Touch Arcade:
We've been excited for the Parrot AR.Drone since we first heard about it early this year. After a few different hands-on opportunities at various conventions, it was hard to not see the amazing potential the device had once you got it outside of the little 10 foot by 10 foot tent that was home to its demonstrations. After spending an entire week with the Parrot AR.Drone, it does have some down sides, but is still the coolest RC toy I've had a chance to play with.
Fans of the Parrot AR.Drone now have a central online location where they can meet up, hang out, and share flight content with other drone pilots. The brand new AR.Drone Academy is a part of the freshly updated AR.FreeFlight, which also now includes video sharing, data tracking, geolocalisation, and - wait for it - identification of the best flying spots around the world.
Player Attack: Just like its smartphone-controlled predecessor, the shiny new AR.Drone 2.0 features an on-board camera. This transmits onto the pilot’s device screen exactly what the quadricopter sees. This makes for a fascinating flight experience – and the hardware upgrade bumps up the quality, introducing 1280×720 resolution to the mix.
At last year’s E3, French company Parrot revealed its AR.Drone. It’s a flying machine – a quadricopter – and instead of a traditional radio control unit, you can pilot the aircraft using your mobile phone. Until recently, the technology was only available for iOS, but a recent update has seen the doors opened for Android smartphones, Samsung’s Bada, and Nokia handsets.
We caught up with Parrot's Vice President of Marketing & Communication, Cristina Sanz, while at E3 2011, to chat about what’s new for the company. She told us all about the developers that are using the AR.Drone technology, how the app and the Drone works, and a little bit about what’s coming up in the future.
