Hands on with the HTC Compass app

In this video, we take a quick outdoor demo of the HTC Compass app available for free to all HTC WP7 owners.

The compass is decently accurate, but the accuracy can change depending on what angle you are holding the phone at. Typically, holding the phone parallel to the ground or at a 45 degree angle towards you is the best.

Having the compass superimposed over Bing Maps is really great since you can always tell which direction you’re facing on what street, but it lacks the ability to give you solid directions or searching capabilities. You can pick a point on the map and it will draw a route for you to follow, but it won’t give you text directions or estimated travel time. And you cannot search for locations or addresses; you can only pick a point on the map. A compass built directly into Bing Maps is still desperately needed, but a standalone compass app like this is at least something. And until Microsoft opens the compass API to developers, the HTC Compass is the only compass you will have for now.

If you have a HTC device, visit the Marketplace and download Compass for free.