How To: Cycloramic Uses Your iPhone's Vibrate Mode to Take 360-Degree Panoramas All by Itself

We have apps that can silence your smartphone's shutter sound, send self-destructing photos and videos, and even make any innocuous image look like a censored nude photo. But, there's still room to be amazed, like when an app can take a panoramic 360-degree image all by itself!

A new app for the iPhone 5 called Cycloramic ($0.99) takes a perfect 360-degree video using your phone's vibration to rotate it. You literally don't have to do anything but stand up your phone on a smooth surface and tap GO.

The app gives you the option to do one, two, or three turns. You can choose whether you want it to use the front or back camera, and the videos automatically go into your iPhone's Camera Roll.

The quality of the videos greatly depends on how smooth the surface is. Glass works best, and marble counters work pretty well, but a more grainy surface like wood or paper will make your video look choppy.

If you try it out and don't get the results you want, you can try putting a tiny piece of tape between the lightning connector and microphone. You can see in the video below that this little hack actually makes a pretty big difference.

The current version of Cycloramic is only fully supported by the iPhone 5, but the update "coming soon" will include support for the iPhone 4 and 4S as well as a mode to take panoramic photos in addition to videos. You can find more details and download the app on the iTunes App Store.