Galaxy S4 getting 'Orb' Photo Sphere-style app, report says

Samsung's Galaxy S4 will be lifting a camera trick from the brilliant Google Nexus 4, if fresh rumours concerning the upcoming mobile are to be believed.

The South Korean tech giant's next flagship will play host to an app called 'Samsung Orb', Androidgeeks reports, claiming to have received word from an engineer within the Galaxy S4's development team.

The app will apparently take a 360-degree photo of your surroundings, which sounds very similar to the Photo Sphere app on the Nexus 4, which enjoys the feature as part of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.

If the so-called 'Orb' app is anything like Google's own, you'll then be able to scroll around in it, like a Google Street View image. To take the photo you'd probably have to point the S4 at different points in your surroundings in sequence, which is how it works on the Nexus 4.

That mysterious source reportedly reckons Samsung is working closely with Facebook, enabling you to upload the panoramic shots just as you would a normal photo.

Samsung has confirmed nothing regarding its follow-up to the Galaxy S3, so take all of this with a pinch or two of good quality sea salt. I can see why Samsung would want to put its own spin on some of the photo tricks in Android 4.2 Jelly Bean however, as it offers smart phone owners some seriously snazzy tricks.

As well as Photo Sphere, you can turn your panoramic photos into tiny worlds, of the kind seen below. Samsung will be wary of Nexus devices' vanilla Android offering more tricks than their own mobiles, and will want to pack the Galaxy S4 with bespoke Samsung apps and features.

Are you keen on the Galaxy S4, or would you rather trouser Google's shockingly cheap Nexus 4? Perhaps the recently unveiled HTC One has turned your head with its 'ultrapixel' camera? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook wall.