I have now used the new firmware for a few weeks and it is now actually useable, the compass is certainly not fixed because it still points all over the place, for example one moment it indicates 15ft West and after moving over a couple of feet it will point in another direction (i.e. South) however the GPS now works when moving very slowly or stationary, so at least that cab be used now.
It is very disappointing that a large GPSr company releases an unusable product and even after many months still fails to resolve software issues and fully relies on it's customers to complain and use beta software that is not even available on it's own website.