Summer TOUR WRIST: Seamlessly Shoot, Upload, View, Search and Share 360-Degree Spherical Virtual Tour Photos and Videos via Searchable Map of the World; Facebook; Twitter; and Email – Free!

April 27, 2011 Atlanta, GA USA – I have seen the future. It arrives this summer.

Using your Apple iPhone, you will be able to easily – and seamlessly – shoot, upload, view, search and share 360-degree immersive, spherical virtual tour photos (and in the near future videos) from your summer vacation via a a searchable map of the world; and then also share your images via Facebook, Twitter and email.

Did I mention Free? You will be able to shoot, upload, view, search and share your virtual tours for free?

Wait. It gets better.

When you plan your summer vacation, you can (already) “teleport in” to 18,600+ virtual tour images from around the globe shot by thousands of professional photographers. These pros likely paid $3,000 or more for the gear and software to shoot, upload, view, search and share their images with you.

Going from $3,000 to free – to share 360-degree spherical virtual tour photos – and going from $3,000 to a one-time purchase of an $80 add-on lens for your iPhone to shoot 360-degree virtual tour video is (way-cool) disruptive innovation.

Soon, millions of iPhone owners will be visually mapping the world with their GeoTagged-images – one 360-degree spherical virtual tour photo and video at a time – so that they can tour remotely virtually any place in the world to help them decide on their travel destination. Virtual tour images will include: hotels and resorts; restaurants; attractions; points of interest; arts and entertainment; retail shopping; and more.

And, while you probably have viewed 360-degree panoramic virtual tour images before – on a hotel website or for the sale of real estate – the next generation of virtual tour viewing is magical when combined with:

Wait. It gets better.

Now imagine that all app developers, software developers – and even camera manufacturers – have the ability to create a seamless shoot, upload, host, view, search and share 360-degree  spherical virtual tour experience for you. Starting in June 2011, this will be possible because of an announcement made today by GREAT! client, Tour Wrist.

Video: How to TOUR WRIST (90 Seconds)

As a GREAT! IDEAologist in the television, entertainment and travel spaces – I constantly looks at emerging technologies in other spaces that can be mashed up and leveraged in ways that the inventor may not have ever imagined in behalf of GREAT! clients. If Prometheus was alive today, he would tell you that – the announcement today (4/27/11) by Tour Wrist – is as significant to television, entertainment, travel and real estate marketers as the day Prometheus stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals.

So, even if your eyes glaze over at the thought of reading this geeky media release (below) about – API meets imaging apps meets camera hardware meets hosting platform – get some Visineand read on: it’s like experiencing the early days of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube – and recognizing the power of these then emerging media, communications and community technologies.

Was your company – or client – late to leverage the web, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube?  This time you have a “heads up” that the future of User Generated Content (UGC) meets location-based marketing arrives the summer of 2011. (And, you’re invited to the party!)

The free Tour Wrist API is the “secret sauce” that will make easy and seamless shooting, uploading, searching and sharing 360-degree spherical virtual tour photos and videos possible for millions of us rather than for thousands of professional photographers. Tour Wrist CEO and Founder Charles Armstrong told me, “The Tour Wrist AmaTour API will  truly democratize panoramic photography – enabling virtually anyone with a smartphone to create and share 360-degree images for free.”

“We anticipate great uses of the Tour Wrist AmaTour API will be mashups that we haven’t even imagined; just as developers built amazing apps for the Twitter API,” says Armstrong. “Our vision is to create the very best virtual tour authoring experience by enabling pano developers and manufacturers to do what they do best while leveraging our robust hosting, searching and sharing infrastructure.”

So, as Tour Wrist says in its promotional video says … Go anywhere: Without Going Anywhere. Tour Cities. Tour Homes. Tour Hotels. Tour Cars. Tour Cafes. Tour Shops. Tour Wrist.

Will your cable TV channel; hotel or resort; entertainment and attraction; real estate firm; or restaurant – or other placed-based business – leverage this Prometheus moment for first-movers advance; or wait for your competitors to light the path for leveraging disruptive innovation in your space?

PostScript

TOUR WRIST CEO & Founder Charles Armstrong is one of 12 Digital Summit 2011 (TechMedia) digerati invited to speak during the Demo Showcase session to an audience of 700 digital, online, new media marketers, web strategists and entrepreneurs. Digital Summit is Monday, May 16th and Tuesday, May 17, 2011 at Cobb Galleria, Atlanta, GA USA $50 conference registration fee discount off of the $245 registration with the TOUR WRIST Digital Summit 2011 Promo Code: DEMOFRIEND at www.digitalsummit.com. TOUR WRIST will also be featured in the Digital Summit Demo Showcase during the two-day conference. [Look for GREAT! CEO & Chief Creative Officer Dan Smigrod at the TOUR WRIST booth in the Digital Summit Demo Showcase.] “We feel the Demo companies selected for Digital Summit represent some of the most exciting rising stars in the internet space,” said Eric Gregg, Executive Director of TechMedia, the producer of the conference. “We’re thrilled to be able to have [Digital Summit 2011] attendees interact with each of them.” #dsum11

PostScript (5/19/11)

PostScript

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TOUR WRIST 360-Degree Panoramic Virtual Tour Hosting Company To Make Its TOUR WRIST AmaTour API Available in June 2011

Silicon Valley, CA – April 27, 2011 – TOUR WRIST®, a mobile and web-based virtual tour hosting company, will make its Application Programming Interface (API) available in June 2011.

Tour Wrist

The powerful API will enable panoramic image apps, software, and even some hardware to upload and host images on the TOUR WRIST platform, free of charge.

TOUR WRIST – already the destination for 18,000 virtual tour images since the platform launched in September 2010 – will enable consumers to easily shoot, upload, host, search, view and share 360-degree virtual tours using third-party smartphone apps, desktop software, and panoramic cameras.

“We anticipate third-party panoramic photography developers will also leverage affordable smartphone accessories to allow 360-degree video uploads in the near future,” says TOUR WRIST CEO and Founder Charles Armstrong. “We’re embracing developers and manufacturers that specialize in 360-degree imaging to offer consumers a seamless shoot and share virtual tour experience.”

TOUR WRIST will soon contact the growing list of 360-degree panoramic app developers and panoramic camera equipment manufacturers; a list that includes:

Scan This QR Code to Download the Free TOUR WRIST iPhone App • Text SCAN to 43588 to get a Free Scanner App

App Developers

  1. 360 Panorama (Occipital)
  2. Bubbli (Bubbli Co)
  3. AutoStitch Panorama (Cloudburst Research)
  4. Pano (Debacle Software)
  5. PanoLab and PanoLab Pro (Originate Labs)
  6. PanoMinute (Denis Martin)
  7. Panorama (Airshed)
  8. Panorama Free (Free the Apps!)
  9. Panorama Mosaicker (Intpel)
  10. Panoramatic 360 (Andrea Esposito)
  11. Video to Panorama (Haiqun Deng)

Software Developers

  1. AutoPano Pro (Kolor)
  2. Hugin (Open Source)
  3. Photosynth (Microsoft Corp.)
  4. PTgui (New House Internet Services B.V.)

Hardware Manufacturers

  1. 0-360 Panoramic Optic lens accessory (0-360.com)
  2. Giroptic 360 Degree Camera (Giroptic) – 360-degree panoramic video camera
  3. GoPano Micro (EyeSee360) – 360-degree iPhone 4 video accessory
  4. Sony iSweep–Enabled Cameras (Sony) — consumer cameras (Watch Sony TX7 Cyber-shot Camera ‘Taylor Swift’ Commercial Video) (View Sony Cyber-Shot Digital Camera with iSweep in Amazon Store)
  5. Pano Pro MkII one-shot lens (Pano Pro USA)

“Developers and manufacturers will be able to focus on their core competencies; including image capture; stitching; and processing from computers; smartphones; and other devices, Says Armstrong. “TOUR WRIST will then pick up where they leave off, providing a seamless consumer experience that extends to uploading; hosting; searching; viewing; and sharing the resulting images through our best–in–class virtual tour platform.

Tour Wrist on an iPad

“While TOUR WRIST’s Panoguide photographer online site has 5,700 registered pros and semi-pros,” releasing the TOUR WRIST AmaTour® API will truly democratize panoramic photography – enabling virtually anyone with a smartphone to create and share 360-degree images for free.

“Businesses – such as travel and tourism destinations (hotels, bed and breakfasts), restaurants, and real estate professionals – will embrace digital panoramic image solutions that enable them to shoot, share and promote their business at little or no cost. Until recently, shooting and sharing panoramic images often required $3,000 or more in camera gear and software, plus hosting – not to mention an expertise in using them all.”

Plus, with its free–to–paid “freemium” pricing model, TOUR WRIST will offer enhanced tour hosting with services that include:

  1. Links to companies’ branding/marketing documents
  2. No watermarks
  3. Turn–key micro–sites
  4. Premium image tagging options
  5. Premium geo-location options
  6. No banner advertising
  7. Featured in industry specific sales categories (e.g. Real Estate for Sale)

“For businesses that require professional virtual tour shoots, TOUR WRIST offers a world–wide, professional ‘pano’ photographer community,” says industry veteran and Chief Operating Officer, Jeff Handley.

“We anticipate great uses of the TOUR WRIST AmaTour API will be mashups that we haven’t even imagined; just as developers built amazing apps for the Twitter API,” says Armstrong. “Our vision is to create the very best virtual tour authoring experience by enabling pano developers and manufacturers to do what they do best while leveraging our robust hosting, searching and sharing infrastructure.”

“By enabling consumers to have a seamless shoot and share experience from their choice of multiple apps, programs, and cameras, TOUR WRIST will continue to be the new ‘go to’ critical mass repository for geo-searching, viewing and sharing virtual tours — just as YouTube is for video,” said Chief Strategy Officer Tony Miller. “Plus, when appropriate, tours will be syndicated to our other private label apps, supporting individual businesses such as real estate brokers.” Notably, TOUR WRIST is currently the only RE/MAX® Approved Supplier for virtual tours.

Developers and manufacturers who would like to be notified as soon as the free TOUR WRIST AmaTour API is available, can email their contact info to: API@TourWrist.com.

About TOUR WRIST

Spark Mobile, LLC has been doing business as TOUR WRIST since September 2010. The free TOUR WRIST viewing app (for iDevices) is available from the Apple iTunes App Store and has been downloaded over 150,000 times since its launch. The highly acclaimed TOUR WRIST app allows user to control what they see. On iDevices, it appears as a window to each space. So, for example, pointing upward may reveal the ceiling within a room and looking down, the floor.

TOUR WRIST was among the Apple Picks for Great Free Apps, Hot Apps, and New and Noteworthy for much of April 2011 in the iTunes App Store. Also in April, TOUR WRIST was among the Top 10 Free Entertainment iPad Apps in the App Store. The current version of the TOUR WRIST app is rated 4.5 stars from 275+ reviews; and four-stars among all versions of the app from 730+ reviewers. A mobile–optimized web app for Android devices is also being developed.

The TOUR WRIST company (private) is headquartered in Tampa, FL with satellite offices around the country. TOUR WRIST® and AmaTour® are registered trademarks of Spark Mobile, LLC. For more information about TOUR WRIST, please visit:

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