Magnetometer finding its way into next iPhone?
By Ross Miller 
posted May 7th 2009 7:44PM
posted May 7th 2009 7:44PM
posted May 7th 2009 7:44PM
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I also have the aforementioned lag problems on my 1st gen 8GB model. I have the latest firmware, and I make a regular habit of completely shutting down and restarting the device (at least once a day).
It doesnt require a magnet to make a compass.
These phones can know which way is North by pinging the Satellites and towers. GPS coordination requires 3 satellites. The phone uses regular towers to communicate. So by pinging these and combining all those data it can tell which way is North.
A magnet would F everything up inside.
A GPS can't tell direction only position. It can sort of figure out which way you are pointed by your movement because you usually walk/drive/ecg forward but if you spun the phone around it would have no clue.
And magnets screwing up LCDs and SSDs, not a chance. Are you from 1999 by chance?
No it could only find position not direction with GPS and cell towers. It can find direction only if it is moving at a speed where the GPS can actually measure accurately.
yeah the magnets are a problem for me too. i keep my floppy disks in the same pocket as my phone. maybe in the 90s this won't be an issue.
Not to be argumentative but you can determine direction with gps/tower pings. Not with great accuracy mind you but you can get a general direction of it. Though not something you would want to rely on.
KevinC
KevinC: Uhh... no.... you can't actually. If your phone is sitting still, you can tell where the phone is, but not which way it's pointing. Even if you somehow devised a way to tell which direction a signal is received from, things like multipathing blow that idea out of the water. Just because a transmitter is north of you, doesn't mean the signal will come into your phone from that direction. Some of the mid to high range GPS units out there have a built in electronic compass for this same reason.
the carrier and battery bar is cut off at the top of the pic. I think that makes this pic fake because iphones easily take a screenshot of the WHOLE phone.
I think an iPhone with a keyboard would be totally awesome. Until a new Snapdragon phone comes out that is.
cant someone even make a third party keyboard once 3.0 comes out?? like attach it to the power plug or something??
You could then theoretically use your iPhone as a makeshift Gaussmeter then too? Granted it would be a one time use if the field was strong enough but still, it could be done!
Now, are they talking about releasing this in the OS 3.0 or the new iPhone?
im guessing that the current iphone doesn't have a compass so you wont be able to use it anyway. This is hardware not just software.
Finally, I can log my dumps!
Finally, I can dump logs!
Give it a year and we will have the Starbucks Crew telling US Apple invented the Compass.
How come when Apple does it, it's called "following the example" but when other companies do it, it's called "me too" or "cloning Apple"
Apple added compass features to the API a while ago. In the current hardware it just reports your heading based on recent position fixes. They can obviously update this to use a real compass if the hardware gets it.
Personally I think this will be a great feature and I already have plans for what to do with it (see http://panoramascope.com/). I really really hope that they add it to the iPod touch as well as the iPhone, though: for e.g. a map viewer / navigation device, I don't want an expensive phone that I don't need.
What's a magnetometer? Do you mean hall-sensor (detects magnetic fields), or a compass, or a gyroscope?
You live in an era where Wikipedia exists. Good gawd, man, get off your arse! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetometer
The fact that my aging HTC Touch 3G and any Windows Mobile device capable of GPS can already function as a digital compass tells me that the next iPhone is still trying to catch up. It's a great device for the youngsters, no doubt about that with all the games and entertaining apps in the App Store. But a serious user will still go back to Windows Mobile for it's genuine functionality. Any seasoned smartphone user who has been using smartphones for years would agree that at the end of the glitz and glamor, we still turn back to our trusty Touch HD, Touch Pro 2, and TG01...