Magnetometer in next iPhone confirmed?
We just got a couple images from one of our Apple ninjas and it appears to show a compass option in one of the debugging menus. Our source says this is obviously for a built-in magnetometer in the upcoming iPhone hardware revision and with what’s already been reported, we’d have to agree. One more image after the break!
Compass also helps to tag ur photo so u know which direction the camera is facing. Great 4 holiday and scenery shots.
So, wait, this thing will only Log GPS in MA? What if you live in NY? Man, that’s cold.
thats not it also has a sweet utility knife function.. i think apple said the processor is so fast the battery cant handle the compass and knife simultaneously.. so you have to use one or the other..
“…As I said on Engadget, if the rumors pan out and we see a 3rd gen iPhone with 5mp cam, …”
I hope I am wrong about this, but I’d be surprised to see a 5mp camera sensor in the next iPhone. Shipping camera resolutions always are limited by CPU processing power and the cost of the most commonly available storage technology. For a 5mp camera to be useful today, Apple would have to increase the iPhone Flash storage capacity to a minimum of 64GB to accommodate the larger MPEG 4 movie and still image files. I just don’t think the industry is ready to make that storage (and price point) leap. In fact, 128GB storage cards would be even better.
This would mean that Apple then would have to offer a 128GB or larger capacity to differentiate the iPod Touch from the next generation iPhone.
I think it’s more reasonable to expect 720p HD quality (1280×720), and (depending on pixel size) an (approximate) 3GB, 1/4 CMOS camera sensor. Minimally, that would only require about 2.7 megapixels…
(1280 x 720 = 921,600 pixels x3RGB pixels = 2, 764,800 or 2.7 megapixels).
@Ken,
Yes you do. I have been in a new place countless times completely lost not knowing where I am at. My iPhone and TomTom can’t tell me where to go unless I am moving. Often times I drive, only to realize I am going the wrong way down the street because the GPS can’t tell me which direction I am facing unless I am already driving. The magnetometer will tell me EXACTLY which direction I am facing, and exact directions from minute zero of me needing to get somewhere. Much more useful.
Many uses for a compass. If GPS not available (urban canyon, tree cover) or out of cell range, etc), combine with street view as a way to control or identify what you are looking at, point at night sky to identify objects, control game play using rotation, combine with accel and processing for vectors way too small for GPS to detect. I could go on but it is getting late.
And the Kitchen Sink Uses Soap and Water. One so you wash and rinse. Extra App for the Garbage Disposal.
ken unfortunately you was wrong ahah
Finally, an integrated dump log. I’ve been keeping my dump log in a paper notebook by the toilet (eg, July 15: 7″, light brown, bits of corn, floater). I’m glad that Apple has finally realized how important this functionality is, for a latest-gen smartphone. I will definitely be asking about this at the Apple Store.
Speaking as a G1 user, which has a compass feature like this, I can say that it comes in surprisingly useful. It was sort of a “meh” feature for me when I first read about it, but I find myself using it more often than I’d expect. Good to see more phones adding the feature.
@jbela “Finally. My cell phone has had kitchen sink since 2005! Way to stay current apple.”
Yeah, because your phone had a decent Web Browser in 2005 — sure it did. All of you feature nuts: the original iPhone had the features people actually wanted, namely a first rate UI, Web Browser, Video iPod and Visual Voice Mail. Now it has everything else too, but there is a reason why some of these features were lower priority than getting the basics right, which no one else had come anywhere close to doing.
Hardware keyboard: Not happening. Ever. There will be third party bluetooth keyboards eventually for the still resisting cave dwellers. The one feature that did matter is horizontal typing in Mail, SMS and Notes — and that is in the iPhone 3.0 software.
@Ted T,
Cave dweller bc people like phisical keyboards????? Wow…Do you sleep with your iphone at night and give your wife the couch?
No, I sleep with Ted’s wife and when he’s not looking, I teabag his iPhone.
ok so seriously does anyone actually know what dump log and kitchen sink may be?
^ lmao
Only if your GPS is moving! Try to get heading info if you are standing still. Won’t work.
it already has a gps dumbass… and multitasking isn’t yet possible unless you want poor battery life. notification services will work fine in the meantime.
a compass would be a GREAT addition… and spawn all kinda of useful apps..
so learn what is happening “steve”, your comment is pointless otherwise.
But the G1 doesn’t do anything with it since no developers are developing for the G1. The iPhone and iPod Touch is where everything will happen over the next few decades… the Android is going to end up like Linux… nobody will ever use it.
Next week the I-Phone will be eating cupcake. And for your information the compass is from a developer..
@HD Boy, I don’t think you have any idea what you’re talking about.
Standalone 5mp cameras were available and popular when 2gb memory cards were not only expensive, but also the largest available and people were able to save thousands of pictures on them without complaints. I have yet to meet a person with even a 12mp camera that complains about how they can’t store enough photos on 8gb of storage (I hear DSLR users complain about it all the time, but cell phones don’t take RAW images either).
Nokia (and several other manufacturers now) have been using 5mp sensors in mobile devices as early as April of 2007 and none of them had any problems with storage space either (when those devices were also limited to storage spaces as small as 4gb at most).
So yeah, the industry is more than “ready” to make that leap because it’s already been done by everyone else and then some for a long time now.
@Ted T, on par with this conversation, a lot of people did have those features closer to 2006 and early 2007 as opposed to when the iPhone came out. Granted, the experience on the iPhone is undoubtedly better for web browsing, a lot of S60 phones still support features the iPhone has not yet touched, even with the 3.0 software. If Apple does make the right choice and throw in a decent 5mp camera, they will be the ones catching up on missing features, not the other way around.
look at all these fan boys in a bunch.. lmao.. a compass is lame but it cant hurt.. and actually the g1 does have developers.. they made a metal detector out of the g1 compass.. and if the iphone had decent gps it would give you the heading just by walking a few steps..
and for some reason multi tasking is possible for everyone else.. maybe everyone was right when they said a sealed battery was a stupid idea.. i jus pop a spare battery in my touch pro..
@Celz,
GPS is only accurate 3 to 15 meters. So if you want it to get a good location you have to walk 3 to 15 meters. That is only in perfect conditions. If you are in a really busy city with lots of tall buildings you are not going to get 3 meter accuracy, so you will have to walk a lot more to get direction. With a magnetometer there is no walking to figure out your heading. you just pull out the phone and go. That will make worlds of difference to lots of people.
G1 has lots of developers, but mainly a hacking community. They do not have support of many major developers as they are all working on the iPhone. I liken Android as the Linux of the consumer PC market. While major developers are writing for Windows, there is a hacking community writing open source software for Linux.
@ chris cox even tho the actual map accuracy is variable motion is detected so upon walking a few steps garmin will give me a direction and with a few more steps an actual speed.. in so cal sprint is very accurate around 5 to 10 feet at the worst.. and for the G1 id rather have the hackers my touch pro and your iphone would be pretty basic compared to what they are if these guys didnt fix apple and ms mistakes.. unless we are talking a 3d game or somthing the developers community will have a quality close and sometimes better than these big companies offer.. besides the G1 has opera mini 4.2 if there are any iphone apps better than that its few..
If Apple or a developer could harness the magnetic properties of magnetosomes, magnetotactic bacteria, and somehow embed them into the iPhone, then the gadget would become the first biomachine smartphone that was also a compass. The control mechanism could be the manner that you rubbed or “petted” the device.
I can see the tremendous value in any compass/phone. The ability to detect magnetic heading would be of invaluable use to several consumer (hikers, truck delivery), civil government (firefighters, police, surveyors, rescue personnel), and military segments (soldiers in hostile territory, soldiers lost).