pixels and pictures

Instagram has a new app out. It's called Hyperlapse and promises to help iPhone owners shoot smooth, professional-grade video clips. You can speed them up and make time-lapse footage, or chose a slower pace to see Instagram's special image stabilization algorithms in action. To keep things steady, Hyperlapse relies on your iPhone's gyroscope rather than searching for traditional scene references like angles and high contrast tracking points. Having to compute all that information would murder your battery, and turning to the hardware's existing sensors is a clever way of avoiding the hassle. Best of all, everything's done through an incredibly simple user interface. There are no accounts to set up or sign into. Not an Instagram user? It doesn't even matter.