We are proud to announce that we have now officially released WebRotate 360 Product Viewer v3. This was a long journey and we are really thankful to our users who contributed their ideas, thoughts, issue reports, most of which have been incorporated into this major release.

With this release, the viewer is fully operational in JavaScript / HTML 5 mode including hot-spots, zooming, panning and much more, and it all works nicely either on your iPad or iPhone or a desktop browser without Flash. We don't require HTML 5 either as the core functionality is pure JavaScript and will work pretty much in any major browser. This release is truly ground breaking for us here in our own 360 product photography studio. We are now able to offer the most advanced out-of-the-box web solution for interactive product presentations with a pretty unique mobile support and our product photography service - all in one package.

We encourage all commercial photography studios and digital agencies to try this out and start incorporating 360 product photography and interactive product photography in their suite of photography services also.

Below is the list of major changes in v3:
  • [+] JavaScript / HTML5 mode (JS) is completely reworked (90% rewritten) and is now used as a default.
  • [+] SpotEditor is completely reworked (80% rewritten). Now supports viewer theming, zooming, and more.
  • [+] Added full hot-spot support in JS mode.
  • [+] Added full zooming support in JS mode.
  • [+] Added new hot-spot type via custom HTML content (JS only).
  • [+] Added new "deep zoom" feature using second image set loaded for zooming only (JS and Flash).
  • [+] Added support for custom hot-spot indicator images (JS only).
  • [+] Added new "thin" toolbar theme and new hot-spot indicators, including animated ones (JS only).
  • [+] Added new fixed hot-spot positioning mechanism via screen sections and margins (JS only).
  • [+] Reworked iPhone and iPad implementation for smooth hot-spot presentation and zooming (JS only).
  • [+] Added new features to enable rotation direction control, including forced single rotation direction (JS only).
  • [+] Added new progress indicator animation with optional progress numbers (JS only).
  • [+] Updated all samples to highlight latest 360 viewer capabilities (JS only).
  • [!] Fixed numerous issues reported from beta testing and production testing of our previous releases.

It's interesting that many of our clients have been quite happy with the beta v3 for almost 6 months now (the beta program was started early in the development this time). Just as we have reported a week ago, one of our v3 beta clients just finalized their 360 viewer deployment of 4000 designer sunglasses and eyeglasses on all of their websites - now available in 30 countries. This is including their dedicated mobile websites and a centralized storage of their 360 degree product photos. This tells us that focusing on sun-setting Flash capability and pushing forward with more interactive capabilities was the right decision. And we look forward to more success stories like this and will make sure that an adequate support is available from WebRotate 360 - such deployment always requires it!

What's next? We have a long burning list of priorities that is largely influenced by our users. Just in about few weeks there should be a follow up 3.1 beta release that will show some of the latest improvements requested by our clients in v3, the ones that didn't make it into this release. Some of the biggest concerns in the field with v3 right now is the lack of the full-screen support and some complexity involved with having multiple viewers on the same page.

There will also be some cool enhancements in the hot-spot interactivity and more resources will be shifted to the Mac compatibility in our 360 view software. But we have much bigger plans and announcements in store that are still in the early stages of development.

In about two or three weeks, we are planing to run our first global (and likely the last in the next 12 months) one-day promotion event on the PRO viewer v3, offering a whopping 20% discount. This will be the last chance to jump on our full-featured PRO license before we make changes to our pricing. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter or subscribe to our Newsletter on the right to learn more. Please note that if you already have our PRO or Enterprise license, this upgrade is free!

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