After eight months of research, a father-son team in New York attached an iPhone to a weather balloon and sent it soaring into space. Over the course of seventy minutes, the phone, with video camera running, climbed to about 100,000 feet, or 19 miles.  After the balloon burst, the iPhone came hurtling back to earth in a custom-built carrier and landed 30 miles outside of the city. Using the phone's GPS, though, dad was able to drive out, retrieve it and upload the video to Vimeo.

Spend seven minutes and watch it. The phone spent ten minutes climbing through clouds but, twelve minutes into its trip, emerged, 20,000 feet up. It continued to climb, the earth reflecting a brilliant light below, until it reached a point where the curvature of our planet is clearly visible and awe inspiring.

UPDATE: As a reader pointed out, the iPhone was sent up to be used solely as a tracking device. The recording was made with an HD camera. (Read more at CNET.)