Giroptic 360 Degrees HD Camera Gets YouTube Support

Last year at CES we saw a brand new company building a 360 degree HD action camera aimed at taking on the GoPro and other cameras, and this year they’re back with an even better product offering more features, options, and an actual release date.

The company has changed its name and after a successful kickstarter campaign to gather funding, and now the new Giroptic 360 degrees action cam should be released in the first quarter of 2015 with tons of improvements and full YouTube playback support, which is one of the key additions this year.

When it comes to 360 degrees cameras there are a few options available, but playback and navigating all directions of the recorded video can be challenging. However, this year they’ve announced the product will launch with full YouTube support, meaning users can instantly upload and playback their 360 degrees HD video from any smartphone, tablet, or computer on YouTube.

The French company tells us this camera is more versatile than the competition, even equally priced options like the GoPro Hero 4, and has more to offer too. Complete with three wide-angle 8 megapixel cameras capable of 2k video and 4k photo capture at full 360 degree views, it surely sounds impressive.

Some of the biggest selling points of this $499 camera is of course the 360 degrees view mentioned above, but this time around Google is fully on board. Video recorded with the 360 cam will be fully viewable and navigable on YouTube. Even on mobile devices. Meaning you can fully enjoy the captured 360 degrees video easier than any of the competition. What’s even better is Google Street View support, allowing users to map their trips. Pretty neat stuff, as long as it can actually be released.

This year the design is smaller than what we saw last year, comes complete with a wide array of attachments and accessories, including selfie sticks and multiple mounts, and even a removable battery and replacement adapter that lets you screw this 360 degree camera into any lightbulb outlet in your home. From here you can set it up to stream a full 360 degrees live video right to YouTube like a DropCam, or other home surveillance systems.

Shown above is the battery and micro-SD storage compartment removed and replaced with a screw-in lightbulb power source. Allowing users to screw this into any place in their home and instantly get 360 security video. It’s a neat approach, but at the same time it looks like the Giroptic 360 HD camera is trying to do too much, while also taking on GoPro and everyone else at the same time.

This 360 degree action cam was shown off last year, but never released. However, this year the company is promising to finally be on track after the successful kickstarter, Google’s YouTube support, and more, and will ship in the first quarter of 2015. According to the company it will ship before the first quarter ends, and YouTube support will be available at launch, which is a key aspect of the release.

In the end this is still a GoPro type competitor. Being a rugged and durable camera that’s waterproof and loaded with accessories, only it does full HD in 360 degrees for the perfect angle or view no matter what. We’ll update once we learn more or as the product finally gets released to the public.