360 panorama kick-starts gyro-enabled browsing in Safari

Remember that gyroscope we talked about on Apple's iPhone 4? It is a great orientation device and we were thrilled to find out that some apps are already making use of it, but have you tried it in Safari on your iPhone? Take a look at the demo created by app maker Occipital and try turning your iPhone and moving around to navigate through the website.

It should feel a bit like augmented reality, however it is still just a panoramic photograph. You can also take your own panoramic picture with Occipital's new 360 panorama app, upload it to their website and off you can go and navigate it with the gyroscope. For all the sweetness, however, you will need the iPhone 4 or the latest generation of iPod touch updated to iOS 4.2.

How is this possible? One of the less known features iOS 4.2 added to mobile Safari is accelerometer and gyroscope support. Apple's mobile OS has been out for a full month now and this is the first implementation of many more to come (we hope). Orientation-sensitive mobile browsing promises to deliver a richer and deeper experience, but for now that is just a promise with a humble demo and how will it look like in the future is still an open question.

source: Occipital via Gizmodo