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GoPro will outline the Karma drone's future in February
GoPro has mostly been silent about its Karma drone's return following a recall in November, but it's finally ready to start talking... well, almost. The action camera maker has revealed that it will detail the Karma's worldwide relaunch sometime in early February. GoPro isn't saying much at this point, but it's close to completing its investigation of the Karma's power loss issues and expects the robotic flyer to hit shelves in 2017. Vague, we know.
GoPro sells the Karma's stabilizer grip by itself for $300
No, you still can't buy GoPro's Karma drone in the wake of the recall, but you can get a taste of the technology that came in the box. GoPro has started selling the Karma Grip, the stabilization wand that takes the jitters out of your Hero5 Black or (with a $30 harness) Hero4 Black/Silver camera footage. Spend $300/£250 and you can capture a bike ride or snowboarding adventure without making your friends motion sick. There's a mounting ring to attach it to wearable accessories, too, so you don't have to give up one of your hands while you use it.
GoPro cuts jobs and closes its entertainment division
GoPro has been facing tough times lately, and that's unfortunately translating to layoffs. The action camera maker is cutting 15 percent of its workforce as part of a restructuring move, including both 200 existing positions and the cancellation of yet-to-be-filled job openings. The reorganization will also lead to the closure of GoPro's entertainment division -- the company's dreams of becoming a media empire will have to wait.
GoPro compensates Karma buyers with free Hero5 cameras
We won't blame you if you're upset that GoPro had to recall your Karma drone over sudden power losses, but at least you're getting compensation for your trouble. GoPro is offering American Karma buyers a free Hero5 Black camera once they return both their drones and the accessories that came with them. That's on top of the full refund during the investigation, we'd add. While this won't completely make up for having to go droneless (or, gasp, look for an alternative), you won't have to go empty-handed -- and GoPro won't have to worry so much about customers holding on to their Karmas at all costs.
GoPro's production issues cut into its sales and stock price
Despite including the release of its new Karma drone and Hero5 camera, GoPro's quarterly earnings report had some bad news today. With sales falling to $240.6 million (compared to $400 million in the same period last year), and a forecast for the year that dropped from a range of $1.35 billion to $1.5 billion, to $1.25 billion to $1.3 billion, shareholders sent its price diving to under $10 per share in after-hours trading. The company lost $104 million during the quarter, but founder and CEO Nicholas Woodman said: "Looking forward to 2017, we expect to return to profitability, driven by the strength of our new products." On a call about the earnings, Woodman said the company launched fewer cameras and drones than expected due to production issues that will also probably keep it from meeting demand during the holiday season.
GoPro Karma review: A decent drone with stiff competition
When Karma was unveiled last month, there were two main takeaways. First was the lack of much-expected "follow me" features; second was the inclusion of a (not-expected) hand-held stabilizer, turning Karma into a "kit." GoPro CEO Nick Woodman would declare Karma to be "much more than a drone," pitching it as a complete video-stabilization system -- one that can be worn, held and flown. The big question was, would that be enough for buyers to overlook what appeared to be a pared feature set on the drone itself? At $799 (if you "bring your own camera"), and $999/$1,099 if you want to include a Hero5 Session or Black, Karma is priced aggressively, undercutting DJI's Phantom 4 if you factor in the cost of the hand-held stabilizer (DJI's cheapest equivalent costs an extra $300). But then DJI revealed the Mavic Pro and set fire to GoPro's plans. It's smaller, similarly priced and bests GoPro across the spec sheet. The question now is: Will GoPro's claim of being more than a drone be enough to lure casual filmmakers away from DJI's technologically superior product? On November 8th, 2016, GoPro issued a global recall for the Karma drone following cases of electrical failures causing a loss of power during flight. GoPro advises that owners can return their units to GoPro, or their place of purchase for a full refund. No replacements are being offered at this time. Though this review is still live on Engadget's site for posterity's sake, we have elected to remove the original score. Should GoPro resume selling Karma, we will re-asses our review and score accordingly.
Making Karma: Behind the scenes with GoPro's camera drone
A typical GoPro camera launch is much how you'd imagine it to be: Extreme sport athletes perform for the press at a beautiful outdoorsy location. But where I am today is not a typical GoPro launch. That won't happen for a few weeks yet, when CEO and founder Nick Woodman will present the company's much-anticipated Karma drone to the world. Karma's reveal will be the climax to one of GoPro's most scrutinized business moves yet. After multiple delays and much investor speculation, it's important that GoPro get this one right. Will Karma silence GoPro's doubters, or give them more to talk about? Engadget spent some time behind the scenes during Karma's crucial final stages to find out.
This is GoPro's $799, foldable Karma drone
We knew it was coming, but after being delayed earlier this year, GoPro has finally unveiled its Karma drone. The new quadcopter is sleek, compact and foldable, designed to fit in most any backpack. To drive home that point, CEO and Founder Nick Woodman had it on stage all along in plain sight at the company's launch event today in Nevada. Karma also has a gaming-like controller with a built-in touchscreen for controlling the device. Additionally, living up to Woodman's "more than just a drone" claim, Karma's 3-axis stabilizer has a trick up its sleeve -- it slides out from the drone and attaches to an included handheld "Karma Grip" so you can record smooth shots on the ground, too.
After Math: On the road again
It's been a big week for transportation news. Karma is making a comeback with its $100,000 Revero, London is putting traffic updates on the backs of its busses, LeEco just threw down big bucks on a brand new factory, and Skully officially went belly up. Numbers, because how else would you know if you can drive 55 or not?
Karma's stunning electric supercar, and more in the week that was
After years of anticipation, Karma Automotive has finally unveiled the Revero, a plug-in electric supercar powered by roof-mounted solar panels. In other transportation news, BMW launched an electrified version of its flagship sedan, and a new report shows that the UK will have more EV chargers than gas stations by the year 2020. Work continues on the Hyperloop: One company announced plans this week to build the world's first underwater supersonic transport tubes. And Republic Bike's kids cargo bike might just be the coolest ride for pint-sized commuters.
Karma unveils Revero hybrid with new solar charging roof
Normally, the most exciting part about a new car is seeing the design for the first time. However, Karma Automotive's unveiling of the hybrid Revero today surprised no one, because it's identical to the Fisker Karma. That's not a bad thing -- nobody ever criticized the original's looks, penned by prolific Aston Martin DB9 and BMW Z8 stylist Henrik Fisker. Instead, Wanxiang, the Chinese auto parts company that bought Fisker out of bankruptcy last year, focused on fixing the car's lack of reliability and tendency to catch fire.
GoPro already made a small VR camera and you can see it now
So far, GoPro's foray into VR cameras has been strictly for professionals. Earlier this year Nick Woodman, the company's CEO, hinted that a smaller, consumer-friendly VR camera could be in the works -- but that's all we knew. Except, it turns out, it already exists and you can look at it right now.
Karma, the shareable hotspot, finally supports private networks
Only a few months after killing unlimited data and rolling out new subscription plans, Karma is now ready to offer its customers a long requested feature: private networks. The company made a name for itself with shareable hotspots, which always broadcast publicly and allow anyone with a Karma network to hop on. Now, it's finally giving you more control over your hotspot network. The only catch? It's a part of the company's new premium features, which are an additional fee on top of its existing data plans.
GoPro delays its Karma drone until this holiday season
GoPro's Karma drone was due out the first half of this year, but we're already into the fifth month and it's nowhere to be found. That's because, according to the company's latest financial statements, it's been delayed. Surprise! The company now says that the Karma won't hit until this holiday season. In the next six months, any number of things could happen. For instance, we said that AirDog -- another follow-behind drone -- was the company that GoPro needed to beat or buy when we checked it out earlier this year. That firm could possibly release a new model that blows the Karma out of the water by November.
BMW's EV tech is being used to resurrect the Karma
Saying that luxury electric-vehicle manufacturer Fisker was beleaguered before its demise a few years back would be a gross understatement. But despite the cars self-immolating and Tesla CEO Elon Musk criticizing everything but the Karma's design, a Chinese auto parts manufacturer is resurrecting the brand under a different name: "Revero." That's according to a report from Wall Street Journal. Wanxiang Group is moving production to EV-hotbed California from Finland and will unveil its new ride either in July or August, but pricing hasn't been announced yet. The previous Karma sold for $100,000.
GoPro's 'Omni' VR camera rig officially unveiled
It was almost a year ago we learned that GoPro was planning a spherical camera rig for VR. Back then, that was pretty much all we knew. The announcement came at the same time that CEO Nick Woodman confirmed the rumors his company was working on a drone (that we're still eagerly waiting for). We'd seen some prototypes of the rig before, but it wasn't until February, GoPro gave finally it a name: Omni. Today, for the first time, we get to see what the final product actually looks like (hint, much like the last prototype as most of the updates are internal, but that's it above). And we've got a sample of the sort of image you might expect from it below.
Karma kills unlimited data, announces less restrictive plans
After two stabs at unlimited hotspot data -- which involved severe limits on data speeds, as well as heavy throttling -- Karma is calling it quits. As a replacement, the startup is launching a new series of tiered plans dubbed Pulse, which start at $40 a month for 5GB of data. If you need more data, there's also a 10GB plan for $75 a month, and a 20GB option for $140 a month. Having learned its lesson from extreme restrictions, Karma says it won't be throttling or limiting bandwidth for Pulse plans (expect speeds between 6 megabits per second and 8 Mbps, instead of being stuck at 5 Mbps). You'll also be able to connect up to eight devices, just like Karma's "Refuel" pay-as-you-go plan, rather than being limited to five connections.
AirDog is the action-sport drone GoPro needs to beat (or buy)
I first learned about AirDog when the company's founder, Edgars Rozentals, pitched it to me over email. It wasn't the first drone that would follow you -- 3D Robotics had been doing that for a while -- but as far as I knew it was the first to make it a central feature (I'd learn about the Hexo+ a day later). The concept was simple: It wasn't just a drone that held a GoPro; it was specifically built for adventurous GoPro types.
Karma restores unlimited speeds, but throttles after 15GB
There's good news and bad news for Karma hotspot users. The good: Karma is restoring 5 Mbps download and upload speeds on its $50 unlimited data plan, after slowing things down a few weeks ago to deal with data hogs. The bad: You'll only get those speeds for 15 GB worth of data -- afterwards you'll be throttled down to between 64 Kbps and 128 Kbps.
Karma slows down unlimited speeds to deal with data hogs
Karma has quickly discovered the downsides of offering unlimited data. The company debuted a $50 a month "Neverstop" unlimited plan for its Go hotspot a few months ago, but since then it's discovered that some users are taking that concept to the extreme by using it as their home internet connection. As a result, they've been racking up hundreds of gigabytes in downloads and uploads. To counteract this, Karma is lowering the plan's speeds from 5 Mbps to between 1.5 Mbps and 2.5 Mbps, reports The Verge. The company hasn't yet settled on an optimal speed for its unlimited plan, but it's certainly going to be lower than 5 Mbps.
