With all the hubbub about the iPhone 5s’s wonky accelerometer, which has thrown off the iPhone’s accuracy by a couple of degrees, you’d think that iPhones from the first-generation to the iPhone 5 had perfectly accurate compasses, wouldn’t you? But such is not the case.
Over at Techhive, they tested six different iPhones, and it turned out not a single one of them could tell where truth north is. Sometimes, in fact, they were up to 20 degrees off.
On Thursday we ran a series of tests, and found the Compass app in both iOS 6 and iOS 7 reported screwy results across a wide range of iPhones—from the iPhone 4 to the 5s and 5c. We we re-calibrated each phone multiple times, we and often found the results changed wildely from one test to the next… The inconsistencies occurred in multiple locations around our office, and continued when we took our testing outside.
This is a great reason not to rely on your iPhone when traveling in the wilderness, but to be fair, doesn’t have much to do with the accuracy issues of the iPhone 5s and 5c. The new accelerometer in these devices have a bias that hasn’t been calibrated for, leading to issues using the accelerometer in-apps… for example, in driving games.
Source: Techhive
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
8 responses to “Turns Out No iPhone Can Tell Where True North Is”
Additionally to the comments from bigfoot (on the techhive site) I would like to add that I just made some test with my iPhones available at work, two iPhone 4s and two iPhone 5s. While standing still I also got a very bad readings compared to the magnetic north that my compass was showing but as soon as I started moving after 10m the application automatically calibrated to show the magnetic north with very little variation, it was only max 1-2 degrees off. I think they should be more careful with their test and statements.
Ummm… you do realize that magnetic north is not true north? The “magnetic declination” varies, depending upon where you are on Earth. Furthermore, the magnetic north pole drifts every year, changing the declination of any given location from one year to the next. NO compass reads true north, anywhere.
I also noticed that the compass in the picture is pointing directly at the iPhone. This is most likely because the needle in a compass is a magnet. It is probably attracted to the metal in the iPhone, so of course it would point towards it.
Aryugaet (from techhive site)
10/18/2013 08:58 AM PDT
An office team of electronics geeks can hardly devise a valid test for anything, much less how to actually test for magnetic north. I knew the whole article would be silly and useless when it states “in multiple locations around our office, and continued when we took our testing outside.” Nobody in their most drunken state of mind would even dare to look at a compass, much less use one in a test, while indoors. That is something you do to impress your grandfather when you buy the phone. Where did you go outdoors? …the parking lot? …buildings nearby? …hilly terrain? Then you used a Walmart Boy Scout compass as a basis of comparison. Who calibrated the compass?
Magnetic lines can vary within fractions of an inch of each other, especially if there are any ferris metals (belts, jewelry, artificial joints, etc.), high voltage (a 110kv power line within a mile could affect it), or electronics nearby (other powered up phones, cars, laptops, etc.).
To do a serious test, you go to the top of a mountain (no radio towers nearby), to the middle of a large body of water, or a large expanse of flat land. Then you get a surveyor to go with you and use him and his equipment as the standard.
If you want to be cheap about it, all airport runways are designated using magnetic bearings. For example, a good place in your area would be to test them at the McInnis County Park (secluded), sighting directly down the runway of the San Rafael Airport. If you were perfectly lined up with the center line, your compass should read 220 degrees.
I strongly recommend you find someone that has a modicum of engineering ability. While you’re at it, find someone that has a computer with a grammar checker… or someone that knows fundamental English.
The worst part: I’m the one that is unemployed.
Well put! I was thinking the same thing about how the were coming up with a compass that pointed to True North…
Unemployed and looking for IT, here as well…
I’ve owned every model that had a compass, and none of them were reliable. I’m just amazed nobody else has noticed this before. I figured it was for the reasons adrianpintea cited. Fortunately, I don’t have much need for a compass. I wish they would remove the silly compass app; if I needed one, I could just get it from the app store. It’s more useful in navigation apps, where I have found it usually good enough; when streets are at right angles, 10 degrees is close enough to tell the right one, although sometimes it fails at that. BTW, the compass app gives you the option of pointing to true north or magnetic north. Using location data, it’s trivial to determine true north – if you have an accurate bearing on magnetic north.
I’m a geocacher and use my iphone all the time in the wilderness. The iPhone 5s is more accurate thean the 4s was. Also I compensate for the upto 16ft variance it has. Even $1000 GPSr has a 10ft variance. In fact at a geocaching competiton a few years ago an iphone 4 was more accurate than $1000 GpS so many factors effect both such as tree cover, weather conditions, etc.
I’ve had problems with the iPad and iPhone using the Star Walk app that uses the compass function to find stars and constellations etc…. I’ve found that the best thing to do is do a full reboot before using the app, otherwise it can get North a bit wrong, and once or twice I’ve seen N actually noticeably drifting sideways over the period I was using the app…. A reboot sorted it those times too.