Overview
Pangea VR is a smooth and fun tool for viewing high-quality, 360-degree panorama photos. The free version is a must-have and the $20 Pro version seems pricey, but is useful for professionals.
Functionality
Whether you’re interested in looking at a 360-degree view from the top of Mount Everest, or showing off a panoramic image of a property, this app makes the process easy and enjoyable.
First and foremost, the only difference between the free and Pro versions of this app is that Pangea VR Pro allows users to download panorama portfolios directly to the iPhone for offline viewing. I’ll explain how this can be valuable, but everything else about the apps is exactly the same.
Pangea VR allows users to browse a preloaded list of web-based panorama photo portfolios, then, upon selecting an image, the app quickly downloads and processes it for viewing.
The photo-viewing mode is smooth and impressive.
Users can rotate an image by dragging a finger on the screen. Photos will also smoothly drift depending on how the image is swiped and rotated. All of these settings can be easily adjusted for sensitivity and the drift setting can be turned off for much more rigid movement, if desired.
Zoom is also easy and operates by using the standard iPhone pinch technique.
Images are anchored so that no matter how you hold your mobile device, the photo will stay perpendicular to the ground. It’s smooth enough that you could even continuously rotate the phone in your hand and the image would steadily adjust so that it is always upright.
Users can also view any desired web-based panorama image by typing its URL directly into Pangea VR, although the web address must be that of the image itself and must end in .jpg or .jpeg. The app can also display online portfolios of panorama photos, but only if their web addresses end in .xml.
Review
Pangea VR is an excellent download.
You may not find many uses for it, but if you’re ever in the mood for an immediate glimpse at the Blue Lagoon in Iceland, what’s better than a smooth, 360-degree view in the palm of your hand?
The app also does a great job of maximizing some of the iPhone’s more impressive capabilities, including its graphics abilities, download and processing speeds, as well as the accelerometer.
It’s fun to look at and best of all: Pangea VR is free!
The app does have one major problem: there is no way to search through the preloaded portfolio lists, making it difficult to find images and limiting users to a browser mode. This can be annoying. Actually, it is quite annoying, but the free app makes up for it with its speed, grace and value.
Now, about that $20 version. That may be a little more of a gamble.
If you are a real estate agent, for example, having your portfolio of panorama photos in the palm of your hand is definitely worth the price. But how well does it really work?
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get many web-based photos to display if they were not listed in the built-in Pangea VR or Pangea VR Pro lists. That’s not to say that yours wont come up at all, but I found it to be a little hit or miss (and this was in both versions).
Also, you can’t just archive individual photos into Pangea VR Pro. Instead, you have to archive entire portfolios that are on the web in the form of an XML file. That may not be a problem for some users, but for $20 I’m not seeing many added advantages, since the system doesn’t seem to accept all photos anyway.
Since the only real difference between the free and paid versions is the ability to view photos when there is no internet connection available, I would advise users to download the free version and make sure that all personal files work in Pangea VR before upgrading to Pro. And it would only make sense to purchase Pro if you will be using the app in areas without an internet connection.
Summary
Th free app has a couple problems, but is impressive and enjoyable. The paid version isn’t necessary for most users.
