and beam it onto the big screen is compelling. Whether it’s grandpa and grandma, or the team in England, it takes FaceTime from a small, personal experience to a big, group experience at the touch of a button.
With the FaceTime camera of course remaining on the iOS device itself, users taking advantage of the new AirPlay feature while participating in a FaceTime video call will need to ensure that they are looking in the proper direction, but it certainly appears that FaceTime over AirPlay does add some utility for video calling in group settings.
Thursday July 21, 2011 12:25 pm PDT by Eric Slivka on MacRumours
Last week, Apple announced that it would be debuting a new volume purchasing program to allow businesses to purchase iOS in volume and distribute them within their organizations.
As noted by The Loop and in a brief announcementon Apple’s site, the program has now gone live.Businesses in the United States can now enroll in the Volume Purchase Program and purchase your apps in volume for distribution within their organization. You can also offer custom apps that provide tailored solutions to customers who have a Volume Purchase Program account.
The program supports not only standard App Store releases but also custom B2B apps. Apps custom-built for a company by outside developers or other businesses can be purchased privately through the new volume purchasing program.
Well it’s New Years Eve here in Australia and just over an hour left of 2012.
Last week, Apple 
