GoPro

Arm your drone with GoPro’s new ‘Black Bones’ camera

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GoPro's new version of the Hero10 Black strips away weight and bulk.
GoPro's new version of the Hero10 Black strips away weight and bulk for use with drones.
Photo: GoPro

GoPro rolled out a new first-person view (FPV) drone camera last week, though only in the U.S. It’s a stripped-down version of the company’s popular Hero10 Black action camera called the GoPro Hero10 Black Bones.

As the name implies, it’s bare-bones, brought down to a very light weight. So you can attach it to your drone and fly it around.

Beautiful drone shots in Apple’s new privacy ad will creep you out

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privacy
Apple's camera man killed it on this ad.
Photo: Apple

Apple just posted a new video advertisement on Youtube, as the company does from time to time.

The ad is about privacy on iPhone which has been one of the company’s biggest talking points over the last few years. Honestly, I don’t think a single word from the ad actually entered my ears. I was too blown away with the creepy beautiful FPV drone shots that transport you from being a distant observer to an intimate guest in someone’s life.

Check it out:

DJI takes on GoPro with new Osmo Action camera

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Osmo Action
The Osmo Action cam has two displays for double the fun.
Photo: DJI

DJI, the biggest drone company in the world, is ready to go toe-to-toe with GoPro in pursuit of dominating the action cam market.

The company unveiled its new Osmo Action camera this morning that is aimed at competing directly with GoPro’s Hero 7 camera and it packs some interesting new features that the Hero 7 can’t match.

How to make a fantastic music video with your iPhone

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Fine-tune your music video clips.
Make music videos from your own Live Photos.
Photo: Cult of Mac

After messing around with the amazing Hyperspektiv app earlier this week, I thought it would be a great way to make music videos. Hyperspektiv glitches your videos and Live Photos, giving them incredible special effects. All you need to do is arrange the resulting clips, and add music.

You can do this in any video-editing app on your iPhone or iPad — iMovie for instance. But that requires lot of manual work to get the music synced up with the video clips. After a little searching, I found Quik, a video app from GoPro. It’s not ideal — it likes to upload your videos to its servers with little warning — but it also has one essential feature: Quik analyses any music you add, and automatically syncs the video clips to the beat.

GoPro grounds its drone business

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Karma out
GoPro discontinues the Karma and its drone business.
Photo: GoPro

While consumer drone leader DJI makes headlines at this week’s CES with new products, GoPro announced Monday it would pull out of the drone business after it sells its remaining stock of Karma drones.

The news comes after word leaked last week that GoPro was about to lay off more than 250 workers from its aerial division. The layoffs and Karma kill-off comes amid estimates that GoPro’s fourth-quarter revenues will fall more than $100 million short of projections.

Take iPhone deep sea diving, bring MagSafe back to MacBook, and more [Crowdfund Roundup]

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Crowdfund Roundup
Help turn these awesome ideas into reality!
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Your iPhone 7 is already water-resistant, but it’s not designed for deep sea diving. Fortunately, LenzO is, and it’ll let you snap stunning pictures in water up to 100 meter deep.

It’s just one of the awesome picks in this week’s Crowdfund Roundup. We’ve also got an adapter that brings MagSafe back to your MacBook, a wearable Lightning cable that you won’t lose, the world’s smallest 4K action camera, and more!

DJI’s tiny Mavic Pro drone will land at Apple Stores

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The Mavic Pro can be flown via the included controller or your iPhone.
The Mavic Pro can be flown via the included controller or your iPhone.
Photo: DJI

The battle for droning supremacy is heating up today after DJI revealed its tiny new Mavic Pro drone that will take on GoPro’s new Karma drone system.

Despite launching later, the Mavic Pro has a few advantages on the Karma though. It’s smaller, faster and smarter. And you’ll be able to buy it at your local Apple Store.

Your GoPro videos will do a 180 with this Lensbaby fisheye

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How's that for perspective? Lensbaby gives your GoPro camera a new view.
How's that for perspective? Lensbaby gives your GoPro camera a new view.
Photo: Anthony Sims/Lensbaby

Lensbaby and GoPro. Pair the creator of artistic effects lenses with the king of the action cam and things could get interesting.

Lensbaby hopes so has it rolls out its Circular 180+ lens to fit the Hero series of GoPro point of view action cameras.

Xiaomi has switched from copying iPhones to copying drones

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Xiaomi is now in the drone business.
Xiaomi is now in the drone business.
Photo: Xiaomi

Xiaomi, aka the biggest copy-cat in tech, has decided to stop ripping off Apple for a bit and instead set its sights on drone maker DJI by unveiling its first cheap knockoff drone, the Mi Drone. And it doesn’t look that bad.

The Mi Drone takes some obvious inspiration from DJI’s Phantom lineup, only its way more affordable. For about $460 you can grab the 4K flier, or if you’re cool with just 1080p video you can buy the cheaper model, priced around $380.

It’s not as portable as other drones we’ve seen like the AirDog, but it comes with 27-minutes of battery life and some killer features that could rival the Phantom 4.

Watch it fly below:

Why the departure of Apple designer Daniel Coster matters

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Daniel Coster, fourth from left, is leaving Apple's vaunted industrial design team.
Daniel Coster, fourth from left, is leaving Apple's vaunted industrial design team.
Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

The departure of veteran Apple industrial designer Daniel Coster is significant because, like the Mafia, no one ever leaves Jony Ive’s design studio.

Coster, a core member of Apple’s design team for more than 20 years, is perhaps only the third member of Ive’s tight-knit industrial design group to leave in almost two decades. And one of the others died.

Tiny ActionCam is perfect for cheap thrillseekers

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A capable, budget-friendly action camera.
A capable, budget-friendly action camera.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

I waited for a GoPro-type video camera that won’t the break the bank, and happily discovered Vivitar’s DVR 786HD ActionCam fits the bill.

It’s tiny, capable and totally scratches my itch for an easy-to-use video camera to wean me off using up my iPhone’s battery to capture longer videos.

I found one of these ActionCams for around $75 or so on Amazon, and while it doesn’t offer all the extreme insanity of a GoPro, it’s a pretty nifty little camera on its own.

Skier swings iPhone 6 on a string to create crazy slo-mo video

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The Centriphone.
The Centriphone.
Photo: Nicolas Vuignier

Swiss freeskier Nicolas Vuignier has created a crazy new photography rig that can create matrix-like slo-mo video, only you don’t need a drone or a bunch of GoPros to pull it off. You just need some string and your iPhone.

Vuignier posted an incredible video of his contraption in action, which he calls the Centriphone. The project has been two years in the making and it looks totally worth it. The device works like a sling that twirls around you to capture 360 views that look absolutely gorgeous in slo-mo. Toss in some powder and half-pipes and it’s an adrenaline junkie’s dream toy.

Watch the Centriphone in action:

Gadget helps GoPro users create jaw-dropping panoramas

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Panoramic pictures are a snap with the Pano5+1.
Panoramic pictures are a snap with the Pano5+1.
Photo: Rogeti

Sometimes a good idea can advance technology without an app or motherboard. Photographer Ruoguo Zhou proved that last year with a hunk of plastic called SLOPES, an indispensable accessory for GoPro users that cradles the camera and provides 20 different angles for shooting.

Zhou again applies simple geometry to plastic with his new device, the Pano5+1, a tripod (or water bottle) head that allows the GoPro shooter to create seamless spherical or cylindrical panorama photographs.

Flip look-a-like YoCam takes aim at GoPro

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Yo, GoPro! This little camera wants a piece of the action camera market.
Yo, GoPro! This little camera wants a piece of the action camera market.
Photo: Mofily

The Flip camera was a hot seller in its day that put into the hands of consumers a simple, portable, digital video recorder. The Flip is no more, but it’s possible it gave us a son before it passed on.

The YoCam looks like a thumb-size version of the Flip, yet appears to pack as much punch as a GroPro, the reigning king of the space now known as the action camera market.

Nikon does a full 360 with new action cam

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The Nikon Key Mission 360 is on a mission to compete with action camera industry leader GoPro.
The Nikon Key Mission 360 is on a mission to compete with action camera industry leader GoPro.
Photo: Nikon

Cult of Mac CES 2016 full coverageAdd Nikon to the growing list of companies taking on GoPro in the action camera market.

Nikon made a surprise announcement this week at CES in Las Vegas, unveiling plans for a portable camera that offers 360-degree immersive perspective.

5 tech trends you don’t want to miss at CES 2016

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Tech is taking over Vegas for the week.
Tech is taking over Vegas for the week.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Cult of Mac CES 2016 full coverage 2016 is here and that can only mean one thing: It’s time for CES.

The world’s biggest consumer electronics show, CES 2016, is getting underway this week in Las Vegas, which means nerds and all the companies that make the gadgets they love are instinctively flocking to the desert oasis like the salmon of Capistrano.

This year’s show promises to be bigger than ever, with all the latest tech trends on full display. Cult of Mac will be on the scene all week long bring hands-on looks at the coolest and weirdest gadgets CES has to offer.

Here’s what we expect to see at the show:

Your GoPro shots could help map the world

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Part of a sunset sequence in the Antarctic.
Part of a sunset sequence in the Antarctic.
Photo: Mapillary

Those beautiful GoPro photos of your goofy travels on bike or skis may contain an unmapped part of the world.

In its quest to surpass Google in visual mapping, the app Mapillary earlier this month added GPS support to GoPro users who have the iOS version of the app.

2015: The year photography moved (and moved us)

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More than a trillion photos were captured in 2015.
More than a trillion photos were captured in 2015.
Photo: HypeBeast

We were too busy taking our own pictures in 2015 to notice that something about photography had changed.

This was the year the photo moved. It shed its flat, two-dimensional constraints and showed a life once left to the imagination.

The movement could be slight, as in Apple’s Live Photos, a new feature on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus camera that records a snippet of video before and after the frozen moment to add an extra dimension.

iPhone encroaches upon GoPro territory with dazzling action footage

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The iPhone in close at dirt level on a motocross track.
The iPhone in close at dirt level on a motocross track.
Photo: Freeride Entertainment/Vimeo

The fact that professional-level photos and videos can be made with the camera on the iPhone is old news. However, the amazement never gets old with professionals when they forgo conventional equipment to use iPhones on a shoot.

The cinematographers who capture breathtaking action sports for Freeride Entertainment were in awe of the results with the iPhone after filming some of the most daring skiers, wakeboarders and motocross athletes for a promotion for HITCASE.

This piece of plastic could be your go-to GoPro accessory

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The SLOPES can give you 20 different positions for your GoPro camera.
The SLOPES can give you 20 different positions for your GoPro camera.
Photo: SLOPES

You’ve got an idea for a shot with your GoPro camera. But you don’t have the right mount, or the tripod you carry won’t go low enough or fit in a space with that great angle.

Photographer Ruogo Zhou has designed a hunk of plastic that cradles the GoPro and provides it 20 different angles for shooting. It’s a small polyhedron support that can fit in tiny spaces and it goes by the name SLOPES.

Hand stabilizer will put the ‘pro’ in your GoPro films

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The Aeon is a hand stabilizer that keeps your GoPro footage from looking jittery.
The Aeon is a hand stabilizer that keeps your GoPro footage from looking jittery.
Photo: áetho

The GoPro action camera has turned average consumers into cinematic artists. But sometimes the star is not the camera itself, but the accessory that helps the camera get that award-winning clip.

A new handheld stabilizer by áetho could be the next star, preventing jerky footage with a professional smoothness that uses sensors to adjust to movement at an astounding rate of 1,000 times per second.

GoPro’s tiny new rival boasts interchangeable lenses

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The E1 is a small Micro Four Thirds camera that shoots 4K video and fit a variety of lenses.
The E1 is a small Micro Four Thirds camera that shoots 4K video and fit a variety of lenses.
Photo: Z

The E1 camera is so small, there is barely any room on the body for its two-character name.

This is only a slight exaggeration for the slight camera with large ambitions and an impressive list of specs that could make it legitimate competition for GoPro, the reigning king of the Point of View camera market.

Startup camera company Z says its E1 is the world’s smallest Micro Four Thirds 4K video camera with interchangeable lenses.