The iPhone Compass
Some rather horny commentators are dismissive of a compass and its importance in the iPhone, but here’s why I think it’s actually more interesting than people think:
- Knowing which way the phone is facing when it’s on can tell you which way the user is facing.
- Knowing which way the user is facing allows you to do fun things with mapping and social media. Think turning around in place and watching Google StreetView spin to match.
- Navigation, especially when walking, would be strongly assisted by knowing which way the user is facing, and therefore probably walking.
Not a huge change, but it’s a refinement, and since you can get a very small compass, it won’t consume much space. More sensors is better than less.
This entry was posted at 3:47 pm on 4 June 2009 and is filed under Mac. You can follow any responses to this entry through the post-specific RSS 2.0 feed.
How the hell did we make our way around (hiking, as an example) without all of this technology? I tell ya, we’ve become so dependent on it, we’d be lost, literally AND figuratively.
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Don’t disagree, would like to see a compass capability, but GPS should actually take care of issue #3 in your list. My hiking GPS does this without a magnetic compass. Of course, you could take advantage of your movement direction AND which way the user (device) is facing, so that you could do some 1st person like effects – walk down the street, turn your head (device) left, then right, mapping software tracks all of those movements.
And jeez! That’s a small compass!!