Hasta La Gadget!

A little good / bad news for those dads who scored an AR.Drone 2.0 for Father’s Day over the weekend. It’s already time to upgrade. Starting next week, Parrot will be offering up those new add-ons it announced way back at CES. The “black box” Flight Recorder has been priced at $130, adding the ability to save flight data and GPS information from runs, which can be viewed in 3D through AR.Drone Academy maps. The device plugs into the quadcopter’s USB port, bringing 4GB of storage that can also be used to save up to two hours of HD video. The Recorder also lets users perform simple piloting maneuvers via smartphone and tablet. The high density battery, meanwhile, has been priced at $70, bringing 18 minutes of flight time to the ‘copter. Both are available now through Parrot’s store.

On the software side, the $3.99 2.0 piloting app brings Director Mode to the flier, giving users more control over the video they shoot with their drone, including editing and picture settings like white balance and saturation. Parrot’s offering the Rescue Mode update for free, meanwhile, with random shake and over balance settings to help rescue your drone from quadcopter-eating trees.

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Marking the first anniversary of the AR.Drone 2.0 since last CES, Parrot has announced that it’ll be offering an optional GPS flight recorder module as well as a bigger battery at some point this year. The former dongle simply plugs into the flying vehicle via the USB port, and it can record the flying parameters onto its 4GB memory, which can then be reproduced on the 3D AR.Drone Academy map. As for the larger battery, it’ll come with 1,500mAh worth of juice which is 50 percent more than the original one (hence a flight time of up to 18 minutes now), though we’d imagine most hardcore enthusiasts have already modded third-party batteries for the power-hungry copter.

On the software side, the AR.Drone 2.0 will soon be upgraded with a “Director Mode” for programming movements (including traveling, pan, crane and more) for more creative filming. Additionally there will be an “AR.Race 2.0” solo or multiplayer racing game, as well as an “AR.Rescue 2.0” adventure game in augmented reality. Sounds fun, and we’ll be able to see the drone in action during our live CES interview with CEO Henri Seydoux this Thursday, so stay tuned.

Continue reading Parrot’s AR.Drone 2.0 gifted with optional flight recorder module and bigger battery

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We’ve written a lot about our Hackathon hackers: their shirts, their hats, their ability to code all night sustained by only junk food, beer, and Red Bull. But this year we decided to do something a little different.

We followed one hacker, David Kay, through all 24 hours of the event. Through the ups, through the downs, and through the delirious moments.

He and his partner, Steven Jung, have been regulars at this event for quite some time — he’s attended five Disrupts, four Disrupt Hackathons, and been a Disrupt volunteer twice — but decided that software wasn’t going to cut it this year. Instead, they bought a couple of Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 models and decided to teach the smartphone-controlled quadrocopter a few tricks.

The product they finished with was called Quadro, and was meant to fly, steer, and land via voice controls. And if not voice, an Xbox controller. This meant marrying base-level coding with Python, a more high-level programming language. But to take it a step further, they attempted to use facial recognition with the Drone’s camera, hoping to recognize the judges’ faces during their presentation.

It was a tough challenge, as you’ll see in the video — the duo finished with five minutes left on the clock.

David has worked for Google in New York, but now operates as an independent consultant with a focus on Android and iOS.

Here’s what he had to say about the role of Disrupt in his life:

Disrupt NYC 2010 was my first event in Startupland. After dropping out of school, I had been a professional DJ for a time, but, seeking something greater, I took some computer science classes and fell into programming. TechCrunch Disrupt was the first concrete assurance that I had made the right choice. As a lowly volunteer, I sat in the main hall, overwhelmed by the roster of developers, wet-behind-the-ears startup founders, grizzled tech veterans, angels and VCs, and could see myself, one day, enjoying each of these roles. It was then that I knew that Startupland was my home.

If you’d like to keep up with their exploits, you can follow David here and Steven here.