Oct 14
Video cameras have traditionally been used to document the world in a pretty straightforward manner. But they’ve become so small, and so versatile, that you can do some incredible things with them. Like the crazy world
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Oct 03
GoPro didn’t need to radically reinvent its Hero cameras to maintain top-dog status at the peak of action-camera mountain. And so it didn’t. The new GoPro Hero3+ cameras add a few improvements to the already-excellent Hero3 lineup, and although the …
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Oct 01
GoPro HERO3+ launched
Posted in: Today's Chili
It goes without saying that companies should not be complacent, with their products requiring a refresh from time to time in order to keep up with the proverbial Joneses. Hence, we are already up to the Samsung Galaxy S4 and also the iPhone 5S, so it also makes plenty of sense that GoPro’s HERO has now arrived as the GoPro HERO3+, delivering a new era of personal content capture as well as sharing. What makes the GoPro HERO3+ so special from its predecessors? It is said to be 20% smaller and lighter in design, where there is also an improved battery life of up to 30% better compared to previous models. These upgrades will work in tandem with an improved lens and convenient new video capture modes, resulting in the most advanced and easy-to-use GoPro to date.
Not only that, GoPro also knows that a device cannot live alone and requires accessories these days, which is why they have also introduced a bunch of new mounting accessories which will further enable immersive content capture regardless of the activity that you are involved in at the moment.
Other hardware specifications include 4x faster Wi-Fi connectivity to deliver a quicker transfer and playback of photos and videos from your HERO3+ camera to your mobile device when one is using the GoPro App. There is also SuperView, which is a new video mode that can capture the world’s most immersive wide-angle perspective. In addition, an Auto Low Light mode would be able to intelligently adjust the frame rate for different lighting conditions, while a new lens delivers sharper video and improved image quality. The asking price of the GoPro HERO3+ Black Edition stands at $399.99.
There is also the GoPro HERO3+ Silver Edition which is has a 2x faster image processor which also enables 1080p60 and 720p120 fps video. The HERO3+ Silver Edition camera will be more affordable at $299.99 a pop.
Press Release
[ GoPro HERO3+ launched copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
Oct 01
Just when you thought GoPros couldn’t get any smaller, meet the Hero3+. The new model is 20 percent smaller than its predecessor and packs some much-improved internals, allowing the camera to capture even better quality imagery.
GoPro claims the upgraded lens should result in images that are 33 percent sharper while featuring half the amount of digital artifacts. The camera’s sensor has also been upgraded for better low-light performance and it packs improved audio pickups. GoPro also boosted the camera’s wireless connectivity, claiming the new wireless is four times faster. If that wasn’t enough, the Hero3+’s battery now lasts 30% longer.
The starting price is slightly higher than before, but expect prices to drop to existing levels over time. Besides, this camera is worth the extra bones. The Hero3+ will hit stores this week for $329 and the Silver edition, which also got several upgrades, will debut for $299.
GoPro’s total dominance in the growing action camera market is making it hard for competitors (both new and old) to keep up. Upstarts cannot match GoPro’s advance technology and price points and established companies such as Sony are having a seemingly tough time making inroads. As GoPro methodically releases new models every years and rolls out significant improvements to its software, the company is simultaneously growing the market it created while shutting out startups attempting to replicate its success.
It’s pretty tough to fight a company whose name doubles as a verb.
I recently visited GoPro’s laid-back San Diego development office to learn about its suite of software. The company wants to give owners the easiest possible way to get content off their GoPros and onto the Internet.
Oct 01
GoPro has announced a new updated line of action cameras called the HERO3+. GoPro promises that the camera is 20% smaller than previous generation cameras and has 30% better battery life. The camera also features an updated lens and some new video capture modes making it the most advanced GoPro action camera around. GoPro has […]
Sep 30
Last year, when GoPro’s Hero 3 Black
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Sep 30
If you were thinking it’s about that time of year that we might see a new GoPro, then you’d be right. The king of the action cams has just announced the GoPro Hero3+. The flagship Black edition is now 20 percent smaller — no mean feat if you’ve seen the existing model. There are also improvements to the optics, which GoPro claims gives a 33 percent increase in image sharpness, while reducing artifacts by a factor of two. Feature-wise there’s a new 1080 “SuperView” mode which takes footage from 4:3 aspect ratio, and presents it in an immersive 16:9 view. Other improvements include a new auto-low light mode that will adjust the frame rate on the fly, revised audio internals, four times faster WiFi and wireless camera updates via your phone. Despite all of these additions, and the smaller form, it’s claimed that your new GoPro will potentially offer up to 30 percent extra battery life, too. The Silver edition gets some love, also, with 1080p now possible at 60fps, and 720 at 120 fps. So, all that’s left is for you to get 30 percent better at your daredevil activity of choice for 30 percent longer, and we’re all even. The Hero3+ will be available starting this week, with prices starting at $299 for the Silver addition, and $399 for the black. The previous flagships now retail for $329 and $249 respectively.
Filed under: Cameras
Source: GoPro
Sep 11
It’s hardware day here at Disrupt SF and this morning’s sessions kicked off with an interview with Nicholas Woodman, founder and CEO of action camera company GoPro. Woodman discussed how the GoPro evolved from being a wrist-mounted prototype he came up with on a surfing trip to today’s hugely successful clip-on-anywhere lens that can capture the action from a variety of perspectives.
With the current hype around wearables that trajectory is especially interesting, not least when you consider eye-level wearables like Google Glass. Asked whether GoPro is working on a Google Glass style product, Woodman suggested that while the company is looking at the space it’s more with a view to thinking about how to interoperate with those type of devices, rather than making a dedicated pair of GoPro Glasses itself.
“I think what’s going to be exciting is you’re going to see more of these products working together,” said Woodman. “You already see it with GoPro and smartphones and people often ask me are you afraid of the smartphone? And the answer is no — the smartphone is helping our business because it’s killing traditional cameras… which is opening up retail shelf space for GoPro and opening up consumer dollars for GoPro.”
GoPro is clearly (yet) another device that’s tapping into the snowballing trend to augment and extend the smartphone user experience with a variety of additional hardware sensors. Sure, it’s not a wet-behind-the-ears hardware startup just coming up on Kickstarter — GoPro started out around 2004 — but as auxiliary connected hardware with something extra to offer it’s also positioned to benefit from the ubiquity of smartphones.
Woodman argued that he sees a similar potential for GoPro to work in concert with any commercial Glass type products that emerge in future. ”GoPro is used in a totally different way to a traditional camera, and then beyond that the smartphone makes for an incredible video remote control for a GoPro right?” said Woodman. “Now I can preview and control my GoPro with my smartphone, playback my videos and share them directly from the smartphone. Never needing to hook my GoPro to a computer.
“And then you think of things like Glass and what not — a Glass-like product become terrific heads-up hands-free remote control devices for the GoPros and I think it’s just going to become more and more enabling and you’re going to be able to use your GoPro in even more versatile ways thanks to these complementary products.”
Asked what it would take for Google Glass to become a serious competitive to GoPro, Woodman said he could envisage Glass-style products owning the first person perspective in future but stressed that’s just one aspect of what GoPro does.
“I think that devices like Glass are going to do a terrific job of capturing your first person perspective. And that’s what people first think of when they think of GoPro,” he said. “But go and look at the content that you see being created and shared with GoPro. And look at the perspectives that are making up the content and you recognise that this first person view is one of hundreds of perspectives, thousands of perspectives. That’s really what GoPro’s all about: enabling this versatility.
“GoPro’s the world’s best selling camera because of this versatility — because it isn’t a one thing for one person. And it’s also the world’s best selling camera for professional production companies on a volume basis because of what it enables you to do. So then you recognise that — that GoPro’s strength is in its versatility — and then you pull back out to a Google Glass and while you recognise that that is very good for that purpose it doesn’t lend itself well to the world of GoPro.”
That said, Woodman said the company is not feeling complacent about potentially having a Mountain View sized competitor, in the not too distance future. ”We’ve very careful to be very appreciative for the success that we have right now but also we still wake up sacred every morning. You know we’re smart but we’re not that smart. Fear drives you a lot harder than success does,” he added.
Backstage Interview
Sep 11
In An Age Of Crowdfunding, GoPro CEO Nicholas Woodman Says Bootstrapping Is Still “Really Powerful”
Posted in: Today's Chili
Here’s a question that more than few consumer hardware startups are struggling with these days: should they try and raise money from a slew of wary investors or bring their projects to the public in hopes of a Pebble-style success? GoPro founder and CEO Nicholas Woodman sat with down with our own Matt Burns on the Disrupt SF 2013 stage to address that same question, and his message to would-be hardware startup founders is to strongly consider another option.
“Bootstrapping is a really powerful thing,” Woodside said. As long as you can bootstrap without sacrificing a competitive advantage or moving so slowly that you’re “eaten alive by competitors,” the benefits of being able to stay devoted to your singular vision can’t be overstated.
“Everyone has an idea over time of what the business should be, and during the formative period too many opinions could be disruptive,” he added.
Frankly, that’s easier said than done. Woodman was fortunate enough to have some supportive family members ready to help after a surfing trip begat an epiphany about the need for small, rugged, wrist-worn cameras. Between his mother and the savings he had left over from a previous venture, Woodman had about $65,000 to get GoPro off the ground (and subsequent $100k investments from his dad didn’t hurt), and some savvy product development and marketing deals have eventually helped sculpt GoPro into the company it is today.
But would that sort of approach apply for everyone? Definitely not. The spectrum of complexity is a vast one though, and some hardware projects will require significantly more capital before they can make the leap from wild-eyed notion to consumer-ready product. And that’s to say nothing of how lucky Woodman was to have family members who threw their own resources behind his new venture.
Of course, there’s often a tipping point in situations like this, and GoPro is no stranger to taking outside money. Back in late 2012 the company locked up a $200 million investment in a deal with Foxconn that valued the camera at a whopping $2.25 billion, but Woodman said the deal wasn’t so much about padding the company’s coffers as it was about building a relationship with a world-class OEM and the man who runs it. What’s more, GoPro was originally planning for an IPO before then which was deferred thanks to that hefty investment (though Woodman confirmed that an IPO is still in the works). Even so, Woodman believes that his bootstrapping experience was absolutely critical to GoPro’s growth, and pointed to one particular moment when the lack of accountability to investors fundamentally changed the company’s direction.
“As soon as we could afford it we bought a race car,” Woodman said. It’s not the sort of use of company resources that would thrill investors, but Woodman maintains and it led “to one of the biggest ideas we’ve ever had at GoPro” — taking those miniature cameras off the wrist and mounting it to “anything imaginable”. Needless to say, the gamble paid off.
Backstage Interview
Sep 11
GoPro CEO Nicholas Woodman on building a Google Glass-style wearable: don’t count on it
Posted in: Today's Chili
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple years, odds are you’ve seen one of Nicholas Woodman’s little cube cameras strapped to someone’s chest or stuck to a car. Today at TechCrunch Disrupt 2013, the GoPro CEO was asked if he’d be interested in moving beyond the cube and mount form factor and into something more svelte, Glass-like, even. While he found value in Google Glass’ ability to shoot first-person video, Woodman isn’t so keen on such a device due to its limited use case (it can really only be worn on your face). “The Google Glass form factor doesn’t provide the versatility that has been so key to GoPro’s success,” he said, before going on to extol the virtues of having a camera that can be mounted on your chest, your car or pretty much anywhere. Essentially, he sees the fact that GoPro can provide any point of view for video as a key selling point for his cameras.
Instead, Woodman sees Glass (or other such wearables) as an excellent way for folks to interact with GoPro cameras. He pointed out the camera line’s functionality with current smartphones — using a handset as a remote control, or previewing and sharing footage, noting that wearables could provide similar features, only in hands-free fashion. So, we won’t see any new GoPro models meant solely for wearing, but you can bet we’ll be seeing a GoPro Glass app at some point.
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