Category Archives: Apple

Simple panoramic images in seconds with the iPhone app 360 Panorama

360-panorama

I purchased an iPhone app for photography a few weeks ago called 360 Panorama. It was late at night, so I tried it out from bed and the light was so low that the results were really poor, so I promptly forgot about it amidst the glut of apps on the phone.

So a few days ago I was doing my daily campus walk at Ut Dallas, where I work as a Web Designer and I found myself in the center of the campus, which had recently been renovated and redesigned. I remembered 360 Panorama and pulled the iphone out and took a quick full 360 degree photo from this spot.

Panoramic image of the UT Dallas campus

Well, in the phone itself, it’s pretty hard to see if the shot was good, but when I got back to the office I emailed the photo to myself and opened it up on my iMac and it was really nice. It comes out with this odd white border all around the shot where the app mixes the pieces of the shot together. A quick trip to Adobe Fireworks, my editor of choice, and the result was a great panoramic shot of the campus!

The full-size panoramic image is available if anyone wants to download it.

There are not too many controls, you choose either a white or black background for the uneven edges, push start and slowly and carefully move the camera around.

My boss thought it was cool and wants me to try it in a few months when the greenery comes back and to use a tripod. I’ll do that with the little iPhone 4 accessory I purchased recently called the Glif, which allows you to attach the iPhone 4 to a tripod.

360 Panorama is only $1.99 and well worth it in my opinion. Anybody else tried this app yet? What are your opinions?

AT&T coverage fail in New Mexico

AT&T failed at New Mexico phone coverage

Yes, it’s another fail. I usually don’t complain so much, but on our recent trip to Taos, New Mexico our nice new iPhone 4 was an expensive toy that was only good for playing games.

I understand that when you are in the middle of the mountains, miles from anywhere, let alone a cell tower, cell coverage will be spotty. It was. The data coverage was pitiful though. In Taos, we did get the E network where we were staying, but it was so poor that we could not even get the weather report from weather.com.

In places where it should have worked and it showed a strong signal and either the E or G network, it just plain did not work.

If I lived there an iPhone would be the last thing i would want. Thank goodness I live in Richardson, TX where the G coverage is strong and the area is wide.

Anybody else have any trip stories about AT&T coverage?

Third time for Christmas lights this season

Ruthie and I went Christmas light roaming again with our friends Eric and Robin Roach last night. First we went back to the Springpark area off Jupiter Rd. and saw the neighborhood we had seen the week before with Eric and Robin, but we went too late last time and many houses had already turned off the lights.

This time we went much earlier, about 7pm, and saw a ton more lights.

We also went to a fabulous house near Jupiter and Belt Line where the entire backyard was encased in lights, plus there was a train that was all decorated that was actually giving free rides to kids. The guy even had a video camera set-up and a TV so the parents could see the kids as they were on the train.

Then we went back south to the Newell house that we had gone to with Larry and Charlotte Enge and the lights were on there. This time Eric and I had our DSLR Canon’s with us and walked around taking detail shots of the decorations. The owner, a very nice lady named Liz Simmons, let us walk all around the yard and even opened the window so we could get good detail shots of the small house scenes she had created.

My shots are still in the DSLR, but these are a few that I took with my iPhone. I am amazed at the resolution the iPhone 4 takes and the color depth. I did edit them a tiny bit in my new camera app called Camera Plus Pro ($1.99). I had just purchased it that morning and it does a fantastic job.