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Applications 205 days ago | | 6 Comments

You can get the Android 4.2 camera and gallery apps now – rooted devices only

Screenshot 2012-11-01 3:18:06 PM

Android 4.2 is in line to receive a whole bunch of nice new updates. In fact, Adrian, Bob and myself compiled a summary of the three features that we are most excited for.

So, what is probably the most exciting feature by everyone’s books is Photo Sphere. Yes, some may think it’s just a gimmick, but it does have some really cool potential. It pretty much acts as a way to take an image just as the Google Street View truck would. You get a full, 3D effect of your surroundings in a moving image – pretty cool!

The camera has a few other cool options, like filters, non-intrusive menus and other little fixes here and there. The gallery has also had a minor UI tweak, but it’s still sitting nicely with the Holo theme.

Before you get all excited, you must be rooted to get the app for yourself. Take caution with anything you do when rooting/flashing software to your phone. We are not liable for any issues you may have.

Anyway, head over to Android Police (who discovered the exploit from Android Central Forums and XDA) for download. If you want a sneak peek of what it looks like then check out one of our reader’s images with Photo Sphere on Google+.

Written by : Josh is the founder of Android Australia. He is an adamant vegan, tech enthusiast and psychology student. He is currently a Google Chromebook Product Specialist and a Student Ambassador. You should probably follow him at +Josh on Twitter or on his personal blog!
  • cameron charles

    i can confirm this works on a gnex running rooted 4.04 (obviously :P), I just realised AP says their included patch allows photosphere viewing on nexus devices, but that wasnt the case on my gnex so perhaps i installed it wrong but anyway on non-nexus devices (and mygnex) you cant view the photospheres on the phone, it will FC, you have to “share” it G+ and view them there.

    the photospheres themselves are pretty awesome, as you can see in the linked photos, it hiccuped a bit indoors with objects at close range (appox 1m away) but works beautifully outside in a tree and plant filled scene (approx 7m away) i thought it would laugh at the trees and create a mess but it looks great, and taking them is a breeze.

    bonus challenge for someone: find a street, work out roughly where the street view car snapped a set and then do a photosphere and compare

  • cameron charles

    UPDATE: sort of,
    good news- AP released an updated that got the viewer working on all devices, and boy is it good to do that,
    bad news- seems that was tipping point google shut it down links gone, im sure its available elsewhere :P

    • http://www.androidaustralia.com.au/ Josh Berg

      Oh really? Damn, Google is quick. I heard they got that update out but didn’t know Google caught onto them. Seen the 4.2 system dump yet?

      • cameron charles

        ive seen that it exists but havent looked any further, im more one to let other look at the nitty gritty and i get the result like the keyboard photospheres and gmail i already have from 4.2 haha, but it is fun looking at all this so im might find myself scouring the depths of system dumps soon enough :P

  • cameron charles

    Another follow a bit late but hey, since this is finally hitting phones in the wild i thought id share the newest awesome finding/feature the ripped copy enabled, tiny planets, once you take a photosphere its literally a single button press away and android will turn your sphere into an adorable tiny planet like these

    https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-84twaOrM3h0/UKnW8dhsvAI/AAAAAAAAF6k/SlzlV7iWdMU/s851/IMG_20121117_235021.JPG

    https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Tqk18rGYZPo/UKnW6HuNECI/AAAAAAAAF7A/YVHMFspA65o/s851/IMG_20121117_234923.JPG

    Notes: i photoshopped the black center core out of the first one, if theres a black center dot in your photosphere it forms the core of the planet, there are ways to take a sphere without the core if you have the patience, im not sure why the sky filled the square on the first and not the second but thats all the app not me and finally google images seems to still pick these up as spheres and tries to display them as such with hilarious result :S

    • http://www.androidaustralia.com.au/ Josh Berg

      Wow, those look incredible! That’s really insane.