GoPro makes stopping and starting simpler with motion, power, QR triggers

GoPro may have started out at the intersection of capability and affordability in the action cam space, but since then it has increasingly leaned toward use by professionals or deployment by businesses. The latest features, announced at CES, underline that priority, making the cameras simpler and more automated for rentals and hands-free operation.

If you've got a Hero 7, 8 or 9 Black, or Max, you should be able to download the latest GoPro Labs firmware, which adds the following convenient features.

Motion and USB power triggers: Set the camera to start and stop recording either when power flows to it (in a dash cam situation, for instance) or when in motion (for a bike or ski helmet perhaps). Motion detection is also improved and now works in all video modes.

The cameras can already perform various tasks upon scanning QR codes, but here's a new one: You can use a QR code to tell a device to connect to a specific Wi-Fi network and start streaming. It's faster than using the app for when you need a quick deployment.

An obvious one for tourism is the "one button mode," which as you might expect limits the controls to starting and stopping video capture. Great both for the less tech-savvy on vacation who can't handle more than one button's worth of controls, and also for rental joints tired of their cameras coming back with weird custom settings after an overly tech-savvy customer tweaks them.

There are a few other improvements, which you can check out at the press release.