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  • El7ias November 28, 2012 at 2:32pm

    It's only from their app store, Just post your apps from your own websites and ignore apple altogether. Why not? Apps need to be universal anyway. 

  • Gunnar Forsgren mobimation.com September 29, 2010 at 12:40am
    The iPhone is not used for accomplishing automated or autonomous flight in case of the A.R Drone.
    It just allows the user to navigate the unit manually.
    Flight stabilisation is taken care of internal to the drone.
  • Moderator
    Sgt Ric September 13, 2010 at 1:36pm
    Get an iPhone.
  • paul evans September 13, 2010 at 1:17pm
    hi i have not yet build a working drone but would like to ask you all who are in the know if your didnt put your gps unit in to your drone but carried it around with you powered in your pocket would you still be able to view your movement on the software????
  • Gerry Lichter September 11, 2010 at 2:30pm
    I wonder if the export control they're worried about is "ITAR"?
  • Patrick Hammer September 10, 2010 at 1:14pm
    Apple is stopping the Apple store from been used as a distrabution hub for certain kinds of apps - but there is nothing to stop "Apps that use location-based APIs for automatic or autonomous control of vehicles, aircraft, or other devices" been passed around amongst user groups ????

    Whats IS Apples' real concern here - intellectual property? i.e. that the Apple product functionality (and therefore brandname integrity) is at risk of been associated with a criminal offense of some sort?
  • Gerry Lichter September 10, 2010 at 1:21am
    Bad PR for the iPhone regardless of the reason.
  • Garry Qualls September 9, 2010 at 11:02pm
    I am pretty sure that this rule just prevents you from getting an application approved for the Apple App Store that uses their onboard GPS and lets you easily turn your iPhone into an autopilot. An iPhone has integrated accelerometers, gyros, 3-axis magnetometer, cameras, bluetooth, wifi, 3G internet access, a touch sensitive screen, a pretty decent CPU, and a decent development environment...So I think it would compare quite well to other smart-phone-based autopilots.

    Chris interviewed a guy on the DIYDrones podcast who already has an app in the App Store that lets you control a regular RC vehicle using the iPhone, (which is clearly allowed under this rule along with the Parrot App). You could use a variation of his iPhone-audio-out-jack-connected-to-the-RC-TX-module hack to control the vehicle and write an app that would check your twitter feed every few seconds to see if you had uploaded any new commands. A lot of us would pay more than $10 for that app, if they would approve it.

    I am pretty sure that the prohibition against using the iPhone hardware as the brain of an autopilot has been in the legalese you agree to when you buy a new iPhone ever since they added GPS to it, so this rule just backs up that hardware use restriction from the software approval side.

    That being said, you can always jailbreak an iPhone and load any code you want into it. If you are interested in Android development, you might want to track Jaron's work with his UAVPlayground project. I think he might end up with a groundstation on his android phone, which is pretty exciting. Since that is remotely controlling something, that would be allowed on the iPhone, as well. Android fans might also want to take a look at the Beagleboard. It can run the Android OS and, out of the box, it weighs only one gram more than an Arduino Mega.

    I had assumed that this language was just inserted into the iPhone agreements to insulate them from liability lawsuits, but the ITAR angle wouldn't surprise me either.
  • Jeff September 9, 2010 at 8:19pm
    All i can say is....... IPhone 3GS for Sale!!!!
  • Jack Crossfire September 9, 2010 at 6:57pm
    Export rules. That's what happens when you tie your work into a big corporation. They'll probably ban its use as a ground station.
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