Brief Drone News Bits; Hexo+ and Lily Updates; DJI Phantom 2 issue; and Whales

Lily selfie drone has a new ship date

The founders of Lily, Antoine Balaresque and Henry Bradlow, in a notice to customers apologized for the delay in the launch of their Lily drone.

“We told you we would deliver your Lily Camera this summer, and we are sorry that hasn’t happened.”

Actually, this is the second delay. Pre-order customers originally had been told it would ship in February of 2016. This was overly aggressive and Lily reset the ship date for this summer.

The Lily was a sensation when announced, one of the first selfie drones that would follow you, capturing your life with an easy to use, economical device (only $499). It was reported that Lily had taken in $34 million in pre-orders by the end of 2015 with 60,000 placing an order.Impressive.

Clearly there appears to be a real consumer appetite for a low cost drone that comes with a camera and doesn’t require a great deal of piloting skills. Unfortunately for Lily they may get beaten to the punch by Yuneec’s Breeze, a $499 drone that sounds, feature wise, a lot like the Lily. It is available now and as we report elsewhere there are plenty more.

In their note The co-founders have committed to “All United States pre-orders will ship between December 2016 and January 2017. Pre-orders will be fulfilled in the order in which they were placed. Due to regulatory and logistical constraints, international pre-orders will start shipping later in 2017.” And they certainly haven’t lost their flair for good marketing copy with their close:

“We’ve embarked on a journey to create a self-flying camera not just for hobbyists and professionals, but for any creative mind looking to capture the world from a new angle.”

You can find the full text of their update here.

Hexo+ Also Accepting Pre-Orders

Speaking of selfie drones, the Hexo+ is taking pre-orders. There are at least two important differences between the Hexo+ and the Lily . One is cost. The Hexo+ costs $999. The second is the Hexo+ actually exists. They sold out and when a sufficient number of pre-orders is received they will manufacture a new batch. In an email to interested customers they write: “If we reach 100 drone pre-orders shortly, we’ll be able to schedule deliveries as soon as the 31st of October.”

You can book an order for a $200 downpayment here.

Are DJI Updates Making the Phantom 2 Obsolete?

If you are looking to buy a used Phantom 2, you may want to reconsider. And if you have a Phantom 2 and are being prompted to update your firmware – maybe not. There are two threads on the DJI forums that would indicate users who updated are experiencing real problems.

Here are links to those threads:

• http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=53038&extra=page%3D1%26filter%3Dtypeid%26typeid%3D370%26typeid%3D370
• http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=41364&extra=page%3D1%26filter%3Dtypeid%26typeid%3D370%26typeid%3D370

Whoa, Whales!

From time to time we receive submissions from DRONELIFE readers. This came in from Pedro David who filmed whales under his boat while in the South Pacific. He filmed them with a DJI Inspire and X3 camera. Thanks Pedro.