Photo: Gnarbox
In today’s fast-paced content space, Gnarbox is monumental. At least, insofar as its intent. A product of the action sports people so to speak, it promises to be “the world’s first device that can download, organize, and edit up to 4K videos and RAW photos using a smartphone.” And the people like the idea — Travis Rice, a revered leader of these people, is the Chief Brand Ambassador on the endeavor. His GoPro edits experience unparalleled engagement on his social media platforms; if he trusts the device, I think it is safe to assume it works.
Need more convincing that people are behind this? How about the fact that the Kickstarter campaign raised nearly $150,000 — $50,000 OVER their $100,000 goal — by its third day. Yep, this project is definitely going to live to see, at the very least, its short-term future.
So what, exactly, does it do? It is effectively a wallet-sized (think dad’s billfold) device that allows for you to view and back-up as well as edit and share HD footage shot on GoPro or DSLR. Whether you’re on the side of a mountain after bootpacking a ridge or sitting on a beach post-surf, you’re able to produce a clip that views a lot more comprehensively than, say, straight uploads to Facebook or Instagram or Vine might allow for. And, better yet, you’re supposedly able to do so with relative ease.
“The Gnarbox is a life simplification tool for anyone with a camera who wants to get the most out of their photos and videos,” Rice claims.
Yet Gnarbox isn’t alone in the space. Recent releases include a foremost competitor that is a hi-res camera with build-in media server, an all-in-one operation of sorts. However, even with a distinct (and distinguished) competitor out there, Gnarbox is confident in the apparent advantage their speed and convenience plays to.
“A big part of progression is to share and show,” Rice says. “There is so much content shot daily, by so many people that never sees the light of day.”
How do they do it? By employing an advanced compression technique that basically scales all the data to manageable sizes while maintaining resolution or abilities to make the content what you want to make of it. This means you’re able to identify your best moments, trim it down to to size, then stoke it up with features like slow-mo and filters and color correcting and even music to take the edit to the next level before quickly and effortlessly blasting it out to friends via whichever feed you want, as well as back the footage up on the device or Dropbox . And the Gnarbox acts as Hotspot allowing up to four foreign devices (yours and those belonging to whoever else is around you) to connect.
To offer a detailed glimpse into the nitty gritty of it all, team member Matt Hoffman describes the device as having an “impressive quad core, 2.2 GHZ CPU, 128 GBs of flash, and [is] the first ever app to successfully transmit 4k video to your mobile device.”
“Just when you felt that technology was becoming overwhelming and stirring in the wrong direction,” Hoffman continues, “Gnarbox makes it’s debut. Other tech companies will be inspired by Gnarbox’s fundamentals. Driving action and adventure over sitting in front of your screen; less time to process, more time to shred… this is what makes Gnarbox revolutionary.”
Photo: Gnarbox
The thing is — even though a lot of the present hype surrounding Gnarbox is exactly that: hype – there is a substantive and innovative utility in a device that does what this one promises to do well. And with the amount of emphasis on not only social media presence but a continuity about that presence as well as a speed in distribution of said content, that substantive and innovative utility is, indeed, revolutionary.
My main concern in this is that the rapid fire of clips, which this will only contribute to, will further remove us from the in-many-ways, on-many-levels more complete feature films we all eagerly watched on VHS as kids. But then again, maybe not. And in the context of introducing a forward-thinking device that is self-aware in its operation, this concern is irrelevant.
Either way, it’s worth a test. And that might be the coolest part — it’s easy to find out if it is revolutionary; simply clip it to your pack and see for yourself. I know I’m going to definitely give it a go.
For more from GNARBOX, be sure to check out their Vimeo page. And don’t forget to Like them on Facebook as well as follow them on Instagram.
