Reading a blog post on Mashable about innovative ways for realtors to broaden their customer bases and integrate social media more effectively into their business prospecting efforts lead us to Occipital’s iPhone app, 360 Panoramic.

The images you can get using 360 Panoramic are stitched together in real time without any effort from you (bonus!) and can be a quick and easy way to add dimension to a website, landing page or some other customer experience that you want to make more impactful and interactive. This app doesn’t replace the need for web video, but definitely has a wide range of applications. And the DIY factor is huge.

Here’s a video showing how it works:

Now, go experiment. And if you do, let us know how you like it!

We’re always on the lookout for things that make life easier. And when it comes to file and image sharing, we’re especially interested.

Culturezoo’s amazing Droplr Desktop is beyond simple when it comes to photo and text sharing and, as a bonus, is now available in an iPhone app (not free, but an affordable $3.99). With Droplr, you can drag and drop anything you want to share online with a short URL. One of the newly added options to Droplr that we think is especially cool is the ability to share your stuff with a custom, or “vanity” URL. Of course, you’ve gotta buy that, but that seems to be worth the investment, when it matters to you that your stuff is branded.

If you’re intruigued and want a short tutorial about all the awesomesauce that is Droplr, The Next Web won’t disappoint.

One downside, right now you’ve got to have a Twitter account to sign up and login, so for those folks not into the whole Twitter thing, that’s an extra step. But that’s rumored to be changing soon, so if you’re not using Twitter and/or not interested, you’ll probably get a chance reasonably soon to test the functionality of Droplr in other ways. And, shameless self-plug, if you’re reading this blog because of a link you saw on Twitter, dudes, follow us there and share your brilliance.

The upside: when a product is identified by Macworld as a Mac Gem, it’s pretty much a testimonial to the fact that you should check it out. We did – and we’re glad! Oh, and if you’re totally geeked out by this topic and want to discover more Mac Gems, check here for Dan Frakes’ (MacWorld’s resident Gem-meister) August 31, 2010 recs.

I can see why people are apprehensive about new technology. It’s expensive. It’s potentially life-changing. It’s easy to drop and break. Oh, and it’s maybe even because they’re scared. That’s right…. they’re absolutely terrified that a device – something like the iPad – might actually change their life. And most of us don’t really love change.

Well, the iPad isn’t for everyone, that’s for sure.

But for those of you who, like us, are gadget geeks, technology nuts and early adopters, we’d rather talk less about why the iPad is so terrible for society and MORE about why it’s so freaking amazing! I’ll give you 5 things I’ve heard from iPad haters, and follow with my counter reaction.

1.

Haters say: It’s just another “screen” in my life.

T2 says: The quality of the display is absolutely fantastic! The screen crams 132 pixels per inch, making it similar to print resolution. When it’s laying on your desk, at a glance it can almost be mistaken for a piece of paper. This is fantastic for the progression of print material into a digital realm!

2.
Haters say: Oh, it’s just a big iPhone.
T2 says: Well, it’s not. Yes, the app developers out there who are just scaling up their apps are supporting these haters’ accusations of the iPad being an imposter. With good design comes the knowledge and awareness that the larger your space becomes, the more information you can display. Also, it allows almost all 10 fingers on the screen at once, offering a truly “hands-on” experience. Your fingers aren’t crammed for space, and it allows more opportunity to allow them to rest on the extra surface.

3.
Haters say:
Why do I have to download all of my apps again?
T2 says: That’s because there are a lot of apps that you feel should exist in both realms. But, the apps that are going to be truly successful are the ones that allow the iPad to integrate with your other systems, instead of merely duplicating their services. From a gaming perspective, the new Scrabble app does just this.
The iPad serves as the board and by having an iPhone, you can have your own personal tile rack. Flicking your pieces out of the iPhone will add it to the board, creating a truly fun and engaging public and private experience.

4.
Haters say: I don’t want it to replace all of my favorite magazines?
T2 says: Yes, it’s probably true that the iPad will replace your magazines. Is that REALLY such a big deal? First of all, there’s the whole green thing and how many trees it takes to produce all the magazines that you hold so dear. But being eco-friendly aside, why wouldn’t you want to have a truly richer experience such as including video, animation and live content? Isn’t that what magazines are all about? There’s a certain editorial delay to magazines that is quickly fading. This is a whole new playground for T2, and we’re really excited about integrating our love for motion and interactivity into a realm that’s been static for too long.

5.
Haters say: I can only run one app at once!
T2 says: Yes, at first I was on this bandwagon of disappointment as well. But I’ve slowly come to terms with it. The iPad isn’t going to replace my laptop, and in no way is it designed to mimic the multitasking capabilities. It’s merely the bridge from my external workflow. There are certain tasks that I just wouldn’t want to limit to touch based input. It’s just another tool in a suite of systems!

I know I probably haven’t convinced everyone. But I also know this. For us to progress as society, there have to be periods of huge technological leaps and periods where we have to ease into new ways of thinking. This is clearly that period. The iPhone was a truly revolutionary device, simply because there weren’t any devices like it. The iPad would have to break our perceptions of a tablet’s capabilities, which it has already done. We’re simply taking things to the next level, because very, very soon, Apple will blow our minds again. Don’t be a hater!

On any given day, you will most likely interact with numerous online interfaces, typing emails, shopping online– all by clicking around on a screen with a cursor. But, what we’ve come to develop as a society is a flat environment, one that is hard to interface with on a spatial level. Most importantly, our interactions have become almost unintuitive, and we have to do a great deal of cognitive thinking just to click on a link. Augmented Reality, merges these two worlds, bringing digital, 3-dimensional environments into your immediate surroundings. Just as the name suggests, it enhances our perception of reality by adding new, dynamic pieces of information that couldn’t exist naturally in the real world.

These experiences work well through a camera lens, such as the live digital graphics that are imprinted on the field at football games and at Olympic events. But, we’re starting to move to more personal experiences. Most of these new applications are within the “gimmick” stage–primarily utilized for entertainment purposes. Soon, we should start using these techniques to build new relationships with brands, with audiences physically and emotionally connected on many integrated levels. These elements and tools, by choice of your segments, will become part of their every day lives. For example, imagine a clothing store with blank price tags, where by looking through the lens of your phone, you could reveal the price. This line of thinking promotes dynamic data, providing opportunities to easily modify sale prices. Simple ideas that engage your users, which are cheap and intuitive, will set your brand ahead of others.

What’s amazing is that marketers are already beginning to take advantage of these new techniques to enhance the user experience. One good example is a new feature on the iPhone app, Yelp. The app allows you to peer through your iPhone, into your environment, and visualize what restaurants are around you. Utilizing the compass and GPS technology on the phone, by revolving your view, more labels of restaurants appear depending on the direction you’re facing. This is fantastic for those in foreign cities, or someone willing to try new restaurants, creating a useful tool and loyalty to the online service of Yelp.

But, why has it taken us this long to progress to this point? The obvious answer comes with the progression of mobile technology. Where these applications resonate are within computer systems that can move around through a space, and are not bound to a desktop. Soon enough, we will see these elements within stationary environments: in retail spaces, gas stations and even under the hood of your car. Our old, ’80s visions of “the future” are actually manifesting themselves, opening up new platforms for marketing and communication.