Hi all,
i’m really new to e/OS (packaged with my new FairPhone 4 murena phone ) and I’m glad to discover the ecosystem.
I’m trying to use Magic Earth (which is installed by default) but I can’t figure out if it’s possible to show on the map the direction the phone is looking at.
Do you know if this feature exists ? It was really useful of google maps and I hope something similar exists on Magic Earth.
If not, perhaps another google-free tool provides it ?
This has been annoying me too. Magic Earth does not use the compass on my FP3. I always have to guess which way to start driving before it figures out my heading.
Other map based apps such as PlugShare have no problem showing the compass direction. I recommend the app Trail Sense for testing the compass.
This is the default state of the view and the icon when I open Magic Earth, North is fixed …
When I tap on the icon, the view and the icon change to a dynamic mode, spinning according to the compass and the position of the phone …
Tapping on the icon again will switch to the fixed North view again.
(Same principle in general as in a bunch of other map Apps including OsmAnd, although other map Apps including OsmAnd may already indicate the viewing direction in some form in any view.)
I noticed the view needs to be centered on the current location for this. Switching to the spinning view doesn’t work if the view is off by some distance to the current location, indicated by the distance being displayed in the bottom left corner (just drag the map a little to any direction to get this) …
Tapping on this distance icon will center the view on the current location again.
The direction indicator spins fine when I’m moving, based on GPS data. It does not show an arrow or “beam” like other apps do, and doesn’t change when the phone rotates while stationary. So the phone’s compass is not used, only changes in location.
Yeah, in the fixed North view Magic Earth apparently doesn’t do that, but if you switch the view to the spinning map, it does (at least for me).
I usually don’t use Magic Earth, don’t ask me why it simply wouldn’t do that from the start …
And in this view, Magic Earth uses the compass to spin the map.
Apologies, user error here. It works now, even though I never managed to get it to do that before. I think the problem is that the map would spin fine during navigation, even though the mode was in what you call “fixed north view,” and I could press the indicator to make it point to north then. So it really looks like there are three modes somehow. Anyway, thanks for the help!
My initial issue still persists. The compass is not used when using car navigation, meaning it can’t show which direction to start driving in. In fact, the compass symbol is not even visible during car navigation. It works in walking mode, though. There are three modes: fixed north, not fixed but no compass, and compass.
) and I’m glad to discover the ecosystem.
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