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Using the iPhone Compass app to hang pictures straight
Most people don't even seem to know that an iPhone with iOS 7 comes with a built-in Compass app. Although that app could use some help in terms of accuracy, it also has a feature that works pretty well -- a bubble level. Just launch the Compass app (or tell Siri to "Launch Compass" if you don't remember where you hid it), calibrate it by rolling the little red ball around by tilting the iPhone in all sorts of directions, then look down at the bottom of the display underneath where your latitude and longitude are. Two little white dots indicate that there's another screen that you're not seeing in the Compass app. Swipe the compass to the left, and the level appears! If your iPhone is in a flat orientation, it acts as a 3D bubble level -- perfect for determining if a table or other surface is precisely level. Hold the iPhone up in either a portrait or landscape orientation, and it's a 2D bubble level. Just put the iPhone on top of a picture frame, and you can quickly adjust a photo or painting until your obsessive-compulsive need to have it exactly straight is fulfilled. When the level is perfectly flat or exactly level, it will turn green -- a quick visual validation that you've tweaked the painting just enough to get it straight. If it's even just the slightest amount off, the level will be black and will display the exact angle at which the picture is skewed. What's the strangest thing you've ever done with the level in the iOS Compass app? Let us know in the comments.
Get lost! iPhone compass app struggles in tests
Before you start thinking about relying on the iPhone compass app for your next hiking trip, you might want to read the results of tests performed by TechHive. While some believe that the compass issues are limited to the new iPhone 5s and 5c, the tests showed that the problems go well beyond those two models. The TechHive team used the Compass app in both iOS 6 and iOS 7 on a range of phones from the iPhone 4 to the iPhone 5s and 5c. All phones were re-calibrated several times, and the testers found that the results varied greatly regardless of location (inside or outside). The expensive phones were tested against a reliable and cheap -- US$15 -- Suunto A-10 compass. Tests with an iPhone 5s showed a variation of 10 to 22 degrees, while a 5c showed more consistent results of 9 to 12 degrees off. The iPhone 4s showed an average of 14.5 degrees variation. TechHive found that the worst deviations came from the last year's iPhone 5, with one phone showing anywhere from a 15- to 28-degree deviation. By the way, TechHive took on the testing initially as a way of verifying Gizmodo's claim that the iPhone 5s "level sensor" is out of whack. TechHive found that to work just fine, but noticed that the direction-finding capability was horribly wrong. It should be noted that the test results are associated with the Compass app, not the iPhone's GPS capabilities. However, it's worth considering the purchase of an inexpensive -- and much more accurate -- traditional magnetic compass if you're heading for the deep woods.
