With a succession of budget rivals nipping at its heels, GoPro has announced a new software package and mobile app for its customers that will make movie creation and management easier. The GoPro 2.0 App and GoPro Studio beta will be released on Wednesday and in the next two weeks, respectively. We spoke to GoPro’s Director of Communications Rick Loughery about the new products and what he makes of Kogan’s $119 action cams.
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We checked out GoPro’s new software offerings yesterday during a one-on-one demonstration with the company’s global director of Communications Rick Loughery. Loughery ran us through the updated mobile app’s new features as well as a new editing software package dubbed GoPro Studio.
The GoPro App 2.0 allows you to instantly view photos and play back videos on your mobile device via a WiFi connection. You can then download specific pics or clips and share them via email, SMS, Facebook and other social networking services. Handily, the downloaded files will automatically appear in your phone’s default gallery folder. You can also delete files on the camera’s memory card via the app. The GoPro App 2.0 lands on Android and iOS this Wednesday.
In addition to the new app, the company will also be launching the aforementioned GoPro Studio. According to Loughery, this is a basic editing program in the mould of Windows Movie Maker — it allows you to make basic edits and transitions, insert titles, add audio tracks and speed up/slow down clips. A selection of templates are also included to make things easier if you just want to smash out a quick highlights reel. GoPro Studio will be available to download as a free beta from early August. It will be available for both PC and Mac.
“We’re a hardware company so we’ve never rolled out a beta before. This is something new for us so we’re really eager to see what the uptake is like and what people do with the templates and stuff like that,” Loughery said.
We also quizzed Loughery about Kogan’s new action camera range which start at just $119 apiece. The Kogan Full HD Action Camera Silver Edition has “near identical” specifications to GoPro Cameras, including 1080p video recording, a 12-megapixel sensor and a 170 degree field of view.
“To be honest I’m not across all the specifications but [the price] is cheap,” he said. Loughery indicated that the quality of components can make a significant difference to video quality, even when the spec sheets are similar. Having used “20-megapixel” no-name camcorders before, this is something I can attest to.
Because it’s Friday, here’s some GoPro footage of a mountain bike rider getting taken out by a rampaging wilderbeest for no reason: