Das ubergadget
Definition:
The gadget above all gadgets. The one. The "my precious" gadget. The headturner. The conversation opener. The "gee Dad, i want one of these". The "how much did that cost, dude?". The "a little better than sex" gadget. The "i want this now but how the heck am i gonna justify the cost to the missus? Ahhh, found it, i'll blame it on the kids...". Both synthetics of the word are equally important. It has to be a gadget of course, while it also has to be something uhmmm you know, special, after all.
Basic attributes of the ideal gadget:
1) It has to be small, as in portable, as in "i can show off to my friends and neighbors and coworkers". As in a house or a car cannot be considered a gadget, it is just too damned useful/big/common. You get what i am saying?
2) It has to be able to fly. Simple as that. Whoever has been a kid at his/her youth, and by "kid" i mean a real kid (not the super responsible overachiever - great school grades compulsory - preadolescent type who dresses up like his 35 years senior dad/mum and even worse behaves likewise) may be able to comprehend the need for the ubergdget to be able to fly. Try to grasp the concept of absolute freedom, that can only be approximated by an overactive childhood imagination and you are close. Did that? Now please get back to your report for the upper management. You have a strict deadline, in case you managed to forget for a split second.
3) It must have a remote control. Obviously.
4) The "WOW" factor should be extremely high. How can that be measured? Pretty simple actually. If random people on the street (extra points for individuals above 70 years old) see it and say "Oh my God, what is this?" then you are in the right direction. Ideally you should see the jaw-dropping sequence take place on the faces of innocent bystanders.
Does it exist?
Back to reality, then. Does such a thing even exist? Can you think of any candidate for the ubergadget throne? No? Let's make it a little harder, then. How about something that satisfies the above criteria while throwing a healthy dose of voyerism in the mix? Childhood innocense and curiosity again come to mind here, but i will not elaborate this time.
It does exist, dear readers and it is called AR Drone 2.0! Do you also want the ubergadget? You can get it for 320 EUR right now. Is that too much? Nuhhh, that's what i save for each 4 months i manage to remain an ex-smoker. Oh, you also need an iPhone or Android smartphone that is going to be the remote control. But you already have one of these since you are reading this blog, don't you?
The AR Drone 2.0
Ladies and gentlemen please welcome the most easily remotely controllable flying thing ever. (If you have ever tried to fly a remote controlled helicopter you may appreciate the true meaning of the word difficult. These things have 6 or even 8 channel controls, with each channel corresponding to a degree of freedom! It is unbelievably hard to master the control of these things. Just imagine having 8
little joysticks to choose from any given second... Long story short: If you absolytely have to fly a remote controlled "toy" helicopter or the real thing, i suggest you go for the real thing - it should be a little easier!)
I do not want to reproduce the spec sheet here, but you really shoud see this.
Remember the WOW factor? Well you may be impressed even before you fork out the money to purchase the drone - while drooling over the technical jargon - even if you don't understand a single thing about it.
Let me give you tthe executive summary, though:
By means of some really clever tech, the drone hovers in place in place when no external forces are applied. If you fly it indoors you can see that it stays almost perfectly stationary, which is a big feat in itself. The way to control it is really simple and intuitive, thanks to the absolute control that was introduced with the second version of the AR Drone. You use your smarphone's motion sensors and the drone responds perfectly. You won't believe it till you see it happen. Of course the whole connection thing is through wifi. The drone creates it's own access point and your phone connects to it. The range is more than you would feel comfortable with the first hundreds or so times you get out and fly, but then again there is a whole community of people who have hacked their drones to (by far) increase the 50 meter out of the box range.
Did i mention it features two cameras? One HD capable for videos and stills and a QVGA one mainly used for ground speed measurement, though one can also utilise this one for video recording purposes as well.
The killer feature is that the drone streams real time HD video to your phone while it flies. YES. You can also record it of course and even take pictures at the same time. If you (think) you are good enough you may even fly it without having direct visual contact, the range is more than enough for this kind of suicide missions.
The learning curve is not steep at all, but beware dear reader: Do not fly this thing if the wind is more than 2 on the Beaufort scale. Again: Do not fly this God damned thing if the wind is more than 2 on the Beaufort scale. I really cannot stress enough the importance and wisdom of these words. Let's just say that the first time it cost me 90 euros and 10 days of waiting and leave it to that. You see, the drone is actually featherweight at 380 grams, therefore even the smallest gust of wind may through it out of your control area (see tips section bellow)...
Talking about repairs, the AR Drone 2.0 is 100% repairable by you. You can (BIG question mark here...) disassemble it in aproximmately a million pieces. Do it once while being blind folded and you can become the IKEA evangelist for the millenium. As well as the next one. There are howto videos all over youtube that may guide you. You can of course order the exact component you want to replace, so for those among you who can "do stuff with their hands" it should be fairly easy and not overly expensive to repair.
Some tips:
1) Fly it on days with absolutely no wind the first few times. Best time should be early in the morning, or late in the evening.
2) If you use a smartphone, you should maybe consider turning the phone off. The phone ringing (which will interrupt your controls) maybe more than enough of a distraction necessary to make you cross the thin red line between "Oh man look at me, i am a mean mutha flying this shit like a pro!" and "Ohhhhhh shit, i crashed (again)!" Although if the phone rings the drone is supposed to just hover where it was right before the ring.
4) Even if you are a complete total newbie do not hesitate to set the vertical speed to high. It could be the single thing that will save your drone from a flyaway with probably disastrous results. A single gust of wind may lift your drone 10 meters up and you really need all the force you can have to save it from entering the "shit, the wifi link is too weak to call the drone back" zone.
5) Do not migrate to "unofficial" smartphone control apps before you have mastered the official one. The extra functionality may work against total newbies.
Experience:
Flying the drone on a day with no wind is absolutely amazing. It flies smoothly, goes where you want it to go (again, you cannot fully appreciate the meaning of this particular statement if you have never tried to use an R/C helicopter - futility is the one word that comes to mind), it is very stable. You can micro control it to look right into someone's eyes and you can have unlimited amounts of fun with unsuspected cats. It seems that cats are especially agitated by the drone. (Can't say why.) Or you can just get to the point and use the drone on a "surveillance" mission, foucused on your new neighbor next door, right? NOPE. If it is spying / voyerism that your heart desires, you may forget about the drone right now. Can't be used this way (and that is a good thing, i assure you), unless the sexy neighbor enjoys being spied upon (which would render the entire voyer perspective kind of invalid to say the least) or is 100% deaf or both. You see, the four 28,500 rpm motors make a "unique" kind of noise, that somehow reminds me of a hybrid between an F1 race car and a crybaby (you are gonna love that sound though, trust me). The live video feed is a great feature and if/when you eventually manage to master the controls you may actually sometime be able to fly the drone beyond your field of view, only based on what you see on screen. The battery life is about 10 mins (you can always shop for an aftermarket higher capacity one), which may initially seem to be a little on the short side, but rest assured that:
1) It is actually rather good, if it is electrically powered remotely controlled flying things we are talking about.
2) The levels of adrenaline produced are just too high to keep pumping for prolonged amounts of time.
Kids (yours or other people's) simply love it. Videogames seem to have pushed natural evolution into the direction of kids being born boasting an extreme degree of familiarity with tiny joysticks and on screen controls. Of course qucik reflexes certainly do not harm here. Fathers (as well as soon to be fathers, wannabe fathers, could be fathers and such) of kids also love it. Women are not impressed (of course) but seem to have a high tolerance towards the drone, as well as it is not flying and in any case before they find out how much it cost. Let me provide another tip here again: A possible workaround for your "significant other half's" whining regarding the amount of money spent on the drone (as well as the unwanted but most likely entirely expected repair jobs) may include kids' birthdays or even bringing out the big guns: Stories (true or fictional) of your childhood focusing on the fact that you have always desired a particular toy but your cruel family did not buy it for you leading to years of misery that either frequent as well as expensive sessions with a shrink might begin to dissolve or the AR Drone 2.0 can fix in a second. What would you choose, honey?
Conclusion:
The AR Drone 2.0 is indeed the ubergadget. Depending on your point of vierw, it may be considered as:
For gadget lovers i cannot but recommend it with all my heart. It provides a (sort of) lifechanging experience for techheads, while the first three minutes of the first flight (which most probably will take place in your living room) can only be compared to your first three minutes of riding a bicycle without aid. Or your first kiss. Or your first live concert. Or your first "few drinks" that ended up with you drunk. Be prepared to form a direct link to your childhood days of innoscence, the drone can do that magical thing. Let's just not forget that childhood also had it's "bad" moments, so your first true crash (damages are compulsory if it is to be considered a real crash) might also bring up memories of your first break up, as well...
- A ridiculously expensive smartphone accessory,
- or a deep dive to the fountain of youth,
- or anything in between.
For gadget lovers i cannot but recommend it with all my heart. It provides a (sort of) lifechanging experience for techheads, while the first three minutes of the first flight (which most probably will take place in your living room) can only be compared to your first three minutes of riding a bicycle without aid. Or your first kiss. Or your first live concert. Or your first "few drinks" that ended up with you drunk. Be prepared to form a direct link to your childhood days of innoscence, the drone can do that magical thing. Let's just not forget that childhood also had it's "bad" moments, so your first true crash (damages are compulsory if it is to be considered a real crash) might also bring up memories of your first break up, as well...
All in all, dear reader, if you need a present for yourself, just a little something for you, a little expense that does not need to be rationalised, do not hesitate at all. Gadget Heaven is already here, all you have to do is get out and grasp it (online purchase is not actually recommended for such impulse decisions - gadget lovers the world over already know the feeling, if you want it you want it now!). Have a nice flight!
