NEW Release: Photosynth (Quick Review)

Photosynth

FREE

iPhone/iPod Touch

Version: 1.0.0

Tested on: iPod Touch 4G (iOS 4.3.1)

Rating: 5 of 5

Today marks a unique history in Microsoft when they launch a great mobile app on the iOS platform even before on their own Windows Mobile platform. Photosynth is an interactive panorama capture and sharing app which is surprisingly very easy to use. Unlike most panorama app, Photosynth is able to capture a panorama in 360 degree, going up/down in addition to left/right, and it doesn't have to move in one direction only. You can start from a frame, then move in any direction you like and jump back to any other frame you'd like to extend.

And what's even more amazing about this app is that for most of the times you don't need to tap/touch anything, because the app is capable of taking auto captures as you move the device along the directions you want. How does that work? Is it magical? Well, you start with a frame shot and everything within that frame is considered part of the panorama. The green dot is used to represent this. When you move the green dot to any of the current panorama borders, the app automatically captures a new frame and stitches it onto the panorama. You can keep doing this for as long as you like, in any direction you want (and it doesn't have to be within a sequence too).

Photosynth is able to stitch all the frames in panorama on the fly, without having to wait for you to finish capturing all the frames. This is very helpful because you can be aware of the current panorama and decide on the next frame to capture. And, once you have a beautiful panorama, you can share it on your Facebook account or Photosynth.net account. When you share it on Facebook, you can choose to have it uploaded as an image or as a link to an interactive panorama on Photosynth.net website.

The resulting panorama will be automatically added into your Photo Album without tapping anything, thus you can access it using any app for further post-processing. One more thing, you can also share your panorama to Bing Maps. Overall, I think the app is surprisingly very easy to use and is so great for creating and sharing panorama. I guess this time it's mission accomplished for Microsoft.

Check out my other iPhone app reviews here.