Not as amazing on the 3G as it appears to be on the 3GS...

Some reviewers clearly didnt read the full description before buying or using this app.

The 3G (& earlier) does not have an integrated compass. If youre trying to use this app on that platform (as I was), you will need to manually enter your bearings (using a magnetic compass or some other point of reference), and you will only get an accurate reading tilting the phone along one axis (you can look up & down, but not left to right).

To be sure, these are significant limitations, especially for a premium-priced app (a hard pill to swallow given that I, like most purchasers of the non-pro version, really only expect to use it one time). Nonetheless, it serves a unique function and saved me a tremendous amount of money, time, & heartache (no DirecTV for us), so I have to give props where theyre due.

While I cant fault the developers for the compass issue, I do have one significant beef with the softwares design: it does not work in landscape mode. For those of us who cant pan left to right, some extra horizontal real estate would be much appreciated.

(a suggestion to the developers for future editions: for the compass-impaired, itd be great if we could do this: 1) using the built-in maps, user selects a moderately distant visual point of reference - lets say a tall building which is visible on satellite photos. 2) app calculates bearings from current location to that point. 3) in the camera AR view, a vertical line is drawn representing that bearing; as long as the user manually lines up that axis with the landmark, they should have a reasonably accurate compass bearing. 4) User can drag the line left or right to fine-tune their bearings (as long as the user keeps that line on the landmark, the satellites will follow). 5) user can select another reference visible from the ground - say, a tree or mailbox post - which may be more convenient or allow a coarser compass adjustment (move your building to the right of the screen, select a post at the left, then drag that all the way to the right). Obviously, your bearings would become less accurate with each iteration, but this would still be a handy tool in a pinch.)

GordonATL about DishPointer Augmented Reality