Summary: Drones, quadcopters and UAVs are some of the hottest products nerds can get their hands on. Why? Flying robots! We break down the space with Chris Anderson of 3D Robotics, and OMGPOP founder and quadcopter enthusiast Charles Forman. Not sure which ones are autonomous, which are goofy consumer gadgets, and which are military or research-grade? Come check it out. From applications in aerial photography, to research, to police work. Plus, massive valuations for Snapchat and Spotify. Will the easy money stick around? Never miss an episode! Subscribe in iTunes: Audio (http://bit.ly/TwiStA (http://bit.ly/TwiStA)) || Video (http://bit.ly/TwiStV (http://bit.ly/TwiStV)) ============= Thanks to our great partners -- show your love for the show by thanking them on Twitter! http://clicktotweet.com/O4Ecy (http://clicktotweet.com/O4Ecy) Mandrill, transactional email from the fine folks at MailChimp. What's transactional email? Only crucial to your business: password resets, order confirmations and more. Sign up at mandrill.com (http://mandrill.com). And Hiscox, provider of small business insurance. Visualize your career with the Hiscox Reactor (http://reactor.hiscoxusa.com), powered by the details of your LinkedIn profile. Every action has a reaction. Learn more at reactor.hiscoxusa.com (http://reactor.hiscoxusa.com). ============= Follow on Twitter: @jason (http://twitter.com/jason)@TWIstartups (http://twitter.com/TWIstartups) (http://twitter.com/jason)@chr1sa (http://twitter.com/chr1sa) @charlesforman (http://twitter.com/charlesforman) LAUNCH: Launch Ticker: http://launch.co (http://launch.co ) Launch Events (Mobile, Hackathon, Festival): http://events.launch.co (http://events.launch.co) Special thanks to the members of the TWiST Backchannel Program! Highlights 3:10 - Snapchat raising huge valuation. Advertising and virtual goods. No one knows user numbers. Interesting: 70% of users are women 3:55 - JC what do you think, CA? Is this out of line? 4:05 - CA: I’ve stopped guessing at valuations. I’d heard of Snapchat before, but just barely, and because I have kids. 4:35 - JC These things get very big, very quick today. 4:49 - CF: they should take the money and run! 5:30 - When you sold OMGPop, did you feel it was the biggest you could get? 5:48 - CF: We were #1, and where do you go from there? You just go down….maybe that large investment from teens, is taking value out of Facebook 6:44 - JC: Chris, having been the editor of Wired for a long time, do you have inner tells on things like that? 7:05 - I was an early user of Twitter, but I was wrong about that. I don't think anyone can tell if it’s sustainable, or if teenage fickleness is going to move on? 7:33 - JC: Spotify is reporting $600M in revenue (vs Pandora’s). What do you think? 7:53 - CA - the licensing deals, it’s got apps on all platforms, it’s a sophisticated cloud service. 8:22 - CF: I use it; I love it. Engineer friends are going to use those subs to explore other opportunities for revenue. Video, etc. Extreme brand loyalty to the people who use it. 11:00 - 12:05 - JC: Chris, why did you leave Wired? 12:30 - CA: It boils down to Follow your heart. But I started messing around with Lego Mindstorm with my kids. They weren’t impressed with walking or rolling robots. What if they could fly? They lost interest, but I started a community called DIY Drones. The 2007 period is when sensors became super cheap. The community grew; people shared design files. The open source model could build a drone. I was having my kids pack kits into pizza companies. 14:25 - JC: can you describe these? When you think “Drone,’ you think military drone. 14:45 - CA we’ve had radio controlled aircraft for decades. Shows quadcopter & octocopter. They have autopilot, which means they fly themselves. Difference between radio control and UAM and fully autonomous drones. Only been possible over the past few years – smartphone technology.
