Comments on: Magnetometer in next iPhone confirmed?

By: Niko

Niko — Mon, 11 May 2009 20:17:49 +0000

Well as others already have replied below: SO freaking what if Nokia has a compass? That doesn’t put a compass in the new iPhone. Or do you feel the same way about any/all phone that can send text messages: “Well my phone can send text messages already!!” Without knowing much about the Nokia N97 I sincerely doubt that it is even half the fun and has even a fraction of the elegance of an iPhone.

So you just hold on to your Nokia and let the rest of us enjoy the iPhone

Over and out from Denmark

By: Rick B

Rick B — Mon, 11 May 2009 19:14:34 +0000

Now, all we need is a built in taser gun….. for self protection of course…

By: Hfdggfhhgdfh

Hfdggfhhgdfh — Mon, 11 May 2009 06:33:32 +0000

All that and more. But you can keep your keyboards. I don’t need no stinking keyboards. I don’t do buttons anymore…

By: Just Some Guy

Just Some Guy — Sun, 10 May 2009 03:35:48 +0000

GPS will only give you direction if you’re moving, bozo.

By: John Dingler, artist

John Dingler, artist — Sun, 10 May 2009 00:43:55 +0000

Hi Mickis,
So what that Nokia already has a compass, presumably before Apple? Nokia was also first with the smartphone. It may have been first with many other apps/features/capabilities.

It might have a lot of things, but it’s likely that few care enough about a phone compass just to buy a N97.

What is relevant to this report is that the market has a higher chance to embrace an iPhone, as well as to focus on what’s newly available on it, the most important smartphone for consumers, growing in the business space, and gaining significance markets over-all.

By: EB Esquire

EB Esquire — Sun, 10 May 2009 00:36:43 +0000

Would be nice if you could have all this information transmitted (optionally, of course) to the same messaging servers Apple is creating for 3.0, and allowing applications (with need to opt in, of course) to this information, allowing the applications that never took off on the iPhone to actually take off. Things like Whrll, or who’s here, etc. Could actually work, notifying you of when your friends are near you as they can on other platforms where applications can work in the background. Combining the new notification API with a location beacon would be ideal, and some of the above logging points its way to applications being able to take much better advantage of background location logging. For example, all the routing applications need to be continuously active to follow a path. If they are quit, they can only interpolate information. If they had access to the log, they could “fill in the gaps” so to speak on their route. Or better yet, just use this central location log as their routing log. I don’t know about you, but those screenshots tell a lot of really interesting things!

By: Mickis

Mickis — Sat, 09 May 2009 21:41:27 +0000

And where’s the news about a compass in a mobile phone???
Nokia N97’s already got it :0D

By: mrhopkins

mrhopkins — Sat, 09 May 2009 00:05:01 +0000

Can i dump my log in the kitchen sink? or would that backup my NVRAM???Someone please answer??!!

By: John Dingler, artist

John Dingler, artist — Fri, 08 May 2009 20:19:18 +0000

Magnetosomes, magnetotactic bacteria, are biologic magnets used by birds, for example, to guide their inner compass and their sense of direction, giving them ability to distinguish the compass points, allowing them to know when to fly North in the spring and fly South in the fall.

By: John Dingler, artist

John Dingler, artist — Fri, 08 May 2009 18:13:09 +0000

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).

By: celz

celz — Fri, 08 May 2009 17:48:29 +0000

@ 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..

By: Christopher Cox

Christopher Cox — Fri, 08 May 2009 17:19:27 +0000

@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.

By: celz

celz — Fri, 08 May 2009 17:16:12 +0000

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..

By: celz

celz — Fri, 08 May 2009 17:10:14 +0000

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..

By: jonnybruha

jonnybruha — Fri, 08 May 2009 16:46:14 +0000

@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.

By: Steve Soares

Steve Soares — Fri, 08 May 2009 16:36:35 +0000

Next week the I-Phone will be eating cupcake. And for your information the compass is from a developer..

By: ted landry

ted landry — Fri, 08 May 2009 16:00:55 +0000

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.

By: ted landry

ted landry — Fri, 08 May 2009 15:58:38 +0000

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.

By: Peter

Peter — Fri, 08 May 2009 15:18:12 +0000

Only if your GPS is moving! Try to get heading info if you are standing still. Won’t work.

By: indymeh

indymeh — Fri, 08 May 2009 14:49:42 +0000

^ lmao

By: aj

aj — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:22:14 +0000

ok so seriously does anyone actually know what dump log and kitchen sink may be?

By: GM

GM — Fri, 08 May 2009 12:54:09 +0000

No, I sleep with Ted’s wife and when he’s not looking, I teabag his iPhone.

By: Bdizzah

Bdizzah — Fri, 08 May 2009 12:27:44 +0000

@Ted T,
Cave dweller bc people like phisical keyboards????? Wow…Do you sleep with your iphone at night and give your wife the couch?

By: Ted T.

Ted T. — Fri, 08 May 2009 12:17:03 +0000

@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.

By: ryaninc

ryaninc — Fri, 08 May 2009 10:02:38 +0000

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.

By: Smegcat

Smegcat — Fri, 08 May 2009 07:47:02 +0000

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.

By: Turcobabilonesssss

Turcobabilonesssss — Fri, 08 May 2009 07:29:33 +0000

ken unfortunately you was wrong ahah

By: David Thande

David Thande — Fri, 08 May 2009 06:43:14 +0000

And the Kitchen Sink Uses Soap and Water. One so you wash and rinse. Extra App for the Garbage Disposal.

By: bobertp

bobertp — Fri, 08 May 2009 06:38:15 +0000

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.

By: Christopher Cox

Christopher Cox — Fri, 08 May 2009 06:07:10 +0000

@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.