Its a Bird, Its a Plane, no... Its a friggin Remote Controlled Toy that uses your web enabled Apple Product as a Remote Control. Technology never ceases to amaze me. This Airplane, well more like a Flying Hover Craft, has a small 2 sq ft footprint (ridin on 24’s), 4 propellers and 2 low res color web cameras for remote viewing that it transmits to your video device in real time. I went to the store to play with it, because I'm a big kid, and of course I had to grill the associate who was actually very knowledgeable for all my Tech Geekie questions.
1) Won't web based video, even in real time, have a lag?
It'd be like Flying Drunk. I mean pilots do all the time, but they have autopilots, copilots, and fly 5miles above anything to hit... you don't.
2) Since its controlled over Wifi, how far can you realistically play with this?
I had to get 2 routers just to cover internet throughout my 1700 sq ft place and My laptop/phone can barely go 20ft outside my house with it. I gotta believe my devices have better quality wireless adapters than this toy.
3) What happens when controls are unavailable suddenly for any reason?
If you Control solely from an App on your iPhone/iPod and you get a call, text, pop up, battery dies or anything that would cause you to take hands off controls what happens to your toy? Seems like Alquedaesque results at that point.
To answers 1 and 2 she replied, "The toy comes with a hot spot CREATOR, not an adapter. So will get roughly a 150ft range in every direction." Well don't I feel like a Jackass. Each unit comes with a device that creates a dedicated Hotspot connection that only works for that Drone, so yes... It is actually better than any phone or laptop available to the public.
To answer 3, the drone actually has a built in Hover sensor that constantly keeps it at about a 3ft level . This stops it from crashing into the ground even when not being controlled. But beware because this works as soon as the device is turned on. Actually made the mistake of stepping under joking around and it shot up another 48inches and hit the ceiling. Good thing the "You Break You Buy" policy only applies to Asian establishments and Liquor stores huh? Whew. She knew her stuff though, I was impressed.
Check out the Official Video of it in Action. Pretty Dope Stuff
