Every year, some company announces a hot new smartphone, and then someone in that company’s marketing department suggests that they should attach said device to a weather balloon, send it into space, and document the entire procedure. From the $25 Raspberry Pi to the three year old iPhone 4, people have taken gizmos, strapped them to a scientific grade weather balloon, and captured photographs. The fact that this is happening regularly is a testament to the advancement of consumer goods, for which we should all be thankful.
That being said, LG has just done what everyone else has already done before them, take their flagship phone and send it on a journey into the clouds. Why? They say it’s to show off the phone’s 13 megapixel camera with optical image stabilization. Is LG one of the first companies to put OIS in a smartphone? Not the very first, that honor goes to Nokia, but LG is definitely the second (HTC One was the first) to do it for an Android phone.
When will other companies jump on the OIS train? Just yesterday there was a rumor out of Korea saying that the Galaxy S5 would have a 16 megapixel OIS camera. You might be thinking it’s too early to talk about the GS5, but if you do the math you’ll quickly discover it’s only half a year away.
