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The private drone industry is like Apple in 1984
Yahoo! Finance / Quartz ^ | January 25, 2013 | Tim Fernholz

Posted on 01/26/2013 11:03:40 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

You never forget your first drone.

When the Phantom first takes off, it sounds like a swarm of bees. But when it rockets 200 feet into the air at 25 miles per hour, you can’t hear it at all. It’s just a small dot with blinking lights, waiting where you tell it to wait, taking pictures with its camera until you ask it to come back home.

When the chief executive of DJI’s American subsidiary, Colin Guinn, came to Los Angeles to sell film studios on his company’s professional-grade unmanned aerial vehicles, he also let Quartz test-drive the company’s newest product: the Phantom, a remote-controlled quadcopter with a camera mount that you can essentially fly right out of the box. It sold some 2,000 units in the first week after its Jan. 7 debut, according to Guinn. Here’s a video that shows what it’s like to fly:

DJI is a Hong Kong-based company that makes automatic pilot packages for helicopters used by filmmakers in need of steady, controlled shots. Guinn, who ran an aerial photography company using the technology, helped convince DJI to produce unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, like the Phantom. The idea is to market it as a photography accessory—just what you need to take aerial photos like this one: Here’s what you can do with the Phantom. DJI You can get one for $679. Is it the future of the drone industry?

We needed iPhones to get a drone of our own The Phantom is not a drone in the fullest sense of the word: It can’t follow a pre-programmed GPS path. But it can use satellite navigation to hover in place autonomously, and it can navigate itself back to where it took off from if something happens to the controller...

(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Military/Veterans; Science; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: drones; economy; flight; uavs

1 posted on 01/26/2013 11:03:49 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I doubt the private drone industry will take off. The government is just not going to allow people to fly these things willy nilly, there will be some serious regulations coming in the next few years. Can’t have We The People possessing the same tech that our masters intend to control us with.


2 posted on 01/26/2013 11:09:47 PM PST by Boogieman
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I keep wanting one for elk season...


3 posted on 01/26/2013 11:18:21 PM PST by CurlyDave
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To: Boogieman

This could be the end of the USPS mail carrier.

If the mailbox is a “bin” instead of a box, once a drone “learns the route” and uses gps, it could easily do mail delivery.


4 posted on 01/26/2013 11:51:16 PM PST by staytrue
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To: staytrue

“This could be the end of the USPS mail carrier.”

That’s not going to happen. Those guys are union.


5 posted on 01/26/2013 11:52:56 PM PST by Boogieman
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To: Boogieman
It will 'take off', for a couple of reasons, until as you say, the government shuts it down. Think of voyeurism taken to a new height (no pun intended), and sadly, in this no one minds their own business society where the 'public has a right to know', the danged things will look like a swarm of gnats.

Forty years ago, no one would have believed Facebook, internet porn, etc., either.

They'd be great for neighborhood watch, though...

6 posted on 01/27/2013 12:25:38 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)
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To: Smokin' Joe

If it does, I expect there will be a resultant industry for personal privacy protection - devices that scan for ‘aerial interlopers’ and “disable” them...


7 posted on 01/27/2013 2:00:13 AM PST by plsjr (<>< what mankind "knows" is by trial and error; only the CREATOR really knows)
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To: staytrue

Also good for nerve gas, VX, nuke.


8 posted on 01/27/2013 3:18:21 AM PST by Morris70
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To: Morris70

I cannot imagine a serious Prepper without a couple. One with IR.

Here is the link to the video:

http://qz.com/#46893/the-private-drone-industry-is-like-apple-in-1984/


9 posted on 01/27/2013 4:43:46 AM PST by Gadsden1st
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To: plsjr

If I see one flying over my property we’ll see how well armored they are, I’ll bet #6 or 7 shot will take it out.


10 posted on 01/27/2013 5:08:59 AM PST by conservaterian (NOW can we have a conservative candidate?????)
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To: plsjr

There would likely be a market for that now—by the time you really need them, they’ll be outlawed.


11 posted on 01/27/2013 5:20:31 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Could be a great tool for a 2A patriot against Federal Stormtroopers out in the field, or to gather intel of any of the forward base or headquarters.

Plus they can be configured as a drone hunter/killer.

A drone designed to hunt down other drones.

I can just imagine R/C flying clubs working with some Goodyear blimp people out of Akron to develop thousands of mother drone air ships, airships like a small blimp but has dozens of hunter RC drones that are then released from a high altitude airship providing coverage to eliminate any foreign drone incursions.

The airship or blimp does not have to be manned, all of this could be remote operated.

The REAL money is building drones that kill other drones.


12 posted on 01/27/2013 5:33:52 AM PST by Eye of Unk (AR2 2013 is the American Revolution part 2 of 2013)
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To: Boogieman; 2ndDivisionVet
taking pictures with its camera until you ask it to come back home

Celebrities beware - you will never ever have privacy again.

13 posted on 01/27/2013 6:50:01 AM PST by Hardastarboard (The Liberal ruling class hates me. The feeling is mutual.)
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To: Smokin' Joe

“They’d be great for neighborhood watch, though...”

Silly citizen, you won’t need a neighborhood watch when the police have drones with FLIR hovering over your neighborhood, keeping you “safe”.


14 posted on 01/27/2013 8:08:11 AM PST by Boogieman
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To: Hardastarboard

Instead of punching a paparazzi when actors have had enough, will they be pulling out surface to air rockets?


15 posted on 01/27/2013 8:19:42 AM PST by Boogieman
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To: Boogieman
Sure you do....

Who is 'guarding' the guards?

16 posted on 01/27/2013 8:44:38 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)
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To: Smokin' Joe

Sorry, I was being sarcastic.


17 posted on 01/27/2013 11:22:03 AM PST by Boogieman
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To: CurlyDave

“I keep wanting one for elk season...”

The “killing from model drones” genie is out of the bottle for assassins, terrorist, criminals and ex-lovers! The countdown to the first killing by model drone has begun either by drone-born weapon or by kinetic force of the drone itself applied in a dangerous place.

See my tag line...


18 posted on 01/27/2013 3:16:03 PM PST by Seizethecarp (Defend aircraft from "runway kill zone" mini-drone helicopter swarm attacks: www.runwaykillzone.com)
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To: Boogieman

‘sokay. I can see a growth industry for a bit, then the voyeurs, the crass (betting on who wins the fight, the illicit race, whether someone gets killed, etc.) will likely wreck the whole idea. Either that or citizens will sit at their monitors, ready to report the smallest infraction for a reward.


19 posted on 01/28/2013 4:23:32 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)
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