SoylentNews

takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

What's the non-soyvertisement angle for this drone [techcrunch.com]? Uh... you can spy on people with it!

The drone starts at a surprisingly accessible $499. That was really going to be the big sticking point here — with most pundits considering anything under $1,000 a good play for the company's generally high-quality but high-priced products. It's still not cheap, exactly, giving the number of budget drones that have flooded the market in recent years, but with all of the functionality the company has jammed into the thing, the Spark could well be DJI's first truly mainstream drone.

[...] [Aside] from size (which let's be honest, is the most important thing here), the Spark's got some pretty impressive tricks up its sleeves. It can take off from the palm of your hands and land back in it with little hassle. The demo of the functionality went exactly as planned, which isn't always the case at these sorts of events, especially given the swamp of cell phone signals that is Grand Central Station.

Even more impressive is a gesture-based control, about which the assembled press made audibly excited mumbled comparisons to Star Wars. And yeah, there's a selfie function, too. Smiling with you arms folded will trigger the picture taking functionality.

It's only capable of recording 1080p! No 4K = useless!

In related news, DJI users will apparently need to login and register their drones [globalspec.com] to activate certain features.

Also at VentureBeat [venturebeat.com], USA Today [usatoday.com], The Verge [theverge.com], and YouTube [youtube.com].

Original Submission