3Gs "compass"

[NotCrazy]

ever since i got my 3Gs the compass component has always been "unreliable" at best, most of the time it points vaguely north..ish and other times it will jump sporadically from one direction to another, especially if there are any significant electrical devices such as a TV or computer within 5 meters.

this has not bothered me in the past as i have no need for a compass and i always thought of it as a fairly trivial gimmick designed as a selling point for people who love pointless gadgets, but now that a lot of these augmented reality apps rely on it to work i find i am more interested in having a compass that works

... so to make a long question short?

is the compass always fairly crappy or is it just my phone and should i take it in to get fixed?

 

[Alli]

Is it "crappy" everywhere or just in some places? I find that mine works great, unless I'm holding the iPhone in the car. That area directly behind the steering wheel is too full of signals for the compass to work at all.

 

[NotCrazy]

pretty much all of the time. definitely worse around electronics. i should try it out in the country not close to anything like that [probably when i will need it most haha]

 

[ghostface147]

It's a useless function on the iPhone. I don't use it.

 

[JustinHorn]

My compass is wrong 90% of the time. It usually is about 90-180 degrees off. It's pretty funny when I'm driving and it's pointing off to the left of the direction of travel.

The compass isn't that important to me, but there are some cases, like when I'm visiting NYC and you pop out of a subway and you aren't sure which way is north.

 

[NotCrazy]

yea like i said it's not something i was concerned about before. just now with things like ubanspoons 'scope' view it would be nice if i could use it without all the locations just jumping and spinning around like some sort of crazy circus ride.
my main concern was that it was just my phone but if it's a common issue then i don't really care. thanks!!

 

[sheriff]

my phone must be broken, my compass works fine outside...and matches up with two other compasses I own...