Bubbli a cool app to see 360 degrees of the world

• Bubbli a free app to shoot 360 degree videos
• Unlike other apps%2C records in video%2C with sound
• Only available for Apple iOS

LOS ANGELES — Shooting pictures and video on our phones is a lot of fun, but let's face it, we're not getting the whole view of the world in our images.

A new app, Bubbli, out just this week, attempts to give us a full 360-degree view in what's known as a photosphere. A full top, bottom, left and right and even behind you shot.

Other apps, such as 360 Panorama and Sphere 360 Camera, have done this by shooting a group of still photos and stitching them together. Bubbli takes video images, with sound, and puts the "bubbles" together more speedily.

We heard about the app when we met tourist Emily Song on a recent trip to New York City, and she showed us her "bubble" from the Grand Canyon.

"It's like a panorama, but better," she said. "It captures everything around you. You can see the sky and hear the sounds."

The app is free, and so far available just on Apple's iOS mobile platform. After you've downloaded the app and opened it up, you click the camera icon to start recording with feet planted firmly on the ground to get the full 360-degree point of view.

The developers instructed me to take a bubble by standing up — not sitting down — and holding the camera at eye level. Start looking straight ahead, then move up and down to your feet, then move left and right, and twist the body around you to capture what's behind you.

Imagine that you're painting when composing. To push the point home, Bubbli has gray strokes within the app, and you need to paint over the gray to finish the image. A percentage bar at the bottom of the window shows you when you've completed the bubble correctly.

My initial bubbles looked lousy — they were full of gray spots — until the developers told me to keep painting over the dead spots, over and over, until they were complete. Now they look great.

"Most bubbles need to be gone over at least 10 times," said co-founder Ben Newhouse. "Don't worry — the software puts it all together."

Readers: Let me know what you think of the app. Follow me on Twitter @jeffersongraham.