Future of Solo on Android? Maybe not...

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If you use android, you might want to hold off on that decision to buy another solo until we know if android will still be developed on after their lead designer (Fredia) left the other day for a job at Google.

Craig Baldwin (a manager at 3DR):
I wouldn't expect much coming from 3DR on Android platforms.... I believe they are focused on iOS now, hence Freddy leaving

Philip Rowse (lead developer of Solo - 5/27/2016):
I stand behind Craig's comment. It's fact, and you all deserve to know.
If Chris and Jeevan don't give some serious answers to the true direction of Solo.... There will be more comments like that one.

Game on CA!
 
Yet their enterprise system operates on an android tablet, and tower operates on an android tablet. Neither of those operate on iOS. Sounds more like Android is where most of their development is. Although their designer leaving isn't good.
 
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I don't think they are dumping android, I read the page on Facebook and what I personally think Colin meant when he said that IOS is priority for 3DR is that 3DR is focusing on getting IOS up to the level of what Android can do.
3DR is "shifting" toward Enterprise/site scan etc and they run on Android, they would be able to expand there market if they used IOS.
 
if solo "stops supporting" or developing for android,, i will be demanding a full refund

While I share your feelings about this since I purchased a dedicated android tablet just for solo based on the dev team recommendation, I think your demand will not be honored
there is no legal requirement that they continue to support Android
right now, I am not purchasing solo gear until we get an official response on this, I will purchase an IOS product to keep flying but my long term bird might no longer be a solo
 
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I was one of those involved in this thread, my reading of it, is that the Android Solo App may come to an end but if it does the same features will migrate to Tower.

This isn't officially confirmed but Vu is aiming to get an answer.

The way this has come out concerns me a bit because 3DR historically has been fairly transparent and has communicated well, on this occasion they've fallen short.

Still as yet there is no need for any panic.
 
this doesn't make any sense whatsoever, I bet somewhere along the way something got misread, misquoted or was just said in a way than was meant differenly.

anything that was quoted on 3DR Group or here doesn't suggest 3DR would be dropping or stop developing Solo App for Android.

I don't recall exactly what Colin said on the webinar but I think he was saying 3DR will focus more on Solo App development and not so much on Tower app, he did not exclude Solo App for Android.

lead designer left for Google ? that happens all the time, 3DR will deal with it and replace him, they still need engineer/analytic (or a team) to write all the logic for the app regardless of the platform they develop for.

someone writes/designs all the logic for the app based on requirements, this is not necessarily done in any specific programming language, they would typically use flow charts, pseudocode or whatever tools they have these days.
only then the iOS coder/programmer is going to write the code for the app in his development environment (Swift, Objective-C) and likewise the Android developer will do the same, basically rewriting/translating pseudocode in to real programming code. it only takes a salary of a solid Android coder/programmer to have the same app written for Android and I fail to see why would 3DR skip this step, having already done all the hard work in writing all the logic for the app in previous phase of the development cycle.

I can see 3DR waking up tomorrow morning with a nightmare of having to explain a major misunderstanding.
 
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this doesn't make any sense whatsoever, I bet somewhere along the way something got misread, misquoted or was just said in a way than was meant differenly.

anything that was quoted on 3DR Group or here doesn't suggest 3DR would be dropping or stop developing Solo App for Android.

I don't recall exactly what Colin said on the webinar but I think he was saying 3DR will focus more on Solo App development and not so much on Tower app, he did not exclude Solo App for Android.

lead designer left for Google ? that happens all the time, 3DR will deal with it and replace him, they still need engineer/analytic (or a team) to write all the logic for the app regardless of the platform they develop for.

someone writes/designs all the logic for the app based on requirements, this is not necessarily done in any specific programming language, they would typically use flow charts, pseudocode or whatever tools they have these days.
only then the iOS coder/programmer is going to write the code for the app in his development environment (Swift, Objective-C) and likewise the Android developer will do the same, basically rewriting/translating pseudocode in to real programming code. it only takes a salary of a solid Android coder/programmer to have the same app written for Android and I fail to see why would 3DR skip this step, having already done all the hard work in writing all the logic for the app in previous phase of the development cycle.

I can see 3DR waking up tomorrow morning with a nightmare of having to explain a major misunderstanding.

Bingo. Bottom line is this, if 3DR is going down, they'll go down. All I see is them going strong with a plan for future releases. New hardware is coming out too.

This thread alone is just bad rep that doesn't help 3DR just like all the other threads that mention 3DR is closing its doors. People, stop panicking. It will be fine. NAB and the webinar proves they have a very promising future.

/rant
 
@PdxSteve both Philip and Chris you quoted in the OP are both retired from 3DR a while ago so they won't have official information from 3DR.
 
I would balance this view somewhat by saying that the impression I have from the questions I asked Vu in the follow up, is that iOS is the primary supported platform and that Android will be seeing updates afterwards, so I'm suspecting you'll see a much longer delay between iOS and Android releases.
 
@PdxSteve both Philip and Chris you quoted in the OP are both retired from 3DR a while ago so they won't have official information from 3DR.
Some of the ex-staff know more about decisions than some of the current staff, due to some decisions being made some time ago but only emerging now, or due to the grapevine.

I would add from a community viewpoint Philip can be trusted 110%, he made optical flow happen so that people can build it if they wish, he's seen to it there's an option to replace the radio link and he's doing his utmost to see Solo has a future of expansion including some news that will come out from the Pixhawk 2 annoucement when that happens.
 
in today's episode of the young and the restless. Vu Tran has just confirmed that 3dr is not stopping support for android #fly3dr
Thank god!! Didn't want to have to buy an ipad..

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 
Prioritizing iOs over Android is not what I signed up for when I sent 3dr my $$$...if that is the case , I will be pissed and will be very vocal about it... Solo is not barely a year old and was advertised as andorid/ios compatible , not ios and kinda android compatible if you dont mind waiting around and treated like a second class citizen...
 
Prioritizing iOs over Android is not what I signed up for when I sent 3dr my $$$...if that is the case , I will be pissed and will be very vocal about it... Solo is not barely a year old and was advertised as andorid/ios compatible , not ios and kinda android compatible if you dont mind waiting around and treated like a second class citizen...

its give and take on both ends. dronekit is android compatible which allows a developer to make whatever app they want for solo on android. no ios support :(
 
Devices using Android is on about 7 out of every 10 mobile being sold right now.
Read these statistics yesterday.
Android OS is mostly "open source" sorta like Solo is.
Sorry, but what you people are saying, Just don't make any sense?
 
I had a little luck getting mine to work yesterday.
Here are the steps I took to address MPCC crashes
Factory Reset Solo
Factory Reset My nexus 9
Loaded only 3dr Solo app, Services and Tower no other apps
Updated Play Services (first time I was ever prompted to do that)

When I went to fly launched Solo Services First
Launched Solo App

On my first MPCC it failed when it cam time to set B.
Left solo hovering in the air, and hard closed app
Restarted and Did the Shot again.

It took and I was able to do 3 other shots, and reload shots after that through 4 batteries
 
If you use android, you might want to hold off on that decision to buy another solo until we know if android will still be developed on after their lead designer (Fredia) left the other day for a job at Google.

Craig Baldwin (a manager at 3DR):

Philip Rowse (lead developer of Solo - 5/27/2016):
Well as they say EVERYONE is replaceable or there's always someone better than you so hopefully someone will take over where he left off.
 

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