360-Degree Content - Apparently, it's a thing!

We love to shoot pictures and video with our phones or our favorite cameras, and these images can be anything from a captured moment at a family gathering, to a picturesque scene from an exotic island paradise. But...what about everything that's outside of the field of view? Evidently, some folks have been crafting ways to capture images that don't have a limited field of view. These images capture 360 degrees all around, and make the resultant file more of an immersive experience for the viewer.As someone who sure does "love his gadgets", I wanted to check this out and get in on the phenomenon... so, I started out my research by finding out what I need to do such a thing. Turns out there are a few cameras on the market that do this, ranging in price from a few hundred dollars all the way up to a few thousand. Since I didn't want to break the bank on something so new, I went for the cost-effective alternative. I picked up an Insta360 Nano camera from Amazon and instantly started playing around with it.  I shot a little test video... nothing overly riveting, but if you watch below, you can actually pan around (either with your finger, or by moving your phone around if you're watching on a mobile device) and feel like you're right there in the car with my friend and I.Since this format is still very new, playback isn't fully supported on certain web browsers and devices. If you want a fully immersive experience, click here to visit the video directly (Use Google Chrome if on a desktop browser) or get to the video in the YouTube app on your mobile device to get the panning around experience.What I mean by that, is while watching the video, you can pan your phone around and it will pan the video playback to give you that different vantage point; almost as if you're using your phone as a portal to view the action of the video from different angles. Very cool!The video quality isn't super crystal clear, and I think that comes from the fact that it's still an incredibly new technology,  and this was created to hit a price point more so than a certain level of quality.Let's not forget about pictures, though, because I think this is actually where this camera does a better job.  Here are a few 360 pictures that I shot, which you can manually pan around with your finger to get the full experience.I intend to take some great pictures of my upcoming vacation and some other fun things around here and there.  Now, Periscope has granted the ability for users to broadcast in 360, so be sure to follow me on Periscope so you can be notified when I go live.