I ran my iPad battery down, and now it will not charge…

Leave a reply

There is a thing known as calibrating a battery that sources say you should do once a month. This is done by running your device all the way down (such as a phone, tablet or notebook computer) and then giving it a full charge to reset the battery life estimates. For some devices, just running it down until it shuts off and recharging is enough. Others, such as notebooks with backup suspend modes and such, the instructions might say to run it down, then leave it for another 5 hours before recharging.

Apple may actually be doing this internally on their devices now, or perhaps I do not understand the jargon here:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/119954

But general repair sites, such as iFixIt, offer instructions:

https://www.ifixit.com/Wiki/Battery_Calibration

This week I decided to do this for my iPhone, MacBook Air, and iPad.

But my iPad never came back. After running it all the way down, I plugged it into a charge and got the expected “please recharge me” screen:

iPad “Recharge Me” screen.

It did not seem to recognize my charging cable that I always use. I ended up trying three things:

  1. Old style USB-to-C cable on a dock USB port.
  2. USB-C cable from MacBook Air to the iPad.
  3. Original iPad charger and original cable.

Even after leaving it plugged up overnight to the (confirmed working) original Apple iPad charger and cable, the iPad still had no charge the next morning. Attempts to reset it did not work. Perhaps it just died.

I am posting this here in case anyone else runs into this.

This iPad is over 5 years old, but still under AppleCare+ warranty, so I am taking it in to see what they can find. Gotta love extended warranties ;-)

To be continued…

Insta360 X6 preview videos released

Leave a reply

On August 6, 2026, Insta360 seems to have allowed the preview videos for their new 360 camera to be posted. Some “reviewers” do up-front explain they were sent the hardware for free (which should be obvious; you cannot buy it yet), while others do not mention their video is sponsored with hardware. Of course.

Go to YouTube and take a look, but don’t expect too much yet. They seem quite limited to what they can say right now, and are unable to show any comparison videos — making the early release pretty pointless.

“Pro Tip” (again, there is no such thing unless your professional job really is giving tip): If a video does not tell you they got the gear for free, you may wish to skip their later “review.” If they are hiding the fact that they have been compensated with hardware, what else are they willing to hide? Also, be aware that if a “reviewer” who receives free hardware says bad things about that hardware, the company is less likely to send them more hardware in the future.

And so it begins…

Insta360 X6 and August 12 and…

Leave a reply

As you read this post, please keep in mind that, while I am an old fart when it comes to 360 photography (I have been experimenting with this stuff for over 20 years), I am still a relative newbie with Insta360. I have only been following Insta360 since 2021 when I began researching their ONE X2 360-degree camera. Back then, the Internet seemed to agree that the ONE X2 picture quality was worse than the RICOH Theta camera I already, had but you could do more “fun things” with it thanks to a more advanced app. In January 2022, I became an Insta360 owner. I speak with a whopping five years experience following the brand.

Although I missed the release cycle of the ONE X2, I did follow the announcements and releases for the subsequent X3, X4 and X5 models.

On August 3, Insta360 posted this recap of their camera evolution to YouTube:

A day later, they posted this announcement (teaser?) for their next camera – the Insta360 X6:

I am posting this with the hope that one of you will know much more about Insta360 than I do. This release feels different.

First, in the past, Insta360 would post a cryptic teaser with a date, and no specific information about what they were going to announce on that date. Here is how they teased the X5:

As you see, nowhere did they give us the product model “X5” — but since the video clearly showed 360-degree footage, “everyone” assumed this would be the followup to the X4 and that it would be called the X5.

Assumptions are not always correct.

It goes without saying that assumptions are seldom always correct. For example, when the X3 was released, “everyone” assumed it would be called the “ONE X3” because the previous two “X” cameras were the “ONE X” and “ONE X2“.

“everyone” was wrong.

It looks like Insta360 is changing things up yet again. This time, instead of a cryptic teaser with an announcement date, we got an actual video with the product name and a date – August 12, 2026. Many think this is when you will be able to buy the camera. But for the X5 release, the date in the teaser was when the product name and details would be announced, with the availability (i.e., “when can I buy it?”) happening shortly after.

The first time the name “X5” was announced, we were given all the details:

…but for this X6, we just get a teaser with the product name and a date, and no details.

If August 12th is the date you can buy it, what are you buying? Do folks really think Insta360 is really able to just say “hey, buy the new model on this date, without knowing anything about it.” Even Apple doesn’t do that, and that is a brand folks used to line up to buy before they figured out how to handle preorders ;-)

So perhaps, for 2026 and the X6, “shrinkflation” is just hitting marketing. Instead of a teaser giving an announcement date, then an announcement date with the name and details, followed by availability, we just get an announcement without details, and then will get the details on the day we get to place our order.

We shall see.

Even if the only improvement is better low light, that would be enough to make me interested in having one. I currently travel with a DJI Osmo 360 for low light, and the X5 for everything else.

AI wrote a CoCo emulator in HTML5

Leave a reply

Sometime in June 2026, I saw a random post on LinkedIn where someone said they created an emulator for the Texas Instruments TI-99 computer using AI. Could AI really create a full emulator that actually worked? And if so, could it do that for the CoCo?

Turns out, yes, and yes. A CoCo emulator, mostly crafted by AI, has been released. It runs in a web browser! You can find the code here:

https://github.com/star-fs/varispeed-coco2

I cloned (downloaded) that code to my Mac and then opened the index.html file:

Wow! It actually works. Scrolling down shows some neat diagnostics stuff:

That “Active Disassembly” shows what 6809 instructions are running at the moment. It’s fun to watch.

I have not done anything useful with it yet, but thank you star-fs on GitHub for your efforts in creating this!

CoCo BACKROOMS – development diary entry #1

Leave a reply

I did my original post as a joke, showing a funny (to me) mockup of what a retro BACKROOMS video game on the CoCo might look like ;-)

CoCo Backrooms game prototype screen ;-P

But if we really are going to try to make some silly game, we need to understand what the game is based on. First, BACKROOMS comes from a photo that was shared online and folks started telling stories about it. You can read the history here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Backrooms

And here is that original photo and the description that started it all:

By Bill Magritz – https://archive.org/details/backrooms-photos/807OREGON/DSC00161.jpg, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=151138961

Folks did not know the origin of this photo, at that time, but have since figured it out. It was a photo from a former furniture store (which explains the odd walls) with poor color correction (making it yellow) before that location was turned into a HobbyTown. Apparently.

And the description of this image read:

“If you’re not careful and you noclip out of reality in the wrong areas, you’ll end up in the Backrooms, where it’s nothing but the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in
God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby, because it sure as hell has heard you”

— Anonymous, 4chan (May 13, 2019)

And thus, the fandom began. Folks wrote stories, created fan wikis, and even made video games based on the lore that was developing around this photo and paragraph.

One such creator was the Kane Pixels channel on YouTube where a teenager began creating his own take on the BACKROOMS lore. His first video was uploaded on January 22, 2022 and has had over 84 million views. The story is that it is a “found footage” video taken from a camcorder that recorded in 1990. You an watch it here to get the idea:

This led to a series of other first-person camcorder type videos recorded at different points in the timeline of this version of the BACKROOMS. The lore Kane Parsons (the real name behind the Kane Pixels channel) created the mysterious corporation A-SYNC Research.

The popularity of his particular take on this meme ended up having the A24 movie company approach him about a theatrical film based on his version. That was the BACKROOMS movie that opened in 2026 with the highest opening release of any A24 movie to date, and making Kane Parsons the youngest director (at age 20) to have a film make that kind of money ;-)

So obviously, any game based on this lore would feature a yellow maze with a first person view of someone wandering around in it.

But not on a 1980s CoCo ;-) On this era hardware, we could convert it into a top-down view of the yellow maze, similar to the 1980 Atari VCS game Adventure. Longtime readers of this blog may recall I have played with doing this type of game on the CoCo in the past by literally translating the game level maps into the CoCo’s 32×16 text screen using the semi graphics block characters:

Atari Adventure screen graphics plotted in Color BASIC.

And, frankly, if someone has not already done an Atari VCS/2600 BACKROOMS game (possibly as a hack to Adventure itself), I would be surprised.

Maybe we can dig into this together and figure out what the game will be. Basically, a player wandering through an endless yellow maze, and entities chasing you… Not much to it. But maybe we can spend some time and flesh out the concept a bit into something fun to play, at least for a few minutes.

To be continued? Maybe…

I sorta miss Topaz Labs

Leave a reply

A few years ago, I discovered Topaz Labs and their video/photo enhancement software. They were running online ads showing split screens on how their software could upscale older video to HD (or beyond). It caught my attention because they used a clip from the original Star Trek TV series.

Since I had so much legacy video from my Digital8 camcorder days, I thought it might be useful for upscaling my old tapes to something that would look better on modern displays. Topaz Labs was pricy, so I took on upscaling gigs on Fiverr to pay for it. I did enough $5 gigs there to be able to afford Topaz Labs for the years I used it.

Here was an example of an old Disneyland VHS I upscaled with it back then:

Then they went subscription.

Since I would often go months without touching any of these tools, it did not make sense for me to pay monthly fees for something I wasn’t using. Now, if these subscriptions services allowed me to just “turn on” a month and use it, then let it lapse, that would probably be cheaper overall. But Adobe, etc. all want you to commit to minimum subscription terms. I found this out the hard way when I chose the higher “monthly” plan for some Adobe tools, not seeing in the fine print that I had just committed myself to six months at that higher rate.

But I digress.

Recently, I saw the news that Adobe is acquiring Topaz Labs. I had already stopped using Dreamweaver years ago when it went subscription for the same reason. I could justify buying a $$$ web development tool because I could just run that “forever”. I only needed to update if some new OS version broke it, or if they added some must-have feature I couldn’t live without. Today, that is no longer an option.

So yeah, I kinda miss Topaz Labs. Their subscription model does not work for a casual user like myself. And from searching online, it looks like many others had similar views.

Since they will be part of Adobe, I guess anyone using those tools is able to justify the subscription (like full time professional users) so they will probably enjoy having this Topaz technology available.

But I won’t be one of them.

We have the CoCo 3 GIME font

1 Reply

A few years ago, both the 1986 and 1987 versions of the Tandy Color Computer 3 GIME chip were de-capped and photographed under a microscope. This work was done thanks to the efforts of Sean Riddle, Erik Gavriluk, and Roger Taylor.

When the first CoCo 3 emulator was released by Jeff Vavasour, he would have had to recreate the CoCo 3 font manually by looking at the screen and counting the pixels. Over the years, we have seen updates to various emulators in regards to the fonts as folks figured out some pixels were wrong here and there.

I believe we know the full font of the CoCo 1/2 MC6847 VDG so those should be accurate these days, but we really never had confirmation of the font in the CoCo 3 until these de-caps were done.

Here is a low-resolution image of the 1986 and 1987 GIMEs:

Tandy CoCo 3 GIME scans.

Quite different! I do not know what the contents of the two ROM areas are, but I suspect the font data is part of it. In the GIME archive (available on my Dropbox or as a torrent), there is an image of the bits from those ROM areas:

CoCo 3 GIME rom bits.

And also from the archive is the font data represented in a text file that Roger Taylor (or one of the others) extracted:

----------
  * * *   
*       * 
*         
*         
*         
*       * 
  * * *   
    *     
----------
*       * 
          
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
*     * * 
  * *   * 
          
----------
      *   
    *     
  * * *   
*       * 
* * * * * 
*         
  * * *   
          
----------
    *     
  *   *   
  * * *   
        * 
  * * * * 
*       * 
  * * * * 
          
----------
  *   *   
          
  * * *   
        * 
  * * * * 
*       * 
  * * * * 
          
----------
  *       
    *     
  * * *   
        * 
  * * * * 
*       * 
  * * * * 
          
----------
    *     
          
  * * *   
        * 
  * * * * 
*       * 
  * * * * 
          
----------
          
          
  * * *   
*       * 
*         
*       * 
  * * *   
    *     
----------
    *     
  *   *   
  * * *   
*       * 
* * * * * 
*         
  * * *   
          
----------
  *   *   
          
  * * *   
*       * 
* * * * * 
*         
  * * *   
          
----------
  *       
    *     
  * * *   
*       * 
* * * * * 
*         
  * * *   
          
----------
  *   *   
          
  * *     
    *     
    *     
    *     
  * * *   
          
----------
    *     
  *   *   
          
  * *     
    *     
    *     
  * * *   
          
----------
          
    * *   
  *     * 
  * * *   
  *     * 
  *     * 
  * * *   
*         
----------
*       * 
    *     
  *   *   
*       * 
* * * * * 
*       * 
*       * 
          
----------
    *     
    *     
  *   *   
*       * 
* * * * * 
*       * 
*       * 
          
----------
      *   
    *     
  * * *   
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
  * * *   
          
----------
          
          
* *   *   
    *   * 
  * * * * 
*   *     
  * * * * 
          
----------
  * * * * 
*   *     
*   *     
* * * *   
*   *     
*   *     
*   * * * 
          
----------
    *     
  *   *   
  * * *   
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
  * * *   
          
----------
  *   *   
          
  * * *   
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
  * * *   
          
----------
          
          
  * * *   
*     * * 
*   * * * 
* *     * 
  * * *   
          
----------
    *     
  *   *   
          
*       * 
*       * 
*     * * 
  * *   * 
          
----------
  *       
    *     
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
*     * * 
  * *   * 
          
----------
  * * *   
*     * * 
*   *   * 
*   *   * 
*   *   * 
* *     * 
  * * *   
          
----------
*       * 
  * * *   
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
  * * *   
          
----------
  *   *   
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
  * * *   
          
----------
  * * *   
*         
  * * *   
*       * 
  * * *   
        * 
  * * *   
          
----------
      *   
    *   * 
    *     
  * * *   
    *     
    *   * 
* * * *   
          
----------
    *     
    *     
* * * * * 
    *     
    *     
          
* * * * * 
          
----------
    *     
  *   *   
    *     
          
          
          
          
          
----------
      *   
    *   * 
    *     
  * * *   
    *     
    *     
*   *     
  *       
----------
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
----------
    *     
    *     
    *     
    *     
    *     
          
    *     
          
----------
  *   *   
  *   *   
  *   *   
          
          
          
          
          
----------
  *   *   
  *   *   
* * * * * 
  *   *   
* * * * * 
  *   *   
  *   *   
          
----------
    *     
  * * * * 
*   *     
  * * *   
    *   * 
* * * *   
    *     
          
----------
* *       
* *     * 
      *   
    *     
  *       
*     * * 
      * * 
          
----------
  *       
*   *     
*   *     
  *       
*   *   * 
*     *   
  * *   * 
          
----------
    *     
    *     
  *       
          
          
          
          
          
----------
      *   
    *     
  *       
  *       
  *       
    *     
      *   
          
----------
  *       
    *     
      *   
      *   
      *   
    *     
  *       
          
----------
          
    *     
*   *   * 
  * * *   
  * * *   
*   *   * 
    *     
          
----------
          
    *     
    *     
* * * * * 
    *     
    *     
          
          
----------
          
          
          
          
          
    *     
    *     
  *       
----------
          
          
          
* * * * * 
          
          
          
          
----------
          
          
          
          
          
          
    *     
          
----------
          
        * 
      *   
    *     
  *       
*         
          
          
----------
  * * *   
*       * 
*     * * 
*   *   * 
* *     * 
*       * 
  * * *   
          
----------
    *     
  * *     
    *     
    *     
    *     
    *     
  * * *   
          
----------
  * * *   
*       * 
        * 
  * * *   
*         
*         
* * * * * 
          
----------
  * * *   
*       * 
        * 
      *   
        * 
*       * 
  * * *   
          
----------
      *   
    * *   
  *   *   
*     *   
* * * * * 
      *   
      *   
          
----------
* * * * * 
*         
* * * *   
        * 
        * 
*       * 
  * * *   
          
----------
  * * *   
*         
*         
* * * *   
*       * 
*       * 
  * * *   
          
----------
* * * * * 
        * 
      *   
    *     
  *       
*         
*         
          
----------
  * * *   
*       * 
*       * 
  * * *   
*       * 
*       * 
  * * *   
          
----------
  * * *   
*       * 
*       * 
  * * *   
        * 
        * 
  * * *   
          
----------
          
          
    *     
          
          
    *     
          
          
----------
          
          
    *     
          
          
    *     
    *     
  *       
----------
      *   
    *     
  *       
*         
  *       
    *     
      *   
          
----------
          
          
* * * * * 
          
* * * * * 
          
          
          
----------
  *       
    *     
      *   
        * 
      *   
    *     
  *       
          
----------
  * * *   
*       * 
        * 
      *   
    *     
          
    *     
          
----------
  * * *   
*       * 
        * 
  * *   * 
*     * * 
*     * * 
  * * *   
          
----------
    *     
  *   *   
*       * 
*       * 
* * * * * 
*       * 
*       * 
          
----------
* * * *   
  *     * 
  *     * 
  * * *   
  *     * 
  *     * 
* * * *   
          
----------
  * * *   
*       * 
*         
*         
*         
*       * 
  * * *   
          
----------
* * * *   
  *     * 
  *     * 
  *     * 
  *     * 
  *     * 
* * * *   
          
----------
* * * * * 
*         
*         
* * *     
*         
*         
* * * * * 
          
----------
* * * * * 
*         
*         
* * *     
*         
*         
*         
          
----------
  * * *   
*       * 
*         
*         
*     * * 
*       * 
  * * *   
          
----------
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
* * * * * 
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
          
----------
  * * *   
    *     
    *     
    *     
    *     
    *     
  * * *   
          
----------
        * 
        * 
        * 
        * 
        * 
*       * 
  * * *   
          
----------
*       * 
*     *   
*   *     
* *       
*   *     
*     *   
*       * 
          
----------
*         
*         
*         
*         
*         
*         
* * * * * 
          
----------
*       * 
* *   * * 
*   *   * 
*   *   * 
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
          
----------
*       * 
*       * 
* *     * 
*   *   * 
*     * * 
*       * 
*       * 
          
----------
  * * *   
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
  * * *   
          
----------
* * * *   
*       * 
*       * 
* * * *   
*         
*         
*         
          
----------
  * * *   
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
*   *   * 
*     *   
  * *   * 
          
----------
* * * *   
*       * 
*       * 
* * * *   
*   *     
*     *   
*       * 
          
----------
  * * *   
*       * 
*         
  * * *   
        * 
*       * 
  * * *   
          
----------
* * * * * 
    *     
    *     
    *     
    *     
    *     
    *     
          
----------
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
  * * *   
          
----------
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
  *   *   
  *   *   
    *     
    *     
          
----------
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
*   *   * 
* *   * * 
*       * 
          
----------
*       * 
*       * 
  *   *   
    *     
  *   *   
*       * 
*       * 
          
----------
*       * 
*       * 
  *   *   
    *     
    *     
    *     
    *     
          
----------
* * * * * 
        * 
      *   
    *     
  *       
*         
* * * * * 
          
----------
  * * *   
  *       
  *       
  *       
  *       
  *       
  * * *   
          
----------
          
*         
  *       
    *     
      *   
        * 
          
          
----------
  * * *   
      *   
      *   
      *   
      *   
      *   
  * * *   
          
----------
    *     
  * * *   
*   *   * 
    *     
    *     
    *     
    *     
          
----------
          
    *     
  *       
* * * * * 
  *       
    *     
          
          
----------
    *     
  *   *   
*       * 
          
          
          
          
          
----------
          
          
  * * *   
        * 
  * * * * 
*       * 
  * * * * 
          
----------
*         
*         
*   * *   
* *     * 
*       * 
* *     * 
*   * *   
          
----------
          
          
  * * *   
*       * 
*         
*       * 
  * * *   
          
----------
        * 
        * 
  * *   * 
*     * * 
*       * 
*     * * 
  * *   * 
          
----------
          
          
  * * *   
*       * 
* * * * * 
*         
  * * *   
          
----------
      *   
    *   * 
    *     
  * * *   
    *     
    *     
    *     
          
----------
          
          
  * *   * 
*     * * 
*     * * 
  * *   * 
        * 
  * * *   
----------
*         
*         
*   * *   
* *     * 
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
          
----------
          
    *     
          
  * *     
    *     
    *     
  * * *   
          
----------
          
        * 
          
        * 
        * 
        * 
*       * 
  * * *   
----------
*         
*         
*     *   
*   *     
* *       
*   *     
*     *   
          
----------
  * *     
    *     
    *     
    *     
    *     
    *     
  * * *   
          
----------
          
          
* *   *   
*   *   * 
*   *   * 
*   *   * 
*   *   * 
          
----------
          
          
*   * *   
* *     * 
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
          
----------
          
          
  * * *   
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
  * * *   
          
----------
          
          
* * * *   
*       * 
*       * 
* * * *   
*         
*         
----------
          
          
  * * * * 
*       * 
*       * 
  * * * * 
        * 
        * 
----------
          
          
*   * *   
* *     * 
*         
*         
*         
          
----------
          
          
  * * * * 
*         
  * * *   
        * 
* * * *   
          
----------
  *       
  *       
* * *     
  *       
  *       
  *     * 
    * *   
          
----------
          
          
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
*     * * 
  * *   * 
          
----------
          
          
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
  *   *   
    *     
          
----------
          
          
*       * 
*   *   * 
*   *   * 
  *   *   
  *   *   
          
----------
          
          
*       * 
  *   *   
    *     
  *   *   
*       * 
          
----------
          
          
*       * 
*       * 
*       * 
  * * * * 
        * 
  * * *   
----------
          
          
* * * * * 
      *   
    *     
  *       
* * * * * 
          
----------
      *   
    *     
    *     
  *       
    *     
    *     
      *   
          
----------
    *     
    *     
    *     
          
    *     
    *     
    *     
          
----------
  *       
    *     
    *     
      *   
    *     
    *     
  *       
          
----------
  *       
*   *   * 
      *   
          
          
          
          
          
----------
          
          
          
          
          
          
* * * * * 
          
----------

I believe the archive also has a binary file that is the raw data for the font.

Neat.

The novelty of 360 video has worn off.

Leave a reply

As an early adopter of 360 photography, I have been enjoying the format for over twenty (20!) years. When I had RICHO Theta “one shot” 360 cameras, all reviews said they had superior image quality compared to the Insta360 ONE X era cameras. But I ended up getting an Insta360 ONE X2 anyway, once I saw all the cool things you could do with their app.

Being able to “do cool stuff” was more important than going less cool stuff that looked better. (IYKYK)

I remember being blown away by some of the things you could do with the Insta360 software. Ever see any demos of the “paper airplane” mode that lets you fly though things in an impossible way? If not, here is on from five years ago that demonstrates it right at the start, followed by an explanation on how it is done.

MIND BLOWING the first time you see something like that because “you can’t do that with a normal camera.”

The next mind blowing thing I saw was the older Bullet Time, which Insta360 introduced with their first Insta360 ONE camera, which I’d never even heard of until I was researching for this post. Here’s a promo about it:

And of course, Tiny Planet was really cool, too! It can create some weird photos (and videos):

But in the years that followed, a lot of the gimmicks just kind of disappeared. They were still there, in the app, waiting for newbies to play with them. They where like the 360 video version of the Star Wipe or Comic Sans – use them, and folks will make fun of you ;-)

But I still think they are neat.

Now that we have gotten used to things…

But now that we have gotten used to things, I seem to see the same tutorials over and over and over again. Fake drone shots by using a long selfie stick. Giant stepping over things by placing the camera low to the ground. Stuff flying or falling by mounting a leaf or paper airplane or whatever to the camera. Over and over and over. And all the big vloggers seem to have run out of things to tutor us on, as they inevitably post a new version of the same tutorial they showed us on last year’s camera model.

What will the next big video revolution be? For me, I still use my 360 camera mostly for preservation – capturing an area so someone can go back later and see “everything” — not just what I pointed my camera to. Did I walk by something that is now gone, and never take a photo of it or shoot video of it? 360 captured it — and even if not properly framed or lit, “crappy video is better than no video.”

My question for you is … do you ever seen these videos? Or do I only see them because I started following 360 “creators” and also sharing 360 video of my own? Or maybe you have seen the results of 360 video “reframed” down to a normal video, doing neat special effects you think took hours, but in reality it was just because they hit a button in an app using a 360 camera…

I do like Fly Lapse mode…

And doing a panning timelapse with a full stationary camera is cool…

And of course I like the Sky Replacement feature. Here is a clip from the Silver Dollar City’s Showboat in Branson, Missouri, with fake fireworks added with “one click” in the app.

You know, take back what I just wrote. I forgot how much fun these things are. But I think I have more fun making my own videos than looking at influencers do their version of something another influencer did, based on something an influencer did last year.

Until next time…

Fakefluencers and the Insta360 X6 and DJI Osmo 360 2.

Leave a reply

Whelp, the 360-degree camera rumor mill is running wild. Every since some registration paperwork was discovered about unannounced camera models, everyone is suddenly an expert on what the new models will be like – yet again.

Pro tip*: If you want to save some time, just block any influencer that is currently using photos showing fake images of hands holding the unreleased cameras, or boxes, or anything else. You can be assured these folks are not there to show truth – they are creating fake images for clicks. DO NOT TRUST.

You will then see your feed becomes much quieter.

Good luck, fakefluencers.

* There is nothing “professional” about a tip. Unless the person is a professional at giving tips, I guess…