Refreshingly honest about the video quality you should expect in the main promo video. Typical problems like dynamic range, color profile, light bleed and tracking problems with the top of the head being cut off at one point. Pretty typical unless you spend more money on your drone or camera equipment. There are so many companies that fake the footage or pick much easier shooting locations.
I think this is such a fun/playful idea, kudos to Snap!<p>Their first hardware product pretty much bombed but this is oddly one of the first consumer tech toys in a while that I've felt I wanted. I can definitely see this being a fun thing to bring out in the backyard or to cookouts/parties, especially as a dad with young kids too.<p>A couple things I'd be a bit worried about:<p>* Battery life would need to last long enough to use this on and off for a few hours. If it's like 15 mins then no way.<p>* Would there be an audible hum in the video it records from the 4x propellers?
People saying that this can’t compete with DJI are missing the point.<p>This product knows its target market (hint, not the people who browse HN) and, based on my initial first impressions, I think it’s nailed it.<p>Forgive me for a slightly contrived analogy, but if a
DJI Mavic is a DSLR, and a DJI Mini is a portable point-and-shoot camera, then Pixy is a Polaroid. It’s certainly not got the highest picture quality, doesn’t have good altitude or range and the 30s flight time sounds laughable, but it’s a nice looking, approachable device that looks like it could be used by anyone to take videos they currently can’t with the devices they currently have (the mode dial is a brilliant idea.)<p>I think this thing will sell very nicely. The big question for me is whether the Pixy wireless streaming to the phone allows exports out of the Snapchat app, if it does then all the biggest TikTok stars will buy one immediately and it will explode in popularity.
WSJ has good review including how it works:<p><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/snap-pixy-review-dont-call-it-a-drone-or-a-selfie-stickeven-though-its-both-11651165460" rel="nofollow">https://www.wsj.com/articles/snap-pixy-review-dont-call-it-a...</a><p><a href="https://archive.is/zW515" rel="nofollow">https://archive.is/zW515</a><p>Excerpt:<p>Turn the Pixy’s dial to one of its four flying modes..<p>Hover: Here, the Pixy reverses a couple of feet and floats in front of you like a hummingbird. In the Snapchat app, you can customize, up to 60 seconds, how long you’d like it to capture video<p>Reveal: Like a traditional drone shot, the Pixy reverses and flies upward to reveal your scene. My favorite of the bunch, it won’t fly more than 30 feet away from you (you can shorten that distance in the app) and it only goes about 15 feet up in the air.<p>Follow: The Pixy will follow you around very, very slowly.<p>Orbit: The Pixy will reverse to 5, 8 or 15 feet (whichever you set in the app) then make a full circle around you before flying back.<p>There are two cameras on the Pixy: One points down, stabilizing the drone and detecting your hand, aka its landing pad. The other faces outward, tracking you and capturing video and photos. Flight patterns are preprogrammed so it doesn’t rely on any additional sensors for navigation or collision avoidance.
Super cool little fun product. I like that Snap tries to be different and take chances on hardware.<p>Their glasses never really took off but they still iterated on it and did a second version and I’m sure some of the lessons learned there were applied to this product.<p>I’m curious to learn about how it does indoors.
They focused on something obvious: influencer videos are filmed by someone else. What if you didn’t need someone else?<p>Most drones are aimed at people who want to fly something. This is for people who want to be filmed. Totally different UX and priorities.
I kinda feel sad for Snap for even trying.<p>I remember Snap was one of the very first meme stock. They failed with their camera spectacles. They failed to keep up with computer vision compared to TikTok and shift towards Gen Z. They failed to come up with a decent creators monetization system.<p>Recently I read that they are signing MOUs with entertainment companies that involved AR tech. And now they are involved in making drones. Drone is a super hard market to enter even with some industry experience, case in point Gopro.<p>Snap really shows how much the entire social media as an industry is struggling. Snap's future is bleak, it would be interesting to see how long they last.
The camera quality doesn't look great, even in the promo videos. You'd think a software company can put on some some decent color balance at least. Also the video is very wobbly because it's such a small platform and no gimbal. That can be fixed in large part in software too.<p>I suppose they're going for the artistically constrained angle, more like a disposable camera.
The one thing that drives me up the wall is being on a beach, or on a hike, and somebody brings out a drone. The whine of the rotors carries much farther than people would like to admit. The ambient screech makes a beautiful natural landscape feel like an anxious techno nightmare.<p>Now make them cheap, connect it to social media, and target them at teens.<p>Let's hope these don't take off (pun intended). At least they can only run for a few minutes per battery charge.
I think this may be the first casual consumer drone on the market compatible with the FAA's Operations Over People guidelines released last year: <a href="https://www.faa.gov/uas/commercial_operators/operations_over_people/" rel="nofollow">https://www.faa.gov/uas/commercial_operators/operations_over...</a>. Before this, all flight over people required a waiver by the FAA.<p>Drones under 250g, like the DJI Mini 2 would qualify as a Category 1 craft, allowing non-sustained flight over people and vehicles, but there was an element that the craft not have exposed blades capable of lacerating human skin, which the DJI Mini 2 fails.<p>Pixy is 101g and looks to have an enclosed rotor design: <a href="https://support.pixy.com/hc/en-us/articles/5039928089236-Pixy-Tech-Specs" rel="nofollow">https://support.pixy.com/hc/en-us/articles/5039928089236-Pix...</a>
I looked through (edit, most) their site, and can't find any... specs? Nothing about the length of each flight (but it proudly says it can do 5-8 flights). Nothing about the video encoding, or photo-quality, how many people it can track or how it handles crowds. Even the basics like, what phone's does this support, BLE-5 ect?<p>With no information elsewhere and not actually being able to puchase the device, is this acutally "launched" or just announced?
I think it's interesting how much the FAA's 250 gram rule has impacted drone manufacturing. Even if it was technically possible I couldn't imagine a company like SNAP launching a drone like this in the previous regulatory grey area of drones.
cue my dystopian paranoia self: in a few short years technology like this will enable the effortless creation of a perfect, stylish, witty video of each and every day of your life, shot and edited in complete autonomy.<p>Which shows you at your best.<p>And expresses none of your fears, anxieties, inelegancies, loneliness, family trauma, time wasting or thoughtless cruelty.<p>Fast forward another nanosecond in the singularity. Devices like this camera will connect to the internet & ingest your personal timeline. They will respond by themselves to your friends' posts, mimicking their trends, one-upping their flexes, out-cooling them in a constantly accelerating arms race.<p>Our role in this algorithmic glammering will shrink to nothing as deepfakes expand in scope and become so much interesting than reality.<p>in the end our bodies will become irrelevant, as we watch our "selves" and our "friends" enact reality in a second, much better, universe.
All in all, it's a $250 toy that can hold 5-8 minutes of battery and has a terrible camera on top of the unavoidable hum from the rotors. I'd say it's a fun little gadget, but I can't see this gaining much traction.
Just what the world needed. Another annoying device out in the sky to fly over your fence, in your yard, in the park, cinemas, public places, restaurants, concerts, at the beach or...in your face.
For another 100 bucks you can get an entry level DJI drone that blows this thing out of the water in terms of camera quality, range, features. This is a piece of trash.
i have drones. drones are hard to use. the killer feature of snapchat is that it’s easy to get content up. you have to keep posting new content cause it decays fast. phones are especially good at taking photos and videos and making them accessible. you may go somewhere or meet someone and within a few minutes have 5+ pictures you want to post. or a couple videos you think would do well. you may have them posted within 1 minute of taking them<p>drones you have to set up. find a space for them. link them to your phone. tell people to get ready for the shot. make sure the location is good. probably do this 3-4 times cause it’s really hard to get a good camera angle the first time. or the timing right.<p>all of this means even getting one “post worthy” image or video might take you 20 mins. or even an hour. or as i’ve done many times you spend an hour or more messing around with it and don’t like the footage and throw it all away
Why is this pictured outside? The last thing I think anyone wants is a high-pitched quad flying around each campsite / trailhead.<p>Come to think of it, I cannot think of any place I'd like this to be operated. Perhaps concerts until they start falling on peoples' heads.
Very interesting to see how not one commenter has even mentioned the company that Snap acquired that made all of what you see possible: CTRL Me Robotics [0] was the one behind all of this and made it possible for Snap to build their own drone.<p>That's what Snap was doing after making all those acquisitions. Now you would wonder what they would do with their other companies that they acquired. I would not underestimate Snap's ability to innovate and their complete silence and secrecy to ultimately surprise commenters here about what they have built.<p>As usual, this was unsurprising. [1] After you see who Snap has acquired, you can look back at such wild predictions like this one [2] and just dismiss them immediately.<p>[0] <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/27/15704906/snap-ctrl-me-robotics-acquired-drone-cameras" rel="nofollow">https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/27/15704906/snap-ctrl-me-rob...</a><p>[1] <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24019745" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24019745</a><p>[2] <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29020626" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29020626</a>
I find it interesting how people always judge products based on their v1.<p>Yes it has flaws, but early adopters will put up with it, and future iterations will be much better. I think we need to ask ourselves whether, if some things improved, this is a good idea.<p>And I like it.
I'm a bit surprised they don't mention Snap anywhere on the site except for a link in footer (something like "by Snap"). Generally I would expect much better experience from a single page website promoting one product.
Would like something like this where I didn’t have to use Snapchat.<p>(I didn’t scour the site, but the few minutes I looked at it did not lead me to believe this would work without Snapchat. Interesting how much they seem to hate text.)
There is a pretty "permanent" NOTAM around Disney World that applies to<p>>"...INCLUDING UNMANNED AND REMOTE CONTROLLED AIRCRAFT, ARE PROHIBITED WITHIN A 3 NMR OF 282445N/0813420W OR THE ORL238014.8 UP TO AND INCLUDING 3000FT AGL."<p>I wonder if this will be enforced if people try to bring these to magic kingdom.<p><a href="https://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_4_3634.html" rel="nofollow">https://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_4_3634.html</a>
Dji mini 2 is superior to this in every way for not much more money except for the tracking. The new version 3, coming out is rumoured to have active track.
What on earth is this from a business perspective? Take a social media company that's more successful than <i>twitter</i> and start producing commodity consumer electronics. Yeah, fuck scale, screw network effects, let's get into that market. Maybe one day they can be as valuable as gopro. And by as valuable as GoPro, I mean 45x less valuable than they currently are.
My city has banned drones within city limits, for pretty good reason I think - the noise alone is enough to make them a plague on any busy public space. This kind of cheap quick to deploy device could permanently change people’s expectations and lead to bigger drones everywhere. With that in mind, I will personally be harassing anybody I see using one of these.
this drone could fill a BIG niche! drone manufacturers have been obsessing over the gadget enthusiast audience and that means neglecting the ability to do simple-but-manually complex things such as launch->detect you->frame you->follow you.<p>If they really do that and add in motion gestures with automatic upload to the Snapchat app interface, that's killer!
I like the playful design. Reminds me of the Minolta Weathermatic Type A[1] with its flat yellow body and picture setting control knob on top. Looks fun<p>[1] <a href="https://www.aperturepreview.com/minolta-weathermatic-a" rel="nofollow">https://www.aperturepreview.com/minolta-weathermatic-a</a>
Not to be confused with the Pixy vision sensor.<p><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/254449872/pixy-cmucam5-a-fast-easy-to-use-vision-sensor" rel="nofollow">https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/254449872/pixy-cmucam5-...</a>
This looks and feels like a rebranded drone from any random Chinese drone producer... is there anything novel about this other than Snapchat integration?<p>Some of the <i>promo videos</i> have terrible stabilization. Guessing this will fall even flatter than their glasses.
Where did they find a beach where drones are allowed to fly? especially given that the video seems to be shot in SoCal. I mean if you have you own private beach then of course a small drone would be a nice addition to it :)<p>With civilian drone use pretty much de-facto banned, the military seems to be the only blossoming domain. One can imagine how a soldier sends a small drone to look around the corner and/or into the windows of the higher floors in a city battle like Mariupol.<p>I remember seeing bunch of years ago guys in Stanford testing very small drone which would be parked by wrapping itself around your arm, and flying/following you on command.
Interesting that the Snap branding is pretty buried on the page, seemingly only in the about section at the bottom. The design language seems like it's snap, maybe that made it obvious enough?
This will get interesting from a regulations perspective. How much does it weigh? It looks like it might be sub-250g, which would exempt it from Remote ID and registration of flown under the recreational exemption. If not though, you’ll need to stick a big old broadcast module on the top of it next year.<p>Where this drone is more like a stickless selfie stick, I can see people using it during things like Stadium TFRs, flying over crowds inadvertently, etc.
When Snap moved into hardware I had high hopes but by this point had written them off.<p>Think this is a great step in the right direction and seems completely obvious once you see it.
You thought the e-scooter debris in historic cities was bad, if these take off they'll be clogging up historic monuments in a European capital near you soon.<p><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/tourist-drone-incidents-rome-pisa/index.html" rel="nofollow">https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/tourist-drone-inciden...</a>
I really like that Snap is pushing the envelope with hardware devices. This push might make drones mainstream.<p>There are obvious issues like how light the device is and how well it would do under windy conditions. Or that the image is not stabilized on a gimbal.<p>But this is definitely a step in the right direction.
I won't work there : "We contribute to human progress by empowering people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together."<p>Do they really believe that ? Can't they just say they sell a fun toy to those who can afford it ?
I do not like when it becomes a puzzle and multiple clicks to find tech specs. Also I really dislike this "lasts longer" style description of a battery life / flight time. I would very much prefer X minutes when hovering and no wind as a rough measure.
Finally, our species can take more selfies!<p>Sometimes I think my favorite part of the future / present / whatever is how dystopian and utopian it is at the same time with stuff like this.<p>I sincerely love and hate everything about this. <3
This product is illegal right next to Snapchat's HQ in Venice Beach. You can't use drones on the beach in the state of California due to rich people being concerned about the paparazzi spying on them
I wonder if it can take 360 panoramic pictures The Orbit flight path seems that it looks at you. I would like something that looks outward. Contacted support but the rep couldn't answer my question.
Some of these shots can easily be replicated with a 360 camera (InstaOne, GoPro MAX etc) mounted on a pole. Not as hip, perhaps, but makes tracking drones seem a bit unnecessary in many cases.
It's been a long time since I've seen a product page for a hardware product that had approximately zero tech specs listed anywhere.<p>What's the battery life? What's the image quality? etc.
Say what you will about Snap, I'm all for fun new electronics, and I've often wondered whether a product like this could be viable. Excited to see how it does!
This is one of those moments where the thing itself as it exists now doesn't excite me, but you can already tell the next several iterations (maybe by a different company) could start to get really exciting. Having a little, quiet drone following you that can record things or communicate information to you via voice commands or beam live video to your phone might be really useful. No more getting lost! Just head up and see where you are. "Hey drone, pay for my coffee." "Hey drone, where's my dog?" "Hey drone, take a picture of us." "Hey drone, harass that person if they come within 20 feet of us, and take a photo of their face." "Hey drone, lead the way to the Hilton hotel." I'd love a little flying computer!
I don't understand anyone that's bullish on SNAP. It's been my least-used social media app for years (except for FB proper, I still use IG daily), and doubly so now that TikTok is so addictive. Their glasses were a terrible flop, and this will probably be worse. There is absolutely no cohesive vision.<p>Are you a software company, a hardware company? A social network? I guess this is what happens when an app that was mainly used for sending nudes in high school goes meteoric with Silicon Valley money. This is probabbly what would've happened to Flappy Bird if the owner hadn't shut it down.
This seems like it's begging for an FAA smackdown. Drones under 250 grams are exempt from registration, but are still subject to other restrictions.<p>This thing seems to make autonomous flight decisions, so it can't possibly comply with FAA rules requiring a pilot in control. Is it smart enough to avoid flying over people or cars? Probably not. Betting it will also happily let users send it off into no-fly-zone airspace, and that it doesn't have any kind of a manual killswitch to force a landing if it decides to do a 'flyaway' malfunction.
Well they certainly know their demographic.<p>Design looks terrible though, completely encased in plastic like that? They could cut so much weight from it.
I wonder how are they able to call it Pixy. Isn't the word trademarked?<p><a href="https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4801:d0tzkl.2.9" rel="nofollow">https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4801:d0...</a>
We all know who this is marketed to.<p>My hope is the females of the world decide selfies are narcisstic, predictable, and shallow.<p>They refuse to watch programs like the Kardashians, and selfies will just die out like disco.<p>(I guess there's nothing wrong with getting ahead with your physical looks. I watched my sister pretty much write her ticket in life do to how photogenic she is.)
This is a pretty good sign that its time to short SNAP. This is so far outside their core competency, and in such a crowded market, that they must be desperate to try this.