Escape the day-to-day with Ascape's virtual reality tours

by Joe White

December 22, 2015

Ascape, a new application for Apple’s iOS, aims to help iPhone owners travel the world right from their armchair using “unreal 360-degree videos” and scenic virtual tours. You can download the inspirational application free of charge, and it’s optimized for the iPhone/iPod touch only.

360-degree tours

The free app aims to provide iOS device owners with a “source of travel inspiration” using its immersive, 360-degree videos; these are available for a range of cities, including New York City, Hong Kong, and San Francisco. An “Explore” interface in the application lets users swipe through these available places, and you’ll be able to choose the direction you look in by moving your iPhone around. This clever use of the handset’s gyroscope and accelerometer makes for an interesting virtual experience.

Take an immersive 360° virtual tour of San Francisco or explore the ancient rituals of India. Dip into Berlin’s vibrant streets or snowboard the French Alps. Walk with elephants in Botswana or sail alongside dolphins in California all from your smartphone. You can finally become the world traveler you always wanted to be.

But that’s not all. Because the app also bunches these tours together by theme (such as “Euro Trip,” “Experience Wildlife,” and “Relax After Work”), or you can check on a list of “All Trips” inside of a separate interface. Finally, iPhone owners can download these tours to their handset, and these are added to a “My Trips” interface.

Here’s a complete list of the features on offer in the application:

Take a Virtual Reality Tour: Enjoy amazing travel content and spectacular 360° video tours

Travel Daily: Inspire yourself for the rest of the day with a short virtual tour of fantastic place

360 Videos: Forget about boring photos and be completely transported in virtual reality by the fully immersive video experiences

Great Quality: Watch only the highest quality VR videos

Full-screen Mode: Feel immersed without a VR headset by using full-screen mode for your smartphone

Cardboard: Compatible with any Virtual Reality headsets, including Google Cardboard, Zeiss VR ONE, DoDo Case VR, Homido, Durovis Dive, Fibrum etc.

For a closer look at what Ascape has to offer, check out the below YouTube video:

If you can’t see the above video, please click this link.

Best of all, you can download Ascape right now: as mentioned, it’s available free of charge and is optimized for the iPhone/iPod touch.