The world is not flat, so why should your photos be? That’s the premise behind the Ricoh Theta m15 camera, which captures full 360-degree spherical stills and video at the press of a button — none of that panning, spinning and stitching you would have to do with a conventional camera. The secret lies in the super wide-angle lenses on either side of the body, each of which captures a 180-degree image in all directions. The camera then stitches the two images together to produce a seamless 360-degree view of the world — helpfully even removing traces of the camera itself from the picture!

All this is done with just a single button press, so you can literally hand the camera to anyone and not have to explain how to make it work. The only confusing aspect of operating the Theta is if you want to switch to 360-degree video capture mode, it takes a combination of button presses to get going.
 

Of course, since there’s no display on this, you need to get the companion iOS or Android app to remotely trigger the camera or change basic settings like exposure. And no, there’s no live view mode, to see what the came-ra is shooting directly on your phone while taking a shot. Once transferred to the app, pictures can be shared on the theta360.com site and Facebook or Twitter so you and your friends can pan and zoom your way around the 360-degree panoramic images in a Web browser.

The results, both photos and videos, are fairly average, quality wise — but boy, do they get you hooked onto the experience! Whether you’re on vacation at a scenic spot, or celebrating an occasion, the experience of seeing the world around your photo, with you at the centre, is something else. Sure, the Theta m15 is a novelty, and an expensive one at that, but it brings back moments in a way no ordinary photo can. If you travel or socialise a lot, this could add  a whole new dimension to your memories, and you can’t put a price on that. But you might want to keep in mind that an upgraded ‘S’ version with higher resolution photos and longer video recording capabilities is just round the corner.

♦ Rating: 8/10
♦ Price: Rs 34,770
♦ URL: bit.ly/TT-ThetaM15

Staying slim

The trickledown effect of the design reboot that we saw in the Galaxy S6 line-up earlier this year is making its presence felt across the Samsung portfolio, and the A8 is a great example of one such device. It’s slim — Samsung’s slimmest smartphone yet — and uses high quality plastic and metal to great effect. The 5.7in full HD Super AMOLED screen is bright and crisp, though a bit too punchy for my taste. The Exynos 5 Octa Core processor coupled with 2GB RAM make short work of the leaner bloat-free TouchWiz user interface based on Android v5.1. Internal storage is capped at 32GB but you can use the second hybrid SIM slot to expand it to 128GB via microSD card. Rounding out the rest of the features — a competent 16MP rear camera, a capacious 3,050mAh 1.5-day battery and a snappy fingerprint sensor — all of which make the A8 a good ‘near flagship’ phone to consider until you realise that about five to six grand more can get you the S6 — a true flagship in every sense. Give it a healthy price drop, Samsung, and the phone can earn a solid recco.

♦ Rating: 7/10
♦ Price: Rs 32,500
♦ URL: bit.ly/TT-GalaxyA8

Memory stretcher

With an increasing amount of our media consumption happening on our phones, the Sandisk Connect Wireless Stick makes perfect sense, particularly for folks with phones and tablets with no memory card expansion capabilities. It may look like one of older bulkier flash drives — which it is, in that you can plug it into a PC USB port to transfer and store files. However, what sets it apart is its built-in wireless capabilities — iOS and Android devices can connect to the wireless network created by the Connect Wireless Stick either to play back music and videos or to access stored files and transfer files from their mobile devices to the Connect Wireless Stick to save on storage space.
 

In use, transfer speeds are fast enough to watch movies directly off the drive, as long you keep in mind that the drive has a battery life of about four hours on a single charge — and that’s with one device connected to it. Fortunately, you can connect the drive to a power bank for longer trips/flights. Net net, the wireless feature comes at a premium but it is a fair bit cheaper than buying a new phone for those folks who can’t pop in a microSD card for extra storage.

♦ Rating: 8/10
♦ Price: Rs 2,790 (16GB) onwards up to 128GB
♦ URL: bit.ly/TT-ConnectWireless

technocool@kanwar.net; follow me on twitter @2shar