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Snap launches its first drone

pixy.com

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Re: Snap launches its first drone

#331

Post by rvz »

Very interesting to see how not one commenter has even mentioned the company that Snap acquired that made all of what you see possible: CTRL Me Robotics [0] was the one behind all of this and made it possible for Snap to build their own drone.

That's what Snap was doing after making all those acquisitions. Now you would wonder what they would do with their other companies that they acquired. I would not underestimate Snap's ability to innovate and their complete silence and secrecy to ultimately surprise commenters here about what they have built.

As usual, this was unsurprising. [1] After you see who Snap has acquired, you can look back at such wild predictions like this one [2] and just dismiss them immediately.

[0] https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/27/15704906/snap-ctrl-me-rob...

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24019745

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29020626

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#332

Post by ohyoutravel »

542458 wrote: post #323
achow wrote: post #153

WSJ has good review including how it works: https://www.wsj.com/articles/snap-pixy-review-dont-call-it-a... https://archive.is/zW515 Excerpt: Turn the Pixy’s dial to one of its four flying modes.. Hover: Here, the Pixy reverses a couple of feet and floats in front of you like a hummingbird. In the Snapchat app, you can customize, up to 60 seconds, how long you’d like it to capture video Reveal: Like a traditional dro…

The downwards camera for stabilization and landing is a cool idea. Did they come up with that, or has that been done before?

Skydio has something like six cameras around it for this purpose, in addition to the main, gimble camera for footage.

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#333

Post by Spivak »

dvt wrote: post #320
roughly wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is going to be one of those things where we learn that nobody actually cares about any of that outside these forums. MP3s were garbage, early camera phones were garbage, Snap picture quality generally is garbage, bluetooth headphones suck, all of these things were and are decried by the tech community, and it turns out that people just don't care, because even at garbage quality it's still cool to have a…

Except that mp3s sucked until the iPod, and camera phones sucked until the iPhone. The idea that product quality, ease of use, UX/UI, or polish doesn't matter is just wrong. This thing is absolutely going to bomb (reminds me of GoPro's Karma) and I'd bet money on it, but SNAP stock is already in dire straits, so their incompetence is probably priced in.

I mean who cares about the stock, they have 5B in annual revenue, 58% gross margin, they’re cash flow positive, and spent 1.5B in R&D last year. Snapchat and Discord are the messaging apps.

By basically every measure they’re extremely successful and following the Google strat of their main advertising business finding moonshots.

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#334

Post by kennywinker »

My city has banned drones within city limits, for pretty good reason I think - the noise alone is enough to make them a plague on any busy public space. This kind of cheap quick to deploy device could permanently change people’s expectations and lead to bigger drones everywhere. With that in mind, I will personally be harassing anybody I see using one of these.

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#335

Post by kennywinker »

megablast wrote: post #324
malauxyeux wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Somehow the car park and road alongside the beach arent a problem Though??

They are a problem. Just one we’ve all learned to tolerate. Do you know how much nicer a beach without car noise is compared with one off a highway? Do we want to just have to accept that our public spaces are full of car noise and drone noise in 10 years - or do we want to hold the line and maybe try to re-route cars wherever possible?

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#336

Post by emteycz »

eptcyka wrote: post #330
dvt wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that mp3s sucked until the iPod, and camera phones sucked until the iPhone. The idea that product quality, ease of use, UX/UI, or polish doesn't matter is just wrong. This thing is absolutely going to bomb (reminds me of GoPro's Karma) and I'd bet money on it, but SNAP stock is already in dire straits, so their incompetence is probably priced in.

Camera phones sucked until iPhone 4 at least.

No, camera phones were very good since the Sony Ericsson days - ~2006.

I have a book from that era all about mobile camera photography, written by a professional photographer, and illustrated only with pictures shot on a Nokia phone. The pictures are of excellent printable quality with amazing colors.

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#337

Post by chucksmash »

dvt wrote: post #320
roughly wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is going to be one of those things where we learn that nobody actually cares about any of that outside these forums. MP3s were garbage, early camera phones were garbage, Snap picture quality generally is garbage, bluetooth headphones suck, all of these things were and are decried by the tech community, and it turns out that people just don't care, because even at garbage quality it's still cool to have a…

Except that mp3s sucked until the iPod, and camera phones sucked until the iPhone. The idea that product quality, ease of use, UX/UI, or polish doesn't matter is just wrong. This thing is absolutely going to bomb (reminds me of GoPro's Karma) and I'd bet money on it, but SNAP stock is already in dire straits, so their incompetence is probably priced in.

> Except that mp3s sucked until the iPod

Just being able to download music from the internet was already a game changer, it didn't suck! Before that if you wanted to hear a song from an album you didn't have at hand and you wanted it RIGHT NOW, you had to call into a radio station and ask nicely for another human being you've never met to play it for the entire city.

Waiting 60 minutes to download "Stairway to Heaven - LIVE rip" by "Guns N Roses and Bob Marley and U2 and Green Day" was a privilege.

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#338

Post by delabay »

slg wrote: post #185
MegaButts wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you're their target demographic.

Asking for clarification on battery life means I'm not their target demo? That is rather condescending to their customers. Battery life seems like a basic thing someone might want to know before spending a few hundred bucks on something like this.

> Asking for clarification on battery life means I'm not their target demo?

Precisely

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#339

Post by iamleppert »

holler wrote: post #288
iamleppert wrote: post #222

It’s basically suicide to compete against DJI.

I don't think they are competing against DJI. Did you watch the promo video? It's very clear who their target demographic is and it's not people who would buy a DJI.

Yeah but if it’s even remotely successful DJI will have an identical product on the market and undercut them like they have done with every other drone.

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#340

Post by spoils19 »

void-pointer wrote: post #252

People saying that this can’t compete with DJI are missing the point. This product knows its target market (hint, not the people who browse HN) and, based on my initial first impressions, I think it’s nailed it. Forgive me for a slightly contrived analogy, but if a DJI Mavic is a DSLR, and a DJI Mini is a portable point-and-shoot camera, then Pixy is a Polaroid. It’s certainly not got the highest picture quality, doe…

> not the people who browse HN

Why would people who browse HN be left out of the target market? I think I can speak for many that we'd be interested in this product if it could compete with some of DJI's offerings.

Lacking that + any sort of open-source software that we can go in and tinker with, and it's a hard sell to anybody, not just HN readers.

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