Anyone with an iPhone 3GS experiencing compass interference errors? It seems that the issue has only come up for me once or twice, but we are hearing reports from others that the compass interference messages seems to be pretty much all they see when they launch the compass app. What say you?
iPhone 3GS Compass Interference?
Posted by Andru Edwards on June 20, 2009 at 04:30 PM
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Wow. This compass app DOES NOT work. At least reliably. When I first tried in front of my computer, I got interference. Fair enough. I made the “figure 8” gesture as it recommended and moved away, and it seemed quite accurate.
Then I got in a car. The car speakers (I’m guessing) provided way too much interference and consistently North was west. No amount of gesturing, resetting, or messing with the car speakers mattered. I thought this particularly troubling, especially considering I might really like to use this functionality while traveling.
Now, 24 hours from having this phone, the compass app is WILDLY innaccurate/inconsistent. Do I have a malfunctioning phone, or is this the norm?
(Also, my battery life seems ridiculously terrible in the little time I’ve had the phone. I haven’t been using very heavily, but there seems to be a HEAVY battery drain.)
I’m getting a sinking feeling, and perhaps early buyer’s remorse….
Posted by Andrew J. on June 20, 2009 at 10:03 PM | #
From Apple’s compass interference support page:
“Some areas have more magnetic interference than others. For example, your car’s dashboard may have a high level of magnetic interference. If you wish to mount iPhone 3G S on a car’s dashboard and use Compass or Maps, do not wave the device in a figure 8 to calibrate. Instead, mount iPhone 3G S, open Compass or Maps, and disregard the message to calibrate. iPhone 3G S will eventually re-calibrate after several turns. Note that it may need to periodically recalibrate while you are driving, depending on the level of magnetic interference present where you have it mounted.”
Posted by Powers Foss on June 21, 2009 at 05:14 AM | #
Yeah having the same issues north is south and south is north no matter how many times I recalibrate. have had the same issues with the compass outside away from any obvious interference.
As to the battery issue I think that it is draining rather quickly as well and have bluetooth/wifi turned off. Not sure what the issue is.
However aside from the issues above and a few other annoying issues - like not being able to add bluetooth on/off as an app on the main screen. This is by far the best phone I have used to date. BTW this is my first iPhone.
Posted by iHavoc on June 26, 2009 at 02:16 PM | #
if you rotate the phone (don’t just keep the display face up). twirl it around in a figure eight.
then it should work right away. at least, that’s what I did.
Posted by paul rivon on June 30, 2009 at 01:05 AM | #
yeah, mine seems to be about 10 degrees off, on average. anybody else? i have it set for true north so this should account for magnetic declination. i can use a different phone right next to it and that other phone gets a different read, which seems to be more on-target. hmmm…
Posted by c on June 30, 2009 at 06:22 AM | #
My 3GS was literally twirling the compass in a circle several times on my way to work this morning. Most of the drive it thought I was driving East (I wasn’t—I was traveling West) and driving in between two streets about two hundred feet apart through buildings.
I think I’ll call AT&T and see if this is abnormal.
BTW: First Iphone. Battery life compared to my Motorola Q9H 3G running windows 6.1 is wretched. Getting the iphone to last the entire day without a charge-up is a challenge.
Excited about the phone & awesome interface…the functionality…not so much.
Posted by Eric on July 01, 2009 at 11:04 AM | #
My compass app is still unreliable; at this point, I’m resigned to not using it. But I’m still concerned for apps that might make use of the magnetometer functionality.
P.S. — As for battery life, this may sound elementary, but I let the battery drain completely before recharging (twice consecutively), and I’ve subsequently had MUCH better battery life. I’d forgotten that I’d done the same for my previous phone with similar improved results. I wonder why Apple doesn’t make this a standard suggestion in its literature.
Posted by Andrew J. on July 01, 2009 at 11:38 AM | #
Compass in the car:
My iphone 3gs just cannot use the compass in the car. To say it’s magnetic interference is bizarre because I have a GPS with built in compass and it seems to work fine. I never expected the compass to be accurate, just to be able to point the map in roughly the direction i’m facing, but the calibration message is so bloody annoying!
Battery:
My first day with the iphone 3gs nearly reduced me to tears when my battery lasted only a few hours but if you fully charge the battery then completely run it down (until the iphone can’t even swtich on) then charge it back to 100% a few times then this really does make a massive difference. Also, switching off Bluetooth (iphone isn’t compatible with any of my bluetooth peripherals anyway) and switching off ‘Ask to join networks’ on WiFi makes a huge difference, as does switching off push messaging and switching off 3G when you’re not going to be using any data. Apple should really have an economy mode switch which does all this in one go to save battery power but now I’m going off topic. Sorry.
Posted by lexusperplexus on July 16, 2009 at 06:34 AM | #
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