HTC HD2 Compass app demoed
November 7th, 2009 | 
Author:
Not the best demonstration of the software functionality, but the above YouTube video does show the HTC HD2 Compass application in action.
The software makes use of the built-in digital compass and allows one to mark a spot on the built-in Google map and then navigate back to it using a combination of the digital compass and GPS.
As of yet HTC has not released any SDKs for their sensors, which unfortunately mean software that take advantage of this functionality will have to await the reverse engineering of HTC’s code.
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Posted in htc leo, new device, news, software | 
Tags: digital compass, htc hd2, htc leo, sdk, software
Anyone else can't wait for the HD2 fervour to die down? Getting kind of sick that every second post on this site has been HD2-related for at least a month now.
We've already seen pictures of the compass application… where is the excitement in buying an HD2 anyway when you've seen it every which way on video? Seen unboxing, seen the first turning on of the phone, seen all the HTC apps, seen how WM6.5 runs on it, etc. If I was buying an HD2 I'd make a point of only watching the generic reviews so I could experience all the fun stuff myself first-hand.
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Foamy Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Blasphemy!
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Lennard Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
well, I will take all the news I can get about this device, it doesn't matter what someone says, there's nothing like first hand experience. so all the news about it is good for me, because it won't take away from the experience I will get from the device in my hand.
and yes, I think you're the only one who can't waiy for people's excitement to die down about this device.
can I ask what phone you're currently using?
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Jos Dewey Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 12:03 am
I'm using an iPhone – hahaha! No, I have the original GSM Omnia.
And how can you tell that I'm the only one? I guess you are aware of what's going on in everyone else's minds, right?
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Lennard Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 12:08 am
nope, if I knew what was going on in everyone's minds I would be a rich man right now leading the world to what I think it should be…..however, I dont' have that ability.
and yeah, it was just my wild guess
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Christopher Hippolyte Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 12:07 am
Could not agree with you more Joe. If there was at least coverage of other devices to be released it would be tolerable. But this business of every 2 out of 3 posts being about the HD2 is a bit much.
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Lennard Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 12:21 am
jos, I guess you're not the only one then….
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Foamy Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
what other devices are there? i cant think of any new ones that haven't had news posted here.
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pinguino1 Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 12:30 am
Hi Joe,
I'm reading all the comments here and I noticed there are too many posts about you.
I can't wait for the fervour to die down and here something more about HD2
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Jos Dewey Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 1:29 am
God, how old are you? Your insult suggests to me you're probably still in elementary school.
Until the HD2 came out I didn't know WM had fanboys as annoying and useless as Apple. I say something critical about a phone, and that results in personal insults being thrown at me – that's the sign of real fanboyism… when you feel personally offended by comments about a product, a product which you most likely don't even own yet,
I didn't even say anything bad about the HD2, just the coverage its been getting…
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Foamy Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
I wonder if WMP has support for excluding tags? you should email to ask them. that would solve all your problems.
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HD2 might be a great organizer and mediaplayer but lack of dedicated Appstore generated with a dedicated SDK like samsung did for their Omnias is just stupid waste of hardware. I guess hardware accerelated games with eye catching opengl gfx on a WM device keeps existing in my fantasy and HTC still did not learn anything from the ihype
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CT123 Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 8:44 am
100% agree. no SDK = waste of hardware. I just don't get HTC.
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I wouldnt mind watching all these videos if they werent so crappy. I'd rather not see them being posted at all.
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You shouldn't need a dedicated HTC sensor SDK for the digital compass. The WM intermediate GPS driver and even the raw NMEA strings provided by GPS COM drivers support providing directional information. If HTC hasn't integrated their digital compass with these, that's the main problem.
Developers don't want to have to write many different versions of their applications to use each phones features, they want the existing standard APIs to be used that work across devices from different manufacturers.
Obviously while WM doesn't have a standard generic sensor API (at least I don't think that it does), the more recent sensors such as accelerometers, proximity sensors etc. require vendor specific APIs, unless the vendors get together to provide a standard interface, which is unlikely.
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Foamy Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
What do they have to gain from not using a standard interface? if anything it would increase sales from better software.
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This is why Developers tell explicit which devices their software supports, in most cases popular ones, for example navigation software use specific Gps receivers or i assume also SPBmobileshell implement specific GPUs via Opengl.
But i also agree, developers who focus on hardware independance might use standard APIs like direkt3Dm,direktshow which i guess are simple fakes that emulate hardware functions by software algorhytms, that ends up with poor performance.
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