Originally Posted by
preferdownhill
When I place the IPhone level, on google maps there is a triangle on the dot representing me that apparently tries to indicate how the phone is oriented. When I rotate the phone around, the triangle is all over the place relative to the phones orientation.
Don't rotate the phone around?
The blue triangle is trying to show
your heading.
On my iPhone 5, the blue triangle in Google maps shows my heading very well (even inside). The iPhone has an electronic compass, which means it can determine heading without moving.
To make it work better (and make more sense), orient the phone in one way (portrait/top pointed away from you or landscape/top pointed to you left or right) relative to your body. Maintain (lock) that orientation to your body when you move or turn. Keep the phone always square to your chest. The idea is to have the orientation of the phone match where your chest is pointed.
If you rotate the phone in different orientations relative to your body, you will get confused.
The same problem happens with normal compasses.
Keep noglider's suggestion in mind. It won't solve your basic problem but it might make more sense to you to have the map "track up" rather than "north up".
With "track up", the whole map is rotated to follow your heading. But you still have to keep the phone orientated in one way relative to your body.