With the launch of one of its latest city guides, the Guardian has gone all out in bringing together an interesting collection of tech tools making it easier than ever to discover a new city.
Coinciding with the launch of the its Tokyo city guide, the Guardian has made a few interesting additions to its Beta series, bringing together an interactive iPad experience, Flash games, Vimeo videos and a photo gallery, showcasing the best of all that Tokyo has to offer.
The most significant and experimental offering coming from the beta tools is the immersive video experience provided within the Condition One iPad app, which is available as a free download here.
At the moment there are four videos available in the app. You can get a behind the scenes look at a Tokyo market or take a ride on Tokyo’s metro system – all from the comfort of your iPad. By simply holding up your iPad, and moving it from left to right, the camera pans to show you a 180 degree view of a Tokyo street. If the panning feature doesn’t work for you – simply swipe your finger on the screen to change the camera angle.
To see the app in action, check out the video below:
The Guardian’s Beta adventures does far more than just offer content that has been created by a professional team. The Vimeo gallery taps into user generated content where all of the time-lapse videos shot in Tokyo have been featured, like the stunning example below, which brings together 10,000 photos, displayed in just over 3 minutes.
The Tokyo games arcade gives visitors the chance to play the cult classic Space Invaders using nothing more than a mouse. But good luck trying to play the game with a trackpad – it simply takes on a life of its own. Other games the Guardian is giving you a chance to play include classic favourites Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Contra and Street Fighter II.
The final part of the interactive experience comes in the form of photography, with the Tokyo galleries, featuring images taken by Tokyo-based photographers and bloggers. You can view images either as a slideshow, or in the much more appealing one page format, which really does the photos justice.
The Guardian’s latest beta offerings follows the news that the Guardian’s own iPad app has been downloaded 500,000 times since its launch.
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