USA TODAY International Edition
GoPro has a new app to fix its sharing issue
Wireless transfer could mean more cool videos get online
MANHATTAN BEACH, CALIF. A new app from GoPro finally answers the question: What can all those action camera users do with their footage? For the first time, they won’t have to go home, pull out the memory card, insert it into the computer, and then figure out what to make of those clips of surfing, skateboarding, skiing and the like. Now the updated GoPro app will wirelessly pull the footage directly from the GoPro camera to the smartphone. GoPro founder Nick Woodman calls the app the “biggest leap forward” for the struggling company since the invention of the GoPro camera in 2002. The GoPro app and the new QuikStories app are the solution “our customers have been dreaming about for years.” The GoPro app has been updated for automatic transfers, while the older Quik instant video maker has been revamped to work hand- in- hand with the GoPro app to accept the footage and create instant movies. Before you run to the Apple or Google app store to download the free apps, a quick caveat: The feature only works with the latest camera, the Hero5 or Hero5 Session, introduced last fall. Owners of the Hero4 and earlier editions will still have to import their footage the old- fashioned way. Woodman said older models couldn’t be updated because they had slower Wi- Fi upload speeds.
The app stands to finally put GoPro into social media in a way it hasn’t been because of the time and effort it took users to import clips.
While GoPro is a mainstay of YouTube, Facebook and Instagram with its own channel, most videos submitted by users on these channels come from smartphones because of the instant upload features.
Now the app makes GoPro “an extension of my phone to help me capture better footage,” Woodman said, and will result in more GoPro clips on social sites.
Smartphones, though many are water- resistant, aren’t built to go into oceans and lakes or be attached to surfboards, and who wants to risk putting a phone on a motorcycle helmet? So Woodman stressed that there are still great reasons for consumers to reach for the GoPro camera instead of the smartphone.
By offering the tools to swiftly upload footage wirelessly to the phone, “this makes us more relevant to consumers than we are today,” he said.
TalkingTech has been using the apps for several days, and they truly are a game changer, in the ease of moving footage from the camera to the smartphone.
We’ve played with similar attempts from Canon, Sony, Nikon and other camera manufacturers to move footage to the smartphone that were slow, bulky and so tough to use that we just imported the old way — by inserting the memory card into a computer.
With the GoPro app, you pair the camera to the smartphone via the GoPro Wi- Fi and, once paired, shoot some footage on the Hero5. Then, with the camera on and phone in your hand, open the app and wait to see the signal that it recognizes the new footage. Smartphone download comes next.
This could take some time. I shot a 13- minute time lapse of a sunset the other night that took 27 minutes to import. And that will eat up your smartphone and GoPro batteries.
Beyond the footage transfer, QuikStory is positioned as the app to make automatic, quick edits. You select the images, and the GoPro editor gets to work, with automatic slideshows or videos, in 30 different editing styles.
It’s a fine alternative to Apple’s iMovie, which is free with iPhones, or many of the other editing apps, like Magisto, Adobe Premiere Clip or Splice.
My view on the auto- generated videos is that they’re cool the first time around, but the canned music and similar look get old if you use them more than once or twice.
The good news is if you have the time, you can alter the order of the photos and videos, switch the music for something of your own, or go without music, if you choose. You can also add text and effects like slow motion. And any footage or photo on your phone will work with the app.
For the majority of smartphone shooters who never edit their videos, this is a nice, free way to make a pretty awesome memory of your media.
But when you finish your video and save it to the Camera Roll, GoPro does so in low resolution. If you want to do anything with the video afterward, perhaps watch on TV or re- edit in another program, you’ll need to go into Settings and change it to a fullresolution transfer.