Sergey Sharybin added sphere and tube mapping options to the image node yesterday:

[12ccac6] Cycles: Support sphere mapping for the image texture

[dda3554] Cycles: Support tube projection for images

This way Cycles finally becomes feature-full on image projections compared to Blender Internal and Gooseberry Project Team could finally finish the movie.

What is it?

Just the same mapping types we’ve had in BI for years ;)

Sphere mapping allows us, for example, to painlessly map a texture of the Earth onto a sphere without needing to do any UV mapping.

How do I use it?

Simply change the projection method on you image node from Flat to Sphere or Tube, and probably you’ll want to use generated coordinates.