Aardvark Daily

New Zealand's longest-running online daily news and commentary publication, now in its 21st year. The opinion pieces presented here are not purported to be fact but reasonable effort is made to ensure accuracy.

Please visit the sponsor!

Drone wars intensify

28 September 2016

I know that when I write about drones, a good percentage of the audience put their earplugs in, find a good tune on Spotify and have a wee snooze -- but hell, I won't let that stop me!

The drone wars are intensifying. Last week GoPro launched its Karma drone, a craft that is compact, easily transported and also very simple to fly.

Obviously the GoPro folk wanted a serious point of distinction between their brand-new offering and the industry leader the DJI Phantom.

The Phantom is a great machine which can produce rock-steady video from its 4K camera and has become the "go-to" machine for many hobbyists and professionals alike. GoPro knew they couldn't make much headway simply producing an equivalent to the Phantom so they decided to focus on transportability. As a result, the Karma is a foldable design that fits easily into a small backpack and comes with a cool gimbal-stabilised camera that can also fit on your selfie-stick

GoPro did a good job on this and the Karma, despite a reportedly lower video quality than the Phantom, has boosted the company's stock price and created massive consumer-interest.

Now DJI has fought back -- in a big way!

Forums are up!

Yes, people have been complaining about the lack of forums for months now so I finally got off my chuff and finished the transition to the new server and the commissioning of the new forums.

Unfortunately you will have to re-register, it just wasn't practical to transition the IDs from the old server -- although the old stuff will be maintained in a "read-only" capacity for some time to come.

So, if you want to "have your say" then register at the new forums using the magic word Aardvarkroxs when asked for it.

Take a moment to introduce yourself to the rest of the Aardvark community and pretty shortly I'll be expanding the number of forums to encompass a number of areas that are regularly discussed on this site.

The contact form is not yet working (got to rejig the CGI scripts) but if anyone wants to email me they can send their communications to editor at this domain or PM me via the forums.

Oh yes, if anyone wants a bit of a plug then the sponsorship space is now up for grabs. Until someone is prepared to offer a donation for the use of this space, I'm happy to offer a free plug to anyone who wants to send me a suitable 150x150 graphic and link.

Stay tuned!

Sorry, the headlines haven't been updated today

Have your say in the Aardvark Forums.