Saturday, 30 June 2012

Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 Quadricopter Controlled by iPod touch, iPhone, iPad, and Android Devices (Orange/Blue)

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Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 Quadricopter Controlled by iPod touch, iPhone, iPad, and Android Devices (Orange/Blue)

Game 30 Seconds

Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 Quadricopter Controlled by iPod touch, iPhone, iPad, and Android Devices (Orange/Blue)

game 30 seconds - click on the image below for more information. Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 Quadricopter Controlled by iPod touch, iPhone, iPad, and Android Devices (Orange/Blue)
  • Receives 720p high-definition live video streaming to smartphone or tablet while flying
  • Records & shares videos & pictures straight from AR.FreeFlight 2.0 piloting app
  • Orange & Blue
  • Remote control quadricopter controlled by iPod touch, iPhone, iPad, and Android Devices with Version 2.2 and Multi-Touch
  • Record your live flight videos in HD and send them directly to YouTube and Picasa from the new AR.Drone 2.0 Piloting App
  • Perform flips with the press of a button and enjoy a variety of games
  • Interchangeable hulls designed for both indoor and outdoor use

game 30 seconds

Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 Quadricopter controlled by a smartphone or tablet (Orange/Blue)

List Price: $ 299.99 Price: $ 299.99


Customer Reviews

41 of 44 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Flying Fun that needs a few accessories, May 1, 2012
This review is from: Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 Quadricopter Controlled by iPod touch, iPhone, iPad, and Android Devices (Orange/Blue) (Toy)
I previously owned an RC airplane and flew (and crashed) it until it could no longer be repaired. Ever since then I was itching to get back to the skies. When the first gen AR Drone came out I was interested but hesitated. With the improvements made in the AR Drone 2.0 I am thrilled and have been flying whenever I get a chance. My unit arrived fully functional, it was recognized by my iPad immediately (after charging/installing the Drone's battery) and I was up and flying quickly.

This unit is a pleasure to fly and much different than my RC plane. You need a much smaller area for one so heading out into the neighborhood (vs a large flight field) means you can fly at a moments notice. Because of its features (e.g. hovers, user-defined flight ceilings) mistakes are more preventable. Also, because of its relatively easy to learn flight controls you can start having fun immediately, my RC plane had a pretty high learning curve and I spent more time fixing and tweaking than in the air. I'd say for someone who is a beginner to moderate level RC enthusiast who will go for a flight every so often this is the perfect kind of device. For someone who is looking for a more aggressive flying experience there may be better options.

Overall, the unit seems to strike an excellent balance between weight (be as light as possible) and durability (be as protective as possible) that is inherent in any flying device. Couple that balance with all the tech that is crammed into this thing helping to prevent mistakes, the fun of having a live camera feed to user-controlled drone, and it's no wonder that I have a big grin on my face whenever I'm flying it.

PROS
1. Easy set up for flight (<1 min)
2. Easy to pick up and fly (although mastery will take practice).
3. Very stable in the air even in light winds; easy take off and landing features; emergency cutoff, flight lights all make this very easy to fly.
4. Can be easily flown in relatively small spaces (even indoors, try that with an RC plane-not).
5. Forward facing camera is quite good for video, passable for stills.
6. Parts readily available (and I've had a few crashes where that was important).
7. Easy video recording to my iPad (using the 3rd gen iPad BTW) and simple importing to iPhoto or iMovie for editing.
8. Lots of tweakable preferences in the control app for flight ceiling, rate of ascent, tilt, etc. This means as I get more comfortable flying I can change parameters to be more aggressive (or less if someone new wants to try).
9. Reality enhancement games are pretty cool that use the onboard camera.
10. Nice box for storage of unit when not in use (Adding a little compartment for batteries and what not would have been a nice touch)
11. Future App support (at least in theory) allows you to upgrade capabilities over time. RC planes have dedicated devices that aren't typically upgradeable. Plus the app is free!

CONS
1. Stock battery life is very short (6-8 min) after a 90+ min charge Extra battery recommendation: This 1300mAh battery and charger will give you 15-20 min worth of flight time and requires <1hour to charge. Items can be found on amazon.com. Bastens LiPo battery upgrade for the Parrot AR.Drone. Fast LiPo Battery Balance Charger - 40 Watt - 4.5 Amp - 1 2 3 or 4 cell batteries
2. Bottom camera resolution is pretty awful (Draw a picture with a crayon, that is the resolution of the bottom camera).
3. I agree with the other reviewer that the angle of the front facing camera should point down a bit more. I find myself having to compensate for the lack of downward angle by increasing the speed of the device or flying way back (neither of which work in every setting). Having a little allen wrench adjustment on the lense would be a great feature that you could customize depending on your need.
4. Would like the indoor and outdoor hulls to "clip on" during flight. I use a small piece of Velcro for this currently.
5. Would like the design to protect the gears at the ends of the cross. I crashed into a tree, the motors cut out and the plastic gear hit the pavement which ground down some gear teeth. A slight lip, bumper or cowl that surrounds those external gears might go a long way toward preventing the gear from coming into contact with hard objects.
6. One limitation of the quadcopter design is that you won't be doing tons of aerial acrobatics but that is the nature of this design. Although the double-tap to flip feature is pretty cool!
7. When it says "low battery warning" it means "land that sucker RIGHT NOW", it's a matter of seconds before the auto-cutoff kicks in so don't have it over a lake.
8. Cost. Once you get a device to control the drone, pick up some spare parts, and invest in longer lasting batteries and chargers you can easily invest a large chunk of change. That said any kind of decent RC device that flies is... Read more
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40 of 46 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Broken USB Recording - Horrible Customer Service, May 1, 2012
This review is from: Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 Quadricopter Controlled by iPod touch, iPhone, iPad, and Android Devices (Orange/Blue) (Toy)
I've had this new drone for a couple weeks now (I preordered from Brookstone).

Although the helicopter is an improvement on version 1, and is still one of the great iOS accessories, there are a few things worth pointing out:

- Currently, the USB recording is completely broken. 9/10 USB drives I've tried don't work. Customer service tried to blame it on Sandisk, but most of the cards I tried weren't SanDisk, and most don't work AT ALL (even after reformatting). Customer service was terrible in dealing with the issue, blaming me, the drives, etc -- in short blaming everyone but themselves. Numerous people are having the same issues, as evidenced by their forums. They started deleting my posts and product reviews on Brookstone in order to cover up the problem. As it currently stands, the USB implementation in the AR.Drone v2 IS BROKEN. Don't buy it until it's fixed.

- Many of the advertised features of Drone v.2 don't exist. Customer service claims that they will decide whether to include those features based on 'returns.' Personally, I think it's reprehensible to advertise features, not include them, and then consider maybe developing them in the future based on 'returns.' Advertised features like the movie recording modes, (traveling, etc), do not exist. Customer service claims that it isn't false advertising because they've thought about including those modes.

- Considering it's a new drone, they should have developed a battery pack with more capacity. The battery has the same capacity as the old one, which is disappointing.

- The forward facing camera is sort of useless for recording (if you can get recording to work), because it's not angled. An angle of just 20 degrees would make recordings much much better.

- The downward facing camera is of worse quality than Drone v.1

+ The video streaming is of noticeably better quality than version 1

+ The new altimeter works much better than version one, but as mentioned above, the angle of the forward facing camera makes recording from height sort of pointless (unless you want to see the horizon)
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The manufacturer commented on the review belowSee comments
30 of 34 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Bad Customer Service, May 1, 2012
This review is from: Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 Quadricopter Controlled by iPod touch, iPhone, iPad, and Android Devices (Orange/Blue) (Toy)
I got one of the first batches from the preorders on Brookstone about three weeks ago. Right out of the box, one of the motors wasn't working. Parrot, the company who makes these, insists on dealing with them for all repairs and returns, but they are so swamped that it took them a week befo they would even authorize a return. They also want the customer to pay for return shipping. That was two weeks ago that I sent it in to them and haven't heard anything. While the drone seems like a really cool device with lots of neat features, if you happen to get one that doesn't work out of the box, you're in for a long fight with a company that needs some training in customer service.

Also, as of this writing, note that some of the advertised features, like geocaching and the automated flight path for making videos is not working yet.
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stem
The manufacturer commented on this review(What's this?)
Posted on May 4, 2012 2:12:03 PM PDT
Parrot says:
(MANUFACTURER)
Dear JB,
Thank you for being on of our first customers to purchase the AR.Drone 2.0 and comment on http://Amazon.com. Because of the highly technical features of this product, Parrot prefers to handle all repairs and returns to best serve the customer. We realize that due to prioritizing the pre-order shipments of AR.Drone 2.0 to our first customers, we have experienced a delay in receiving the replacement parts. I am happy to report that the technical repair team is fully equipped and our repair/replacement wait time has been improved.

Regarding the advertised features for the free "FREE FLIGHT 2.0 App": the geocaching and the automated flight path, or "flying camera" which allow the pilot to perform smooth movements and/or predefined trajectories with the AR.Drone 2.0 (in order to capture seamless video sequences), will be available as an automated App update very soon.

We appreciate your patience.
Very best -
The Parrot Inc team
 
 

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Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 Quadricopter Controlled by iPod touch, iPhone, iPad, and Android Devices (Orange/Blue)


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