Snap launches its first drone • Hacker News Board

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#31

Post by lacraig2 » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 5:28 PM UTC

RC_ITR wrote: post #23

andrewgioia wrote: post #12

I think this is such a fun/playful idea, kudos to Snap! Their first hardware product pretty much bombed but this is oddly one of the first consumer tech toys in a while that I've felt I wanted. I can definitely see this being a fun thing to bring out in the backyard or to cookouts/parties, especially as a dad with young kids too. A couple things I'd be a bit worried about: * Battery life would need to last long enoug…

>Would there be an audible hum in the video it records from the 4x propellers? 100% yes and this is why every drone video ever has music over it.

They might be able to pair the video from the drone with the microphone on your phone and get something reasonable (if the drone is far enough away).

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#32

Post by foolfoolz » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 5:28 PM UTC

i have drones. drones are hard to use. the killer feature of snapchat is that it’s easy to get content up. you have to keep posting new content cause it decays fast. phones are especially good at taking photos and videos and making them accessible. you may go somewhere or meet someone and within a few minutes have 5+ pictures you want to post. or a couple videos you think would do well. you may have them posted within 1 minute of taking them

drones you have to set up. find a space for them. link them to your phone. tell people to get ready for the shot. make sure the location is good. probably do this 3-4 times cause it’s really hard to get a good camera angle the first time. or the timing right.

all of this means even getting one “post worthy” image or video might take you 20 mins. or even an hour. or as i’ve done many times you spend an hour or more messing around with it and don’t like the footage and throw it all away

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#33

Post by hernantz » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 5:29 PM UTC

foolfoolz wrote: post #32

i have drones. drones are hard to use. the killer feature of snapchat is that it’s easy to get content up. you have to keep posting new content cause it decays fast. phones are especially good at taking photos and videos and making them accessible. you may go somewhere or meet someone and within a few minutes have 5+ pictures you want to post. or a couple videos you think would do well. you may have them posted withi…

Similar exp with a gopro

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#34

Post by firmnoodle » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 5:29 PM UTC

RC_ITR wrote: post #23

andrewgioia wrote: post #12

I think this is such a fun/playful idea, kudos to Snap! Their first hardware product pretty much bombed but this is oddly one of the first consumer tech toys in a while that I've felt I wanted. I can definitely see this being a fun thing to bring out in the backyard or to cookouts/parties, especially as a dad with young kids too. A couple things I'd be a bit worried about: * Battery life would need to last long enoug…

>Would there be an audible hum in the video it records from the 4x propellers? 100% yes and this is why every drone video ever has music over it.

If they can put a dog nose and tongue on a video with AI, I would guess maybe removing the sound of the drone is possible.

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#35

Post by micromacrofoot » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 5:30 PM UTC

This looks and feels like a rebranded drone from any random Chinese drone producer... is there anything novel about this other than Snapchat integration?

Some of the promo videos have terrible stabilization. Guessing this will fall even flatter than their glasses.

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#36

Post by olafura » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 5:31 PM UTC

Refreshingly honest about the video quality you should expect in the main promo video. Typical problems like dynamic range, color profile, light bleed and tracking problems with the top of the head being cut off at one point. Pretty typical unless you spend more money on your drone or camera equipment. There are so many companies that fake the footage or pick much easier shooting locations.

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#37

Post by bduerst » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 5:32 PM UTC

andrewgioia wrote: post #12

I think this is such a fun/playful idea, kudos to Snap! Their first hardware product pretty much bombed but this is oddly one of the first consumer tech toys in a while that I've felt I wanted. I can definitely see this being a fun thing to bring out in the backyard or to cookouts/parties, especially as a dad with young kids too. A couple things I'd be a bit worried about: * Battery life would need to last long enoug…

>Would there be an audible hum in the video it records from the 4x propellers?

In the post-tiktok era, it's not that big of an issue.

Most videos will have easily added audio overlays.

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#38

Post by sofixa » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 5:33 PM UTC

mips_avatar wrote: post #30

I think it's interesting how much the FAA's 250 gram rule has impacted drone manufacturing. Even if it was technically possible I couldn't imagine a company like SNAP launching a drone like this in the previous regulatory grey area of drones.

The EASA also makes a distinction between 250g drones, in terms of registration and permissions required.

However drones remain pretty hard to use across the EU, they're strictly forbidden in most places (cities, natural parks) and for the rest you need explicit permission from the county's aviation authority ( and sometimes even more, e.g. in Portugal if the coastline is visible you also need the Coast Guard's permission). Apparently lots of tourists are unaware and are getting fined for that, there was even a few cases recently where oblivious tourists crashed their drones in historical buildings.

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#39

Post by mNovak » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 5:33 PM UTC

mNovak wrote: post #19

The camera quality doesn't look great, even in the promo videos. You'd think a software company can put on some some decent color balance at least. Also the video is very wobbly because it's such a small platform and no gimbal. That can be fixed in large part in software too. I suppose they're going for the artistically constrained angle, more like a disposable camera.

Also it's really bugging me that multiple heads are getting cropped out of frame, in the promo. I would have assumed the immediate first feature would be a bit of ML to find the human and put them in frame, and I assume that's how it accomplishes the orbit and follow-cam shots, so why the awkward clipping?

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#40

Post by malauxyeux » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 5:33 PM UTC

andrewgioia wrote: post #12

I think this is such a fun/playful idea, kudos to Snap! Their first hardware product pretty much bombed but this is oddly one of the first consumer tech toys in a while that I've felt I wanted. I can definitely see this being a fun thing to bring out in the backyard or to cookouts/parties, especially as a dad with young kids too. A couple things I'd be a bit worried about: * Battery life would need to last long enoug…

> Would there be an audible hum in the video it records from the 4x propellers?

And for those who are at the beach just trying to enjoy a little time away from the city. The folks at the beach near me are already fed up with ubiquitous Bluetooth speakers.