Since many of you have requested, and while we are still ironing out some of your requested enhancements in SpotEditor v3, would like to share with you a release candidate of our new viewer module. What this means is that you can now try the cool features we have been working on in the last few months on your existing / test views and see if you like it and if it's worth the upgrade (we surely think so!). Below is a download link..

To apply updates to your test views just overwrite your imagerotator folder with the one included in this download, then add the following two lines to you pages before calling runImageRotator:

_imageRotator.settings.jsScriptOnly = true; // if you want to stop using Flash which is what this release is all about
_imageRotator.settings.graphicsPath = "imagerotator/html/img/basic";

You can check out out our new demos here. We also included our classic shoe sample that uses v3 that runs without Flash and which highlights the "deep zoom" and our new HTML-enabled hot-spots. Even though the new SpotEditor is not available for download yet (you can get it with the free download on our 360 product viewer page - released version 2.5.3), we hope that you can still try the "deep zoom" and new hot-spot styling via HTML/CSS using included xml sample as a reference.

Download

We're hoping to release SpotEditor v3 RC also within about week, so you may decide to wait until then if mingling with xml files manually is not your thing :)

The demo links have been updated on March 2nd, 2012 and now include latest SpotEditor tool, new features and fixes.

Finally can share with you a teaser of our new 360 viewing mode (no Flash). Super fast, works on your phone & tablet, with full hot-spot support, "deep zoom" using a second set of high-resolution 360 degree product photos (standard zoom is also supported), and a new hot-spot content that can be edited and presented as a standard HTML/CSS markup!

Demo and Download (updated on March 2, 2012)

Give it a try! If you don't heavily rely on the full-screen capability that we have in our Flash viewer, this new release should allow to completely abandon Flash ("full-screen" will be coming in HTML too) as it's now even more feature rich than the Flash mode. Also, since the images for the control buttons and hot-spot circles now sit in a separate folder as PNGs, you can change their look and feel to match your designs.

Some initial results from our test lab! In Flash mode, WebRotate 360 Product Viewer 3.0 Beta loads 3 times faster than our previous version - 2.5.3. The difference is quite dramatic, especially when you think of wait times when these 360 views are embedded on e-commerce websites, where this is a very sensitive subject. Check it out by clicking the links below:

• 2.5.3 (OLD) - this link is no longer available
• 3.0.0 (BETA) - udated Beta v3 (latest release on March 2d, 2012) 

Average loading speed for the test 360 degree product view on our end was ~13.9s with the old 2.5.3 viewer and just ~4.62s with the new beta!

Download this beta module (only Flash swf in this drop for now) using the link below and just replace imagerotator.swf under the imagerotator folder in your 360 packages. Any feedback would be awesome!

In the next few days we will post another beta with a new high resolution mode where high-rez images can be configured separately (same xml file) and are only loaded on demand on zoom. Stay tuned!

Download our latest 360 photo software here

So far the only place where we mentioned about our new 2.5.3 release was Facebook and Twitter. We love both of the social networks for the interactivity and quick feedback they provide but we shouldn't forget about our neat little blog...

Without further ado, we're announcing here the release of WebRotate 360 Product Viewer 2.5.3! This an important release for us as it provides an extensive ground work for launching cool new features in the upcoming v3.0 (more on this later).

I think the most important update in 2.5.3 is the release of the revamped SpotEditor utility. Now it's finally possible to edit pretty much any configuration setting available in our 360 degree product viewer using our simple user interface and then preview your 360 degree product view in your default browser or even publish it to your hard-drive with everything needed for a quick deployment on your website.

Couple of screenshots of the updated utility:

I hope you will also find it handy that we supplied 5 integration samples with the free viewer package that show how easy it is to create 360 product views with dynamic or static hot-spots using either Flash or the new html5 360 viewer mode and integrate them in a variety of ways on your web pages.

Not to mention our new website that is dedicated to showcasing the types of samples that can be created with our free 360 degree product viewer - http://www.360-product-views.com/

Full list of updates in 2.5.3:

• [+] Revamped SpotEditor tool; added support for all configuration settings as well as Preview / Publish function
• [+] Added five new samples (Basic, Color, JS, Popup, Phone)
• [+] Added support for loading image / hotspot assets from locations separate from xml config (for CDN, etc)
• [+] Added API for in-place viewer reload using different xml configuration
• [+] Added API setting (flybyJsMenuFix) to fix an issue where Flash may overlap dynamic JavaScript menus
• [+] Added new type of hotspot indicator that pulsates constantly
• [+] Added urlTarget (xml) setting to allow specifying URL open mode on click inside hotspot (_blank, _self)
• [+] Added xml setting (bounce) for viewing when full set of 360 images is not available (e.g., 180-degree rotation)
• [+] Added two xml settings for configuring color of progress animation
• [+] Allowed hotspot popups to close on mouse click
• [+] Removed dimming of product images when activating hotspot popups
• [+] Enabled hotspot disable (xml) setting to also apply in JavaScript mode
• [+] Enabled toolbarBackAlpha (xml) setting to also apply in JavaScript mode
• [+] Enabled disableMouseControl (xml) setting to also apply in JavaScript mode
• [+] Added support for checking viewer version via Firebug
• [!] Fixed static hotspots to prevent browse action when no URL is assigned
• [!] Fixed IE security issue specific to Free edition (presented itself as a jQuery access error in IE statusbar)
• [!] Fixed issue in Webkit browsers where mouse cursor would sometimes change into selection mode on click
• [!] Fixed issue in JavaScript mode where viewer was skipping on a single image during rotation via mouse dragging
• [!] Fixed issue where JavaScript mode was not letting more than one static hotspot
• [!] Updated End-User License Agreement (License.PDF)
• [!] Launched our new website 360-product-views.com with a quick tour of the key product features

Download your free 360 product viewer HERE and join us on Twitter or Facebook for realtime news, updates, and a live dialog!