Contour+ helmet cam goes official, bringing 1080p video with wider viewing angle
Connectivity with the Contour line mostly happens courtesy of the same old Storyteller software, which remains little changed from before -- that is to say, it's kind of clunky and sluggish. But it's thankfully been granted some additional functionality that makes it rather more usable, especially on the sharing side.
Before, if you wanted to share your Contour footage and include the GPS metadata -- map, altitude, speed and such -- you had to use a proprietary embed. You couldn't bake it right into the video itself. That changes with the +2. The new version of the software will let you add an overlay to the video showing the map, altitude and speed -- or, if you'd like to hide any of those figures, you can. You can choose which corner of the video contains the overlay and then push it straight to YouTube, if you like. You can also get a GPX export of the coordinates recorded by the camera, which can then be fed straight into any of a number of tracking applications, like Strava or Endomondo.
The mobile apps have also been updated. Well, the iOS app has been updated -- the Android version will get a fix soon, we're told. With the iOS app you can still use it as a remote viewfinder, connecting over Bluetooth and getting a live stream of the footage to help you get the camera perfectly aligned. Now, though, you can start and stop the footage remotely. So, if you've mounted the camera somewhere out of reach, like the roof of your car, you can start or stop it without having to release your racing harness. (Or, you could just ask a member of your pit crew to do it for you.)
