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Take Hands-Free 360 Degree Panoramic Photos With an iPhone (Video)
In a way, this app is nothing but a cute gimmick. There are many apps that allow you to make panoramic photos on an iPhone, not to mention the panorama feature built into iOS6 -- and plenty for Android, too. But Cycloramic makes your iPhone spin around while standing on edge (on a smooth surface), which is a fine stunt and a great party trick. And it's endorsed by Steve Wozniak, which is a boast few iPhone apps can make. He calls it "Unexpected, fanciful, and useful all at the same time!" Even if it had no practical value whatsoever, you might want to blow 99 cents on Cyclorama just to watch your phone make you dizzy. Most Android phones won't stand on edge. (Tim's won't and neither will mine.) So an Android version would require a stand. Or at least a pattern so we could make our own stands out of cardboard or sheet plastic. But that's a "maybe," and apparently not likely to come along soon. For the moment we'll just have to envy iPhone owners as their phones magically spin around, taking photos now and then as they turn.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure iPhone is dying for users as is this app...
OR (now stick with me here) this is technically interesting and geeky.
(Not every article about a product or service is a Slashvertisment)
The reason this works is because the app knows exactly where the vibration unit is and where it behaves.
If you had a stand for an Android phone the app would have to be calibrated for the stand, and for the exact model of phone you have.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It's a cool toy not an advertisement. Try doing something cool youself instead of just being an ass.
Here's the video you were probably expecting to see where the "spins the phone" feature is actually demonstrated rather than just talked about.
I suppose that's kind of neat, but probably not worth a six minute video in which the feature being talked about is never actually shown off.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
This brings to mind people who used to code with the physical parameters of the machine in question in mind. Seek times, rotating cylinders, the works.
If you give Roblimo money, sure!
Both the article and the app, shows there's more possibilities in ordinary/unexpected things. Excellent hack.
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
Tim makes most of the in-persona videos. I just edit and upload them. And neither of us take money (except from Slashdot) to make them.
Make an app or device that's amusing, cute, or both... and sure - we might make a video of it and you.
Not everything needs to be important. You don't like fun stuff?
Also: just because we like something doesn't make the story or video an ad.
I see that http://slashdot.org/~i+kan+reed posts mostly negative or sneering comments.
Some of us enjoy being positive more than being negative.
Thanks for your input,
- Robin
A suggestion: Why don't you just skip the videos entirely?
You obviously either don't read or comprehend the intros, and only look at the videos (if you do) to sneer at them.
Looking at https://slashdot.org/~RocketRabbit, just about anyone can see that you comment on Slashdot almost entirely to sneer at things; you are nearly 100% negative.
Note that a few noisy/obnoxious people dislike Slashdot videos, but 1000s & often 10s of 1000s of people seem to view and enjoy them.
If you want to go on being negative, that's up to you. But I strongly urge you to get a happier hobby for your own good.
Take care,
- Robin
PS - The videos aren't paid ads. You know that, right?
It's not a toy for spinning a phone. It's software that spins a phone without any additional hardware needed. And does something useful with it too, that couldn't be done without the software. You can't take a panorama of people sitting around a table, by the hand holding method. Nor feature the person that would be holding the phone.
Every time I go to a bar with friends.
Not only is a handheld panorama incapable of taking a shot of people around a table, ANY kind of handheld panorama misses out the person who's taking the shot. Which is usually the phone owner.
So it offers a little more than novelty. It offers a couple of things that were not possible with mobile phone panoramas before.
Step 1: Obtain an iPhone.
Step 2: Get on a skydiving jump plane.
Step 3: At 10,000 feet hold camera out the door and yell at the pilot to do a 360! Continue to hold the camera being sure not to... whoops!
Step 4: Obtain a new iPhone. Go to step 2.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
That's just because you don't know the difference between a corner and an edge.
So is posting on Slashdot about people wasting their time.
The iPhone 6 will have multiple vibrators precisely for that purpose. It will be able to stand up from a horizontal position and jump onto your bed to wake you up. Except after switching from/to DST of course. Also, new apps will pit iPhones against each other, trying to push each other off the table. Expect extra addons with hammers and circular saws, too.