Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lots of people avoid confrontation
There's the "if you're breaking this social convention, I'm not willing to figure out how many others you'll break" problem.
I like this one. Thanks.
DJI Mini 4 Pro
241–250 of 452 posts
Re: DJI Mini 4 Pro
#242I've had the original Mini since it came out. Other than damaging a prop from it hitting a blade of grass on landing it is in perfect shape. Yes, they are so fragile I landed very smoothly in the grass and soft grass is enough to damage the props! I don't fly it as much as I used to. These new ones are certainly an engineering marvel with how much they have added and still kept it under 249g. The big one to me though…
Are there any good US competitors recommend?
No because DJI, XPENG, BYD, and a ton of other Chinese companies have this 'move fast and break things' mentality X100 that most American firms don't have. They ran circles around GoPro and their attempts. Closest analog is Tesla/SpaceX but who knows if even those guys last long term when the guy running it is so easily distracted by nonsense (eg. Buying Twitter, starting yet another company, playing hours of Polytopia etc. )
Re: DJI Mini 4 Pro
#243Earlier quoted context omitted.
They have discontinued their consumer products sadly: https://www.skydio.com/blog/skydio-to-sunset-consumer-drone-...
Yup. They could not get competitive so they had some politicos pimping for them and can now feed on taxpayer's money.
The empire is collapsing so might as well rip the last remaining scraps of wealth off the walls before it goes all belly up. I would do the same if I were in their position.
Re: DJI Mini 4 Pro
#244Earlier quoted context omitted.
My mini 3 pro follows me… I’m not sure what you what you mean
ah, nice, I didn't know they had added a true "follow me" function to the mini line. Thanks.
They added it starting the Mini 3 Pro, but it is possible to have tracking in the older Mini drones thanks to third-party apps.
One of the more popular ones is Litchi.
Re: DJI Mini 4 Pro
#245I have an Osmo action camera. Good camera and solid UX, but it forces you to make an account, install an app, and pair with your phone, only to lead you to an app that doesn't seem to do much of anything useful. A mountain of dark patterns, and a huge turn-off that will prevent me from buying another DJI product.
The account activation requirement sucks. It's of no benefit to users. Other companies have copied, such as the Insta360 products like their new gimbal. Fortunately I found a better gimbal without that requirement, the Hohem iSteady MT2, which does not come "pre-bricked" demanding account sign-up.
Re: DJI Mini 4 Pro
#246Earlier quoted context omitted.
>They're beaming back home whatever they want This claim is always thrown out like a life preserver without ever anything to back it up. Do you have anything to support this claim?
They're cloud based, aren't they? So regardless of what they're doing with the data, it's true that they're (figuratively) beaming it back, although parent is admittedly implying more. I accept that chinese authorities generally have access to anything they want to in the country, so I would buy that they have access to drone data.
with how they are executing tick tock and making a mockery out of the USDS system, I would not put this past them at all
Re: DJI Mini 4 Pro
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
While I myself still wouldn't ever use DJI because of this reason, no can ever provide any concrete claim. Quite hilarious.
What concrete claim are you looking for? Is it not enough that Huawei was banned by the US? Do you know the reason why it was banned? The same reason could broadly apply to every Chinese company. TikTok is the software counterpart that isn’t allowed on any government phone. DJI does not produce infrastructure pieces so it hasn’t reached the same urgency to the US, so it’s still allowed.
at this point then NULL hypothesis should be that China is using consumer grades products to spy on its perceived enemies including the USA.
Re: DJI Mini 4 Pro
#248Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is my experience with the mini 3. It’s incredible for sure, but once some trees and/or structures are in the way, it falls apart in a hurry.
Is there any system that works for at least 10-20km without line of sight, supporting a video feed usable for guidance, without cell phone network coverage? Maybe something where there are two drones, and one flies high with line of sight to both the user and the low-flying drone so that it can act as a relay like a satellite would? Or something that uses radio frequencies that bounce over the atmosphere, and if band…
why does this read like tech that should not be reasonably legalized for civilian use
Re: DJI Mini 4 Pro
#249Earlier quoted context omitted.
Recently a Russian commander got killed because he shared his daily running route on Strava which was seen by the killer. https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/11/europe/russian-submarine-...
I wonder if killing their dumber commanders might inadvertently be helping them…
what a strange argument to make
Re: DJI Mini 4 Pro
#250Beware that DJI's software to control these craft is super sketchy to install and use. It doesn't exist in the Google Play Store, to avoid inspection.
>>It doesn't exist in the Google Play Store, to avoid inspection. I think the real issue is more complicated than that, but, whatever. I use their software only for administrative tasks - updates, etc. For routine use I would recommend something like Litchi.
https://flylitchi.com/help is only available for older models, not for the Mini 3/4 models.