Phone Accessories Make Selfies & Panorama Drop Dead Easy

toy-story-woody-selfie

Wouldn’t you love to take selfies as easily as Woody from Toy Story?

 

In my current TEQ column I talk about the Pocket Clickstick from thumbsUp, a British company that I found has a knack for developing and marketing useful smart phone accessories.

SelfieStick

One of them with a lot of potential is the Panoramic Pod, a small, telescoping tripod that holds your phone and spins it around so you can take panoramic shots.  For this to make any sense for you whatsoever, you obviously need a phone with a panoramic feature – the type that lets you pan across a scene and stich together the images into a seemless panoramic view.  The past few generations of iPhones and Galaxies as well as other phones have had this feature.

PanoramicPod_3

Squeeze the clip at the top of the Panoramic Pod so you can clip it onto the bottom edge of your smart phone, then twist the top part of the tripod that’s holding your phone – up to 240 degrees. Put your camera in panorama mode and touch the button on your camera to start recording.  Then let go of the phone & tripod.  It starts to spin by itself, taking your panorama for you.  When it stops, touch the button on your phone that stops the phone from recording the image.  You’re done – and you probably have a great panoramic scene to show your friends and family.

The drawback to the Panoramic Pod is that it’s not very durable.  You can easily bend the legs or otherwise break this $28 device (Amazon price).

ellen-selfie

Another thumbsUp accessory that has merit is the Dual SIM Card Case for iPhone 5.  This gadget allows you to use a single iPhone with both your work and personal cell numbers as long as you have a SIM or Nano SIM card for each number.  When you want to change the phone from one phone number to the other, simply flick the switch on the back of the case.

 

2SIMCase-cropped

There are other ways you can have multiple numbers on one phone, such as buying one of the newer expensive phones that allow two SIMS – or for free, use Google Voice or a similar service.  There are versions available for iPhone 4/4s and for iPhone 5/5s at $22 each.  (Disclosure:  I have not tested the Dual SIM Card Case.  This description is from the web.)

 

 

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