Microsoft Launches the Seadragon Mobile App for the Apple iPhone
By James • Dec 18th, 2008 • Category: iPhoneDespite the fact that Microsoft and Apple are sworn enemies and life long competitors, Microsoft still thinks the Apple iPhone is the best device for launching its Seadragon Mobile application. The Seadragon app allows users to view large images on their iPhone by just tapping their fingers. This application is developed by Live Labs and is the first iPhone application to be launched by Microsoft.
Because of the iPhone’s popularity and high quality graphics processing, Microsoft finds it a great medium to for launching its Seadragon Mobile application. Seadragon is basically the engine that works behind Microsoft’s photo browsing software called Photosynth. Now it can be used on the Apple iPhone to store and view high resolution images over the Internet. According to Alex Daley, group product manager for Microsoft Live Lab, “The iPhone was the obvious mobile choice for Seadragon. It is the most widely distributed phone with a graphics processing unit. Most phones out today don’t have accelerated graphics in them. The iPhone does and so it enabled us to do something that has been previously difficult to do. I couldn’t just pick up a Blackberry or a Nokia off the shelf and build Seadragon for it without GPU support.”
Tags for this article: mobile, apple, iPhone
