Adventures with the LG 360 Cam.
I’ve recently purchased an LG 360 Cam, a cute little 360° camera that fits in your pocket and takes serviceable spherical panoramas. I’m hoping to use it for occasional OpenStreetView surveying, cycle.travel photography, and a couple of other projects. This post is a placeholder for notes and observations.
Using the LG 360 Cam with an iPhone 5C
In a display of WTFery that will only be a surprise to those who have never tried to use an Apple product with the output of any major consumer electronics manufacturer, the 360 Cam has one little gotcha that they don’t tell you about.
Since the camera has no internal display, GPS, or really anything other than two lenses and a trigger button, it’s really only useful in conjunction with the accompanying LG app. In theory this is available for iOS and Android. In practice… it’s only available for 64-bit iOS. The app won’t install on an iPhone 5C or 5. Because downloading and viewing photos requires 64-bit Monster Power, obviously.
Happily, there is a solution, even though it sticks in my open craw a little.
First, you need to tell the camera to turn the Wi-Fi on. You can do this (when the device is already on) by double-clicking the shutter and power buttons at the same time. A little blue light will flash. (The LG app does this by connecting through Bluetooth Low Energy, and you can simulate this using the LightBlue Explorer iPhone app.)
Second, connect to the camera via Settings > Wi-Fi. The wifi network name ends ‘.OSC’ (for Open Spherical Camera) and the password is ‘00’ followed by the last 6 digits of the network name… which are also the last 6 digits of the serial number. This, obviously, disconnects your usual Internet connection.
Then use the Google Street View iOS app. Yeah, I know, I know. But you don’t have to upload your photos to Google.
Posted on Tuesday 2 August 2016. Link.