back to article Drop-stitch: Microsoft's 3D Photosynth app sinks into oblivion

Seeing as Microsoft's axe has been sharpened in recent days, the company has now decided to swing it at some unpopular apps including its cloudy, pic-stitching Photosynth product. Redmond couldn't quite bring itself to admit it had fallen out of love with Photosynth by posting this statement on Friday: Today we are …

  1. Hi Wreck
    Coat

    Obsolete?

    With iOS supporting pano photos since who knows when, perhaps it's just as well not supporting something which isn't needed. Google has a spooky new pano thing though which stiches photos you have taken, regardless of when. You WILL be assimilated.

  2. hoverboy

    More than a Panorama Stitcher

    I really like the Photosynth app. It let's you take a full spherical view so you can, for example, capture an entire room including ceilings and floors. I don't know if there are apps on iOS or Android that do that but for a Windows Phone app combined with the good Nokia camera, it was pretty sweet. I shall miss it. It seems that you can still use the tech, but you have to take the pictures first then stitch them online. There are more options than just spherical too. https://photosynth.net/preview/help#get-started

  3. David 132 Silver badge
    FAIL

    "Trust us"

    "we strongly encourage people to upload their panoramas to Photosynth.net. Photosynth.net is still maintained..."

    "...until we get tired of that, too, at which point you'll lose all your photos."

    Isn't Cloud Computing great?

    1. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: "Trust us"

      You know it.

      The rest of you have been warned.

    2. CanadianMacFan

      Re: "Trust us"

      I thought it was because they couldn't use your photos without paying you when you didn't have to upload them to their servers.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "Trust us"

      Exactley the reason i trust *nothing* of mine to be looked after by some faceless corp..

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    To save even more money, they should just retire Microsoft because Apple does it all now anyway.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      There's a hipster right now crying into their shoreditch coffee, I hope you feel ashamed.

  5. ecofeco Silver badge

    Doing what they do best

    MS is just doing what they do best: leaving people stuck with instantly useless, crippled shit.

    HURRAH! (fuckers)

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Upload your panoramas

    Please! Please do this so that we can send them to our sponsors at NSA/GCHQ, FBI, DHS etc etc.

    This is just one reason that none of the 10K+ pictures I take will ever hit a Cloud service (or the internet for that matter). I do sell prints to those who want them though.

  7. revilo

    becoming part of phones

    They must have realized that features offered in photosynth are soon standard part of any phone. The panorama shot technology for phones are get better and better, killing current standalone apps which capture panoramas or cloud services harvesting your photos. Photosynth did also some additional computations giving the observer a 3D experience. This will also come to phones and exists already in preliminary form: the phone makes a structure from motion computation from a movie to get the geometry of what is watched allowing to ``walk around in the scene" maybe with an oculus rift type virtual reality device. Cloud based free services like photosynth are always temporary set ups. The user delivers test examples for research purposes, for free. Once this is achieved, the service is no more needed. The cloud user will have to serve somewhere else as a guinea pig.

  8. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

    As other had said...

    "Translation: Microsoft is no longer willing to throw cash at development of the mobe version of Photosynth but it will still limp along as a website."

    Translation: Microsoft needs to monetise your images by manipulating you to upload them to their servers for processing where the T&Cs will hijack your rights.

  9. hardboiledphil

    It's one of two MS apps I still use

    I've had it installed for the life of this 4S and can't remember the last time it required an update - if ever...

    And panoramic in OS8 is NOT the same as Photosynth. If you want to shoot a long horizon then both might provide something similar but you can get pretty creative with Photosynth. I used it several times last week in Rome including getting a full 360 view of the Pantheon. No chance of doing that with built in app.

    Anyone else providing similar tech for app/phone?

    1. Robert Grant

      Re: It's one of two MS apps I still use

      Yeah it's awesome - I captured a hilariously bad work environment with it once. No photo could've done that room justice.

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