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Comment by marban | Hacker News Reader

How can 2.7° even matter? I assume people are not laying brick walls with their phone.

Regardless of what you use the level for, 2.7 degree matters a lot! I can detect something being off by 45 degree using my bare eyes. It's values like 2.7 degree which require to use a level.

2.7 degree off means that if you hang a one feet width shelf on your wall, one edge will be 0.72" higher/lower than the other. Would that matter to you?

Are you serious? If you are hanging a 1.5-meter long painting and you go off by 2.7 degrees (not %, by the way, that would be FAR worse) on the angle, one side will be around 7 centimetres higher that the other.

This is a serious screw up. Hopefully it can be solved with just a recalibration.

I can do the maths. We're not talking about the precision of a measurement tool here but mostly a mediocre input controller for asphalt racing, which I assume is barely noticeable for people playing a game on their couch.

Unfortunately, your narrow view of the use of the sensors in a smartphone isn't indicative of their actual widespread use in many applications hobby and commercial. Heck I remember reading recently about some of the Syrian "rebels" using an iPad to aim mortars. (Note my example isn't something I'd entertain personally!)

> Syrian "rebels" using an iPad to aim mortars

Photo: http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/52385f79eab8eafb56d...

Genuine question - what is the stated accuracy of the gyros?

Surely that's more important than what people choose (potentially ill advisedly?) to use them for?

We use the level in our camera app. Tilt a photo 2.7 degrees and you end up with quite a crooked photo.

I agree with you. IMHO bubble level on a phone is more of a gimmick than a useful thing. Ok to establish approximate value, but noone should be using is as a precision tool. Even for hanging pictures if you want it done properly.

Obviously the bubble level is just one example... Many apps use this feature for various things.

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