iPhone 4 compass in NYC - issues?

[JulianL]

I visited NYC (Manhattan) a few weeks ago and almost every time I used the compass app I got the <there's too much interference, do the figure-of-eight thing to re-calibrate> message pop up. I went into the Apple store on Prince Street and asked a member of staff there about it and he said that he'd lived in Manhattan all his life and he's always had the same issue as well. It does seem to make some sense since one is typically surrounded by lots of metal on all sides due to the steel skeletons of all the tall buildings and a lot of the time probably also steel meshing under one's feet from subways, utility tunnels and all the access plates on the sidewalks (at least in areas like SoHo).

Do other people visiting or living in NYC get this <interference ... re-calibrate> message a lot when using the compass?

- Julian

 

[madKIR]

Oh, a lot! I had it with my previous 3G S most of the time and now I'm experiencing the same thing with my iPhone 4. Kinda got used to it already.

 

[alent1234]

i guess you haven't noticed the tall buildings and electricity everywhere. i have better luck with compass in queens and the other 4 boroughs

 

[w3iiipu]

i was just in nyc this apst weekend
used the compass once and had to do the figure of 8 thingy...
i also noticed gps on google map takes alot longer to pin point ur location.

 

[jacollins]

Is there any way to turn that calibration off? Let's say I just want to look at the map with GPS. It's pretty annoying to have to recalibrate every time.

 

[alent1234]

you're not going to get an accurate location without calibration. the tall buildings cause the radio waves to bounce all around making it hard to use GPS

 

[ulbador]

you're not going to get an accurate location without calibration. the tall buildings cause the radio waves to bounce all around making it hard to use GPS

The compass calibration shouldn't have anything to do with using GPS (as long as those tall buildings aren't blocking the view of the sky too much)

 

[Eric8199]

I visited in May and the compass on my 3GS was basically useless. Can't tell you how many times I got off the subway and went the wrong direction before I quit trying to use it. Didn't have too many gps problems though. Although my iPhone 4 gps seems to be more accurate. Or maybe I am imagining that. Haha