As we mentioned when reporting on the big news about Nokia and Sony’s partnership, 360-degree video is a very accessible bridge to immersive content and, by extension, virtual reality. 360-degree video can be viewed on almost any device and works really well with smartphones, a common accessory for most.
Social engagement is a smart way to increase interest in just about anything, which is exactly what the Pie application on iOS is doing. Pie raised seed funding from McClatchy, Colopl VR Fund, Sparkland Capital, Stage Venture Partners, Graph Ventures, Matter Ventures, and others and they’ve officially launched the application.
360-degree recording typically requires a good bit of equipment to make content, but Pie and powerful smartphones with certain accessories help to streamline the process a bit.
If you have or purchase 360-camera attachments like the Insta360 Nano, you can use your iPhone to capture, edit, and share 10-second video clips. If you have a consumer camera like the Ricoh Theta S or Nikon Keymission 360 you can still upload the video to Pie via your iPhone. If you don’t have either of these peripherals, you’re not left out of the experience entirely.
Though not true 360-degree video, Pie’s “Slice” feature allows you to record a video that will move forward or backward depending on a user swiping across their screen or spinning around.
VR and 360-degree videos are not exactly synonymous, a fact mentioned by Pie Co-Founder Ceci Mourkogiannis when speaking on the new developments.
“We are excited about the long-term possibilities of VR as it relates to 360 video,” she says. “But today we want to serve the 2 billion people who already own smartphones and give them a way to create and watch 360 videos that fits into their everyday lives.”
Despite that fact, VR headsets are certainly the best means to immerse one’s self into a 360-degree video. Nevertheless, this new social and easy to use program, along with tools like it, will be instrumental in growing the popularity of 360 media. You can download the Pie application for iOS here.
