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App of the Week - Photosynth – Make it BIG

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Since I have a Windows Phone 7 that was the app I was waiting for. Photosynth is a 360° panorama photo tool … that works!

Before I switched to the Nokia Lumia 800 I had the LG E700. The cool thing about that phone was it has a homegrown application called «Panoramaviewer». You can stitch five photos together and the software helps you find the right position for your next shot – very good app so far. I was quite happy with it until we went out in the mountains for a long fantastic walk. On the peak of the mountain everybody took out their mobile and started shooting panorama. While the most were just turning from left to right (so am I), there was one guy that twisted around itself shooting photos in every direction like with a machinegun. At the end he had a 360° degree panorama perfectly stitched together in a sphere. That blew me away – sadly no similar app for the WP7 back then although Microsoft had the Photosynth service already online and available for iOS users. Since then I was really looking forward to the day they publish their own service for their own platform.

Finally it's here and it looks awesome. You start the panorama shooting by tapping on the first screen of the app. Don't move (!) – you need to stay on the same spot - for perfect results indeed you would need a tripod but anyway the results are also convincing if you make your shots freehanded. Cool is that the app takes the following photos automatically and shows which position of your 360° panorama isn't covered yet. Finished panoramas are saved to your mobile and you can watch them via the photo app – you need the special build in 3D viewer for that.

You can also sync your panoramas with the Photosynth-Webservice via your Windows Live ID. Publish your photos and make them available for the community - comment, rate, share. It's a fantastic easy service – and it's for FREE. So no more talking – the world has a lot of panoramas to offer - shoot your way through it!

The App of the Week blog category is an initiative of your local Microsoft Student Partners in Switzerland. Feel free to contact us, send us your proposals for an App of the Week or drop some lines below if you want to share ideas, critizism or just want to comment.

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