Have you ever felt dissatisfied with the native iOS compass? Electric Pocket’s Compass Eye – Marine Navigation and Bearings AR Compass does a good job of showing you where you’re facing at land, sea, or air. Hold up your device, and you’ve got a directional window to the world; hold it flat, and you’ll have a compass overlaying a map.

Review
Compass Eye – Marine Navigation and Bearings AR Compass is a universal app for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. Since it was designed by a skipper, it is especially suited to aid navigation on the sea. At the same time, it works equally well everywhere else.

This augmented reality compass works hand in hand with the camera and allows for up to eight times zoom. If you don’t want the AR camera view, you’ll have to hold your device flat, which will load an optional map, assuming you have internet access. The app allows for back, transit, and collision-bearing markers, and colored bearing lines that you can drag. The different colors of red, yellow, and green will help sailors in steering their ship. You may also snap a photo with the bearing lines to keep track of where you’ve been and check your position on your sailor’s chart. Additional GPS bearings are provided at the top right corner of the screen.

Compass Eye functions very well, although there are just a few small minor details that keep it from being the perfect compass for me—someone who is no sailor. First, I would prefer to be able to hold my device in any orientation I like. The AR compass currently is only available in landscape mode. It feels more comfortable, however, to hold my iPhone in portrait mode using one hand. And especially with the iPad’s much larger screen, I don’t see why we can’t use the compass vertically. Second, I’d like to be able to use the compass map overlay in an upright position too, instead of just flat. So a separate toggle button for the map would preferable to the current accelerometer control. My last tiny quibble relates to zooming. Pinch to zoom just always feels more natural than having to tap + and – buttons. But as I mentioned earlier, this is a good compass all the same.

Recommendation
Compass Eye – Marine Navigation and Bearings AR Compass, currently available in the App Store for $4.99, is highly recommended to anyone who has always wished for enhancements to the native iOS compass. If you’re the sort to wonder which direction you are on a map, this app will be a huge help. For sailors, this universal app is practically a must-buy, since it was made specially for you.

Photos

Note: A promotional code was provided by the creator for use in this article.

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