For recreational diving where the majority of divers observe the 30m limit, so the design challenges aren’t too great and surprise, surprise there’s a kickstarter.com project to come to the rescue.  The as yet unnamed product is a custom underwater housing rated down to 100′ in salt water for the iPhone 4 & 4s.

While there are a couple of impressive videos of great white sharks (reminds me of a trip to Gansbaai years ago) but it’s missing out on the details of how the camera is operated.  There is a mechanical button which I’m guessing activates the volume up button to start and stop recording, but no information on whether or not you have access to the touch screen.

One of the most important features of an underwater camera is the ability to set the white balance manually.  Although apps such as Filmic Pro have a white balance feature, it will require access to the touch screen.  The iPhone 4s’ fixed aperture and low light performance may make it suitable for the shallower dives (18m etc) but will inevitably need additional lights when you go deeper – adding to the cost.

In summary, if you’ve spent your money on an iPhone and are willing to risk it while you go diving (I’ve seen so many cameras lost while diving and being a technical diver, found a couple!) then the additional outlay of £260 (kick-starter prices only) then it might be a good solution.

Given that I’m a fan of the Camera+ application, I was more than happy to find out that they’ve re-introduced the “Volume Plus” option to activate the shutter in the same way that apple introduced it with iOS 5 for the native camera app.

However, there’s another way to activate the shutter using the soon to be released Belkin LiveAction remote control. The remote control allows you to activate the camera shutter from up to 30 feet away—completely wirelessly. Two button controls let you instantly switch between photo and video functions without ever touching the iPhone. If you haven’t taken you Glif or Joby tripod with you, you can also use the detachable camera stand to prop up your device and then slide it back onto the remote to create the ultimate pocket-sized camera kit.

After giving the lens a walkabout in borough market, I headed north of the river into the famous Spitalfields E1 market equipped with my iPhone 4s and GoPano micro. With its eclectic collection of stalls, restaurants and bars; Spitalfields is a great destination on a sunday.  Watch the video below and remember it’s interactive so you can move around the movie with your mouse or screen (iPhone users will need the GoPano app from the app store)

Interactive 360 video

Although the movie was shot using the iPhone 4s and GoPano micro, I had to trim, edit and join several movies together on my mac.  Unfortunately, iMovie on the iPhone doesn’t know how to handle the odd dimensions of the GoPano movie output.

So where can you find out the details fast?  Apple will be offering a private live stream of the event to its Covent Garden retail store in London, where it will be hosting simultaneous gathering for European press.  If you don’t have an invite the check out the following :

Gizmodo – A very reliable source for the inside (and outside) gossip from the Apple HQ in Cupertino, California.

Engadget – although they’ve not yet said they’ll be live blogging I’m sure they’ll have the info.

Mac Rumours : They’ll have all the info – plus they’re putting bets on!

The project has already met it’s funding requirement so will be in production very soon. Probably a good thing given Apples iOS 5 announcement whereby you can now use the volume up button as a shutter release.

So, how hard would be to mod the Sony Bloggies lens on to the iPhone 4?  Not hard at all as shown below. All you need to get it working is little blue tack and a GLIF (second image)

iPhone next to the Sony Bloggie 360° lens

iPhone, Sony Bloggie 360° lens and the GLIF

The footage is recorded as a doughnut within the confines of the iPhone’s 720 mode.  Given the spherical dimensions, the final output will be similar to the forthcoming GoPano Micro (The GoPano micro will cost around $88 and you can also use the iPhone’s screen to frame the shot unlike the blind shooting of the dot360).

iPhone recording with Sony Bloggie Lens attached (upside down!)

Kogeto will be launching an iOS app that will then transform the captured doughnut into the appropriate immersive experience in the future.  To get around this, I’ve transformed the video using the Pan-Pro Video Publisher and put it below for you to have a look.

The iPhone footage being processed in Pano Pro Video Publisher

So, you’ve seen panoramas rendered with the usual flash (not on this page), sliverlight (photosynth) and html5 solutions.  The problem most solution providers have is compatibility – looking at the market it’s pretty much flash/silverlight across most desktop patforms including OSX and Windows and to that extent the mobile platforms of iOS and Android suffer. The ability to capture a 360° image and share it across most platforms still alludes us!

The options for the iPhone

I love Photosynth for it’s simplicity and ease of use but 360° from floaty provides a truly quick and easy panorama without the need to capture sequential photos and the time it normally takes.  On the other hand Panoramatic does provide the best quality of panorama.  When you compare the samples provided below please consider leaving a comment if you like any of the images or applications listed below.

Photosynth

Here’s one of the latest entries to the immersive image market – and surprisingly it’s from Microsoft. Photosynth has been around for sometime now but had been dependent on you shooting enough images to create the 360 using a normal camera and then using the Silverlight software to stitch them together once you get home. However, with the introduction of the iPhone app, Microsoft have made a very successful and easy to use application to capture, render and share immersive images.

Although the Photosynth app has a number of positives, it’s implementation is classic Microsoft (fortunately sans the blue screen). Once you’ve captured a panorama, you’ll more than likely want to share it – ouch. This is where the app will get a little confused authenticating with Bing, Facebook or Photosynth.net. Once it does crash, you’ll have to relaunch it several times in order for it to finish what ever it was trying to do. You’ll notice the internet activity icon spinning away – just let it finish before you try to access any of it’s features.

Panoramatic

Although it’s not as interactive as Photosynth, panoramatic generates a better quality image than both Photosynth and 360°. The downside is the time it takes to slowly pan around and aligning each subsequent image.  Rendering on the iPhone can take anywhere between 2 to 7 minutes (a bit longer if you’ve chosen the 360 VR option)

Floaty 360

The app from floaty, 360, is still the quickest way to capture a relatively good 360° image. The one shown below was captured in only 15.7 seconds and uploaded to yFrog (Twitpic was having a bit of a problem during at the time)

I’m a great fan of the iPad as it’s replaced my macbook pro on my travels and is normally within reach. But I’ve only had it 10 months and the second hand market price has collapsed in the past week from £340 to £200 so do I really want to spend another £400 on the updated model?

What’s changed.. Hardware specs for the CPU, gpu and two cameras. Now, I don’t play games on the iPad so it’s hard to get excited over the increased frame rates possible in the future.

As for the cameras – I have an iPhone 4 and Canon 7D so what’s the point? None. I can’t wait to spot the first person seriously trying to (a) capture a quick moment (b) holding the iPad up, nice and steady to record something worth while. I’ve recently bought the “Glif” tripod stand for the iPhone which is small enough to fit in your pocket and produces great results. How big will the tripod holder for the iPad 2 be? Too big.

Right, now on to the Canon 7D and iMovie. The iPad 2 is still dependent on iOS 4.3 which does not support the use of any output (movies – jpg and RAW are fine) from the Canon even when jail broken. Even worse, Apple will be releasing 4.3.1 soon to fix the jailbreak vulnerability on the iPad 2 so you won’t even be able to play them back!

So, for the first time ever (really, this will be a first!) I won’t be buying the next generation of an apple product. I’m going to see what happens when the Xoom and other tablets as they are released.

However, if you don’t have an iPad then buy one – seriously, buy one!

Colombia Road flower market is a great place to spend an hour or two on a Sunday morning, as the street is transformed into oasis of foliage and flowers.  After a suitably pleasing purchase, a lemon tree, it was time to take a quick photo.  Unfortunately, using only one hand the iPhone slipped all to quickly to a crashing demise on the pavement.  Inevitably I’d forgot to put the free bumper supplied by apple on the iPhone.

Smashed iPhone 4

A quick browse of the web returned a few options – a walk in service for £60 (London & Manchester), postal services starting from £40 and a number of suppliers offering replacement parts for around £29.  Excluding the £20 premium to walk in to a shop, the additional cost to insure and track your precious iPhone (and it’s data), I decided to get the spare part.

There is quite a few options for replacement screens around – mostly web retailers and grey eBay imports starting from £2.99.  I discounted the cheaper eBay items which state that they have 32Gb label etc because the original iPhone doesn’t! I chose a reputable UK eBay supplier with next day delivery for an “iPhone 4G Replacement New Broken Back Rear Panel Glass” with a precision screwdriver (the only tool you need!)

I’ve posted a series of photos below showing the steps to replace the screen, i.e. remove the two screws near the dock connector, slide the back panel up and lift off – that simple.

Remove the two screws

Slide the back plate up to remove

Replace with new back plate