It appears that at least one upcoming iPhone will include a digital compass in support of Apple's ongoing fascination with location-based services.

The evidence for this new bit of internal iPhone hardware comes from a screenshot of an iPhone 3.0 debugging menu obtained by The Boy Genius Report that lists in its location services options a built-in magnetometer.

Credit: The Boy Genius Report

In the iPhone (and possibly soon in Snow Leopard), location services are provided by the CoreLocation framework, which is fed data from the iPhone's built-in GPS, plus cell phone-tower triangulation and Wi-Fi positioning data.

Now - if the purloined screenshot is accurate - those location services will be augmented by directional data provided by an in-phone compass.

An in-phone compass, however, wouldn't be an Apple innovation. Google demoed a compass-equipped Android handset at its I/O developer conference last May.

But an iPhone with such a capability would fit in nicely with Apple's location-based services vision, which includes serving ads based on your whereabouts, adding informational overlays to camera grabs using a technique called "augmented reality," and a variety of route-guidance services.

With the addition of a compass, CoreLocation would know not only where you are, but which direction you - well, your iPhone, at least - are pointed. ®

Related stories

• Report: Apple snagged Google Maps rival (1 October 2009)
• Google adds location-based searches to iPhone (16 July 2009)
• Dutch company augments mobile reality (17 June 2009)
• RadTech's iPhone lust revival kit (7 June 2009)
• Man creates third-gen iPhone rumours picture (4 June 2009)
• iPhone 3.0 to nix app redownloading? (1 June 2009)
• 6.5m vehicles to be tracked by 2012 (21 May 2009)
• AT&T mulls cut-rate iPhone data plan (18 May 2009)
• Exclusive Apple to look to software to differentiate multiple iPhone models (18 May 2009)
• Apple prepping 32GB iPhone 3.0? (13 May 2009)
• US students 'required' to buy iPhones (12 May 2009)
• Apple: No Jesus on the Jesus Phone (11 May 2009)
• Analyst forecasts 900% Android phone sales growth (11 May 2009)
• Review HTC Vodafone Magic Android-based smartphone (6 May 2009)
• Google nabs purse snatcher (16 April 2009)
• The mobile phone as self-inflicted surveillance (10 April 2009)
• Google taps your IP address for Starbucks targeting (7 April 2009)
• iPhone 3.0 adds cut-and-paste, search, new dev toys (17 March 2009)
• Geo-located malware appears over the horizon (16 March 2009)
• Apple ogles location-based iPhone ads (10 March 2009)
• Apple's Snow Leopard may know where you are (5 February 2009)
• Apple patents map mobile future (14 January 2009)