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Apple Posts Gyroscope-Friendly Panorama of Grand Central Retail Store Opening

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As noted by The Next Web, Apple has posted a 360-degree panorama of its new Grand Central Terminal retail store on opening day, showing the large crowds and the new store in the context of the massive terminal building. The panorama supports gyroscope input on compatible iOS devices, allowing users to experience the panorama simply by rotating the device.

The panorama is accessible by visiting Apple's Grand Central retail store page and tapping on the "View More Photos" link on the featured store photo. The panorama is the final image in the gallery, and can be navigated by gyroscope on newer iPhone and iPad devices and by clicking/tapping and dragging on other devices.

grand central panorama
The gyroscope-supported panorama is a new inclusion for Apple on its site, adding a new immersive experience for site visitors right from the mobile Safari browser.

Mobile Safari was updated to support gyroscope input late last year with iOS 4.2, and developers quickly began taking advantage of the new capabilities once they became publicly known. Occipital was among the first developers to integrate the functionality, using it in its popular 360 Panorama app to allow users to view panoramic photographs in the same way Apple has now done with its Grand Central panorama.

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Top Rated Comments

rdowns Avatar
rdowns
186 months ago
This is cool and all but can Apple please just focus on the iPhone 5. I don't think anyone was really wanted this.


Another outstanding contribution to the site. Thank you.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
42streetsdown Avatar
42streetsdown
186 months ago
That's a well done stitch. I wonder how many cameras they used.

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This is cool and all but can Apple please just focus on the iPhone 5. I don't think anyone was really wanted this.

Haha their retail devision operates separately from their engineering teams. And let's be honest, they have enough money to run as many concurrent projects as they want.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mrockm01 Avatar
mrockm01
186 months ago
Too bad they don't release the panorama feature hidden in iOS 5
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
T
ToddJ
186 months ago
Why can't they enable the gyroscope for Google street view?
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
newyorksole Avatar
newyorksole
186 months ago
I'm in 1 of the pictures!
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nagromme Avatar
nagromme
186 months ago
I’ve used the accelerometer in HTML pages before to do some fun stuff, and it boggles my mind that it works on iOS and not Android. It’s a proposed standard--apparently led by two Google employees--it has a webkit syntax, and yet while Apple has supported for ages, as near as I can tell Android still doesn’t. Maybe with ICS? (Or whatever fraction of Android users actually get ICS... eventually.)

I hate to see a standard (or even a proposed one) just sit there when it could be implemented and doing cool things. Thank goodness Apple is around to push open, cross-platform standards for web apps. (Accelerometer being just one example of Apple leading with open browser technologies while Google/others lag behind or don’t bother.)

P.S. The app 360 Panorama is very cool for making accelerometer-enabled panoramas like this, which they host for you (no cost) on their site. My favorite panorama app so far—and the easiest to use. (But for distant shots: panos of rooms/nearby objects/moving people are always quite tricky.)
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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