Add a lifesaving feature, please!!?  
By: schmorker - Feb 7, 2009
Version: 1.0
Two quick points.... I was going to create an app that reads USGS topographical maps, they are available for free from their website for anyone to use. But they are big 13-17 MB files.
Please allow access of these files by the seadragon machinary. This app reads large files well. And would work swimmingly on the finely detailed topographical maps @ the USGS site.
But what would save a hiker's life out where there is no cellphone towers or 3G connectivity is the ability to somehow store these maps locally on your phone. So if you know you are backpacking into Tahoe National Forest you could have a topo map on your phone to fall back on when you get lost( which happened to me)
Just a thought .......nice app, regardless of who built it.

This Apple fanboy is impressed  
By: Max E Verde - Dec 15, 2008
Version: 1.0
Never thought I'd be writing a 5 star review for a Microsoft product but this app is fantastic. I loved looking at the gigapixel images, without my iPod touch crashing to the home screen even once. Didn't think that was possible. Hoping for more gigapixel images in the future, like the Running the Numbers photo. BTW this app is not on Windows Mobile, because none of those devives have good enough graphics (according to a MacWorld interview) and yes, Microsoft either bought some new macs or stole some of their Mac Business Unit Macs to make this.

Idiot reviews!  
By: User48227630 - 22-Dec-2008
Version: 1.0
Why rate an app as 1 star when you don't 'get it' or have no use for it?! Reviews are about how well the app works and this one does what's described. If you feel obliged to review then at least give it an 'average' 3 stars Although I have no real use for this app, it seems to work well (unlike 4-star Facebook, which is littered with bugs) and so I've given it 5 stars, if only to even out the reviews of those who have no idea what they're on about.

Great, but needs 3D Photosynth viewer  
By: CorCorCooCoo - Jan 22, 2009
Version: 1.0
DeepZoom is awesome technology, but they need the full 3D browsing environment for photosynth collections. Seadragon is a great application of deep-zoom technology, which is great for the applications of high resolution art-viewing, or anything that has gigapixel resolution and you don't want to download a multi-gigabyte file. You can zoom in very deep and get very high resolution views of any part of the image, without overwhelming your need for bandwidth or memory/space requirements.

Wrong. This app is iPhone at its best.  
By: kohlmannj - Jan 21, 2009
Version: 1.0
Frankly, I think it takes guts for any Microsoft team to release a piece of software for an Apple platform (especially if it's a product not necessarily designed to take over the world!). SeaDragon is a superb piece of technology that is a marvel to see running on the iPhone. I personally wish Apple would build a similar imaging technology directly into ImageKit so that Mac OS X and the iPhone OS could take advantage of this excellent scaling technology everywhere! Nobody seems to like admitting that there are good programmers working at Microsoft, and it is in spite of that immature indignation that I give SeaDragon 5 stars.

My first ever review  
By: Clete2 - Dec 18, 2008
Version: 1.0
To the person who commented that you can just view these on your computer: 1) Convenience of viewing on your phone. 2) I personally downloaded the original for the world view one. It is over 2GB in size and it had to be broken up into about ten files. These images are not anything that you can just load up on your PC when you want. Read up on it. Many of these are GIGAPIXEL-range composite images. You must understand that.

Simply Amazing  
By: durkadurkha - Dec 15, 2008
Version: 1.0
This is one of thee coolest apps in the "App Store" this is one of those apps that show people the true power of the what developers can do for the iPhone, and of what the iPhone can do for developers. (p.s. works best with WIFI)
one things i would add would be
touch the screen with 3 fingers zoom out to a where the image takes up the whole screen- like an easy zoom out
Kudos to Microsoft and the developers of this awsome feat!

Microsoft? Who gives a monkeys?!  
By: L. Carver - 18-Dec-2008
Version: 1.0
I had no idea this was microsoft, and now I know, I am still just as impressed. Seriously, who the devil gives two flying migrating ducks that this is microsoft or not? If you're basing your opinions on that alone, you deserve not to understand or appreciate this anyway. I LOVE this, it's fascinating, incredible and downright beautiful in some areas. A strong Internet connection and speed helps the enjoyability factor on this... Quick rezzing is a big must. All I want is more images, more to explore, and of course, world peace. So relax people, you're not giving money to microsoft, the bloody thing's free. So just enjoy and marvel... The music map is just fabulous by the way. I can only imagine that if you really can't find your way to liking, if not loving this, it's a serious lack of appreciation of simplistic beauty. And you should be shot of course..... Oh, it's just me that thinks that...? Damn....

Outstanding, and here's why  
By: Olembe - 18-Dec-2008
Version: 1.0
This is an outstanding application (for the Microsoft haters out there, you can console yourself with the fact they bought it rather than wrote it, or so I believe). Smooth zooming to incredible levels of detail on massive images.
For those who don't get this app, you just need to use your imagination to see how important it is. Think how useful this technology could be for for, say, an electrician who wants to access a wiring diagram for a whole building, zooming in to a single electrical junction then zooming out to look at the whole building, or even the whole street. Or a town planner who could look at a city at whatever level of detail they want, moving between a broad overview and any level of detail, in a second.
If you still don't get it, try creating a 1 gigapixel image and view it even on a desktop computer.

Microsoft invades the iPhone!  
By: Flash2k - Dec 15, 2008
Version: 1.0
This app may not really do anything but let you zoom in on gigantic photos but it is still fun and exciting. The world view/satellite makes Google Earth look like it shouldn't even have been released yet (beats the native app's satellite view also), you can zoom in MUCH further on this and almost read some large signs. The roads view far outperforms the native Google Maps app on the iPhone over every network. You can located yourself on both views with GPS and there are no other features like direction but you could use the roads view to navigate the old fashion way. There are also lots of very cool photos to look at and new ones to see on the internet.
A very interesting proof of concept from Microsoft and I hope they can put this to good use in future iPhone apps. Change the bookmark icon to go back to the photo menu while viewing a photo, very confusing. Can't wait for real apps to use this tech or for other developers to make their stuff this good.

Slick  
By: MasterStarman - Dec 17, 2008
Version: 1.0
First, has it registered with anyone that this is by MICROSOFT? They were the last people I'd expect to pick up a Mac and develop for iPhone. Anyways, cool app, really smooth but I'm not sure the purpose of this is unless you use Photosynth.com. On the other hand, they did say it was a demo. The movement is fluid over WiFi but I can't speak for 3G or EDGE (I don't have an iPhone, just an iPod touch).

Your missing the Point  
By: Nathan Gilmer - Dec 17, 2008
Version: 1.0
You guys are all talking about how it is useless and you don't know what the point is. It says right in the description that this is an experiment in ways of interfacing with the information. It isn't supposed to have a point except the awesomeness of exploring thousands of gigabytes of information from your PHONE! Hello? Thats pretty sweet I think.
Your just mad because Microsoft made it not Apple. Now I am definitely a Mac guy, but this is a pretty sweet thing that Microsoft did. I have not lost hope in them yet.

Watch the TED conference video!  
By: Apple Dev - Jan 1, 2009
Version: 1.0
For those of you idiot Fanboys that don't understand the value of this app, let me explain what a great innovation SeaDragon is. Imagine viewing a website with only one page and all you do is zoom in more and more. Imagine selling advertising space on a mobile phone that allows the advertiser to include a ridiculous amount of info in a tiny 1inch by 2inch space. Offline map viewing! Scientific research. Mobile phone UI (rather than panning over many pages of settings you could just zoom in to reach settings right underneath an apps icon.) Possibilities are endless!

Go Microsoft!!!  
By: astreff419 - Dec 31, 2008
Version: 1.0
I am a huge Microsoft fan and have been waiting for the day when they take over the Touch/iPhone. That day has come!! I love how nice this app looks and its speed is wonderful. This just shows what Microsoft can do with the iPod. Now listen up Microsoft techies, this is your chance to change the ipod touch and iphone. Don't stop here. Make as many apps as you can and make them good. Make a Windows live app with messenger, hotmail, live search, spaces, and all of the services. Make a mobile office app. The only thing that stopped me from getting a Zune was that Apple had the touch, otherwise I was sold on a new 120. You can do it Microsoft. Give us Microsoft Lovers apps that leave us with no reason for any other apps whatsoever. For all of you who rated this app under 4 stars, please reevaluate your review if you are a Microsoft hater, that shouldnt matter, this app rocks!! Microsoft just gave me another reason to like Google less. That means that Google is pretty low down now, because i have not searched with Google in over 2 years, i am all Live Search and MSN. Go Microsoft!!
I had an afterthought. Maybe you could also make some games for windows for touch. Like Zoo Tycoon, Flight Simulator, Halo, etc. Get Creative. I will add more as it comes to me.
I have been reading some reviews and see that some people want wallpapers. You can take a picture of your ipod screen by holding the home button and pressing the lock button. Hope this helps!
Thanks Microsoft!!

Are you listening Apple?  
By: Captain Latte - Dec 14, 2008
Version: 1.0
Microsoft has some awesome technology in Seadragon. There is certainly a lot of potential uses for this, especially with mapping. You can literally zoom down to your home (both Road and Aerial views) in a matter of seconds with lightning fast focus refreshes. The native Google Maps and Google Earth programs certainly have the glitzy features, but their underlying engine is years away from what Microsoft has done here.
Hey Apple, if you are listening, it would be great if we could replace the native Google Maps engine with this app. Or maybe just expose it for other apps to use.

Amazing (from someone who actually uses it)  
By: MLyon - Dec 17, 2008
Version: 1.0
I can't believe people have given this 1 star without even trying it. Using the deep-zoom road map is phenomenal, the scaling is insanely fast. It's been said before, but yes - better than Google maps. I also spent about 20 minutes just examining the black metal quadrant of the World Music map. I will admit I wasn't even aware of the existence of deep-zoom tech before this app, but I seriously dig it. Now I just want more content! Specifically, it would be awesome to be able to search my whole iPhoto library this way, with diferent folders in a quadrant or cloud system. Or Flickr sets. Even better would be iTunes - different clouds by genre... You could zoom in, click on an artist, see a song formation, play from that... Regardless of its current functionality as a tech demo, this app is great (and useful) stuff. Highly recommended.

Works as advertised and then some  
By: bitterkomet - Dec 17, 2008
Version: 1.0
Being one of the most stable apps I have ever used before, Seadragon performs perfectly at it's job of viewing high resolution images while with a flowing user interface. It does that while not crashing randomly or freezing, something that surprises me considering Seadragon is running on cell phone hardware (even if it's good cell phone hardware :) ). 5 stars for a well written app and for the cool idea.

Why should there be a point?  
By: 3yoda - Dec 29, 2008
Version: 1.0
Everyone who is saying it's pointless and to not waste your time: 1. It's free, so try it out. Everyone's opinion is different. 2. There doesn't always have to be a point or reason for somthing. This app is for entertianing, not for any other purpose. It's for looking at when your bored, when you want to see pictures of different places, and when you want to see if New York City is the brightest city in the world. There doesn't always HAVE to be a point.

Awesomeness of Seadragon now on the iPhone  
By: AdityaS - Dec 14, 2008
Version: 1.0
I've been a huge fan of the seadragon technology for the PC, including one of it's applications - Photosynth. This port to the iPhone is brilliant and works beautifully. The multi-touch interface makes for an intuitive and enjoyable photo-browsing expereince on the iPhone. Performance wise, Seadragon does well both in terms of Frames Per Second (FPS) and over-the-air content retreival. Especially useful are the smooth photo slideshows and maps.

Very cool app  
By: johnnyloot - Dec 17, 2008
Version: 1.0
I think this is a really interesting application that's fits very well with the available iPhone technology. Online deep zoom is pretty cool, but having it on the iPhone really makes it that much more powerful and interesting. Since it only pulls the necessary parts of an image one can view gigapixel images on 3G connection reasonably fast. For those complain that it's made by Microsoft, grow up. Its a quality app that makes for a cool demo for friends.