iPad OS 4.2 'Orientation Lock' to 'Mute Switch' Change Permanent

[theRebel]

The phone ringing has nothing to do with the iPad - it's not a phone, and it doesn't ring. It does, however, make annoying alert sounds. Or worse (if you pick it up, turn it on, swipe to unlock, and find yourself in some app that resumes loudly - though at least in that case you can use the volume rocker - but not before the noise starts.)

I was responding to the claims that there is a need to be able to quickly mute the iPad. The only reason to need to do it quickly would be if it was eminently going to generate a sound. One example was given by people predicting Facetime for the iPad whereby the iPad would indeed ring like a phone does.

And your second paragraph is mere conjecture. If you are relying on this thread, that proves nothing - it's a self-selecting group.

No, it is not mere conjecture nor is it based upon the feedback in this thread.

I have been involved with selling iPads, training on iPads, and providing support for iPads for the past six months. I have interacted with literally thousands of iPad users.

And the urgency with which the screen needs to be locked is not anything like the urgency with which the sound must be muted - with one, even with your fake manufactured scenario, the extra screen orientation locking steps affect only the small number of people in physical contact with the iPad.

My example was definitely not a fake manufactured scenario. It happens several times a day with a very significant number of iPad users.

For screen orientation, urgency is certainly not the right word, but the fact that the screen orientation is changed much more frequently makes efficiency more important. When you have need to lock and unlock and re-lock screen orientation repetitively, the value of a single hardware switch increases exponentially.

I can not imagine even a fake manufactured scenario where an iPad user would need to repetitively mute and unmute and remute their iPad.

I would hardly describe any sound from an iPad as loud.

Regardless, the examples that you describe do not require muting to happen quickly. Once the iPad has made a sound, you have already been disruptive and are already embarrassed. It is irrelevant whether it takes you 1 second, 10 seconds, or one minute to then mute the iPad. The negative repercussions from you failing to mute the iPad before you entered the room cannot be erased by the speed of muting after the fact.

However, the negative repercussions of having to repetitively "double-tap, swipe, tap to screen lock" several times during a 20 minute exchange can be completely eliminated by leaving the hardware switch screen lock theway that it is.

 

[Celtic-moniker]

That's precisely the crap I am going to give you. How about you hold down the rocker to mute it and turn yo crap down BEFORE you trundle into the meeting, okay Fonz?

And there is nothing wrong with making it an option. It would make (most) everyone happy and wouldn't be that difficult to do.

So - good for you in using it as a mute button - I would be happy for you and can only expect the same courtesy from you about others who CHOOSE to use it a DIFFERENT WAY than YOU do.

It's all about choices, my brutha from anutha mutha. Allowing me to make my own choices without taking away any of yours is a good thing. Learn to love diversity...

...oh, and making sure all your noisy bits are muted is your responsibility.

Don't make me suffer for your "lack of planning"

Sooo I should have the mute on while I'm listening to music, just so I can hear someone ask me a question from when they just come into the room?

I need to have my iPad muted incase the phone rings?

I so.... What you're telling me, is that the very usable mute function, which makes very convenient sense to people that use their ipads for a variety of reasons outside of their bedroom, where the orientation lock in bed is important for their comfort in reading, shoulf just suck it up, because it's their responsibility to have the sound muted BEFORE it needs to be muted?

Oh come on! It's a once or twice a day used function (the orientation lock) whereas, I mute my iPad 10 20 times a day. And I'm willing to bet that professional users I.e. The ones that make serious use of their iPad are likely to appreciate the mute function a hell of a lot more, than say an orientation lock, which is really only goung to get used every so often.

Make it switchable, and in the workplace 50% of the machines will be set up one way, and 50% the other. Amking the interface non-standard, and worse than useless.

It clearly was a bad move for apple to make it a orientation lock first, but I don't think it's going to serve the iPad well to keep it so.

But hey, I'm sure that Samsung will make it a feature on their 7 inch 'iPad killer' because... They're they kind of people that make hardware based on the complaints of what apple users supposedly 'don't' have.

And... Did you really suggest you're going to suffer?

'don't make me suffer because'

Oh, such a chore! What was once one click for a barely operated function (not used, operated) is now three! Geez.... We have people starving in the world, people dying of disease, people caught in war fleeing their homes...

And you're suffering because a switch you occasionally operated, is now not quite as convenient as it once was.

To the people dying of cancer out there, to the people starving in poverty, to the people made homeless by war..... Listen up! You've got nothing on this man, who has to press three buttons to make his iPad easier to read in bed when he's lying down!

Oh, the tragedy.... The tragedy!

 

[bobob]

I would be fine with the rocker switch as mute if it worked even when the ipad was off or the screen is off. But that's not how it works. And since it doesn't work that way, it's assinine that the only way to mute right now is to first make a noise.

That is not the only way to mute the iPad right now.

You can also choose to leave the iPad at a zero volume setting before you shut it off - - that's my own default setting.

 

[Zc456]

So glad I'm no longer an iPad owner... In Apple's case, screen orientation is much more important then a simple mute button. Especially when that tablet has no right or wrong way of holding it.

 

[cmaier]

That is not the only way to mute the iPad right now.

You can also choose to leave the iPad at a zero volume setting before you shut it off - - that's my own default setting.

And abstinence is the best birth control and just saying no is the best cure for drug addiction.

 

[bobob]

And abstinence is the best birth control and just saying no is the best cure for drug addiction.

The point was not in regards to the "best" way, however you did specifically say that "the only way to mute is to first make a noise".

That is incorrect.

 

[cmaier]

The point was not in regards to the "best" way, however you did specifically say that "the only way to mute is to first make a noise".

That is incorrect.

Yeah, I get you. But you are wrong. The device, from the factory, is unmuted with a non-zero volume. The volume rocker, which you used to lower the volume, only works if the screen is unlocked. So in order to do what you say you did, you had to hear a sound (even if it was just the slide-to-unlock sound) before you could reduce the volume.

So my statement is true - in 4.1 there is no way to mute the iPad without first having the iPad make a sound.

 

[PowerGamerX]

Yeah, I get you. But you are wrong. The device, from the factory, is unmuted with a non-zero volume. The volume rocker, which you used to lower the volume, only works if the screen is unlocked. So in order to do what you say you did, you had to hear a sound (even if it was just the slide-to-unlock sound) before you could reduce the volume.

So my statement is true - in 4.1 there is no way to mute the iPad without first having the iPad make a sound.

Logically though, its called being pre-emptive. If you're going to be going to the library, how about you mute it before you go? It just makes sense. I don't know anybody that goes to a meeting and mutes a phone when it starts to ring. They do it before hand.

You're just trying to keep an argument going that had died.

 

[bouncer1]

And abstinence is the best birth control and just saying no is the best cure for drug addiction.

Hmmm...ok....

MacRumors!

Where anything Apple does CAN and WILL be jusitified!

They could kill your own mother and many of you would say.....oh well she was old anyway or hey there's one more monkey off my back!

Point is Apple makes a lot of idiotic mistakes that aren't really jusitified and can't be. #Random, if one more person tries to return their iPhone because of the proximity issue my head is going to explode. It's a hardware issue VERY far from software and cannot and will not be fixed with an update......maybe a product redesign!

Actually you got it wrong. Macrumors is THE foremost place to bitch for apple's mistakes, far and away from any competitors, and rapidly approaching pc standards.

Having said that there a indeed a few people here (myself included) who will vehemently criticize them when it's appropriately such as in this issue, and praise them when they deserve it.

As for product redesign... yeah, well, there really is no comment to make on this one.

Yeah, I get you. But you are wrong. The device, from the factory, is unmuted with a non-zero volume. The volume rocker, which you used to lower the volume, only works if the screen is unlocked. So in order to do what you say you did, you had to hear a sound (even if it was just the slide-to-unlock sound) before you could reduce the volume.

So my statement is true - in 4.1 there is no way to mute the iPad without first having the iPad make a sound.

That's marginally the only half decent point that has been made here on the side who likes the way apple is approaching this. But it' still very marginal because as someone else said you can mute it preemptively as everyone does. And apple can always start allowing the volume rocker to work from the lock screen which will solve the "problem" (a non issue for most of us) once and for all.

So, as another user pointed out I am afraid you are indeed beating a dead horse here....

 

[cmaier]

That's marginally the only half decent point that has been made here on the side who likes the way apple is approaching this. But it' still very marginal because as someone else said you can mute it preemptively as everyone does. And apple can always start allowing the volume rocker to work from the lock screen which will solve the "problem" (a non issue for most of us) once and for all.

So, as another user pointed out I am afraid you are indeed beating a dead horse here....

Two points:

1) i'm all for an option for how the switch is used
2) if the volume rocker worked when the device is locked, that would be good enough for me.

But if they aren't going to do 1 or 2, then the proper use for the switch is mute. There's never a need to lock the screen orientation when the screen is off. There is often a need to mute the volume when the screen is off. And it's ridiculous that the only way to mute the volume is to first make noise. It reminds me of my old HP laptop that broke so i had to cut the wire off a pair of headphones and stick the connecter in the jack to get it to mute.

 

[wgkealey]

I just sent an ipad feedback form about my disappointment about this change. I suggest anyone who feels the same way to do the same. With people having strong feelings about what the switch should do, an option for it seems like a great solution.

 

[MacKeeper-fan]

This change is not good at all. I have been using 4.2 in testing so far and all I can say is that it is annoying trying to dig down 3 layers to lock orientation. I do not understand this decision at all. Mute can Be had right now by holding the volume switch for 1 second, locking orientation just got that more cumbersome.

 

[bouncer1]

Everyone leave feedback to apple.

It's really important because the few moments spent writing here could be spent leaving feedback on this to apple, where it really matters, and they do take notice of it.

 

[cmaier]

This change is not good at all. I have been using 4.2 in testing so far and all I can say is that it is annoying trying to dig down 3 layers to lock orientation. I do not understand this decision at all. Mute can Be had right now by holding the volume switch for 1 second, locking orientation just got that more cumbersome.

Try to mute with the rocker with the screen off or the iPad locked. Can't be done. Only way to do it is to swipe to unlock, making a sound in the process.

 

[Jbarbagall]

Screen Lock Still Exists!

To lock the screen orientation in iOS 4.2, hold your iPad in the orientation you want to lock, then double-click the home button to bring up the task switcher. If you slide your finger to the right along the task switcher, you'll get a new screen with some playback, brightness, and volume controls, as well as a button on the left that will lock your screen orientation. It's certainly a bigger pain than it used to be, but at least the feature's still there.

 

[JeffDM]

To lock the screen orientation in iOS 4.2, hold your iPad in the orientation you want to lock, then double-click the home button to bring up the task switcher. If you slide your finger to the right along the task switcher, you'll get a new screen with some playback, brightness, and volume controls, as well as a button on the left that will lock your screen orientation. It's certainly a bigger pain than it used to be, but at least the feature's still there.

Still, it would have been nice if there was a configuration, it seems like a lot of people want it to be one way, a lot want it the other way. I understand why people want a quick mute, however, I personally benefit a lot more from that switch being an orientation lock.

 

[Burger Thing]

Try to mute with the rocker with the screen off or the iPad locked. Can't be done. Only way to do it is to swipe to unlock, making a sound in the process.

IMHO Apple should have just changed exactly that in OS 4.2: make it possible to mute the iPAd with the rocker switch at ALL times (despite if the screen is off or not) and keep the orientation switch as it is.

How hard could that be?

 

[JeffDM]

IMHO Apple should have just changed exactly that in OS 4.2: make it possible to mute the iPAd with the rocker switch at ALL times (despite if the screen is off or not) and keep the orientation switch as it is.

How hard could that be?

I thought that way for a bit, but I think the reason is to prevent accidental volume adjustment. The lock switch / lock mode is to prevent unwanted control actions, leaving the volume buttons unlocked partly defeats the point of the lock mode.

 

[Burger Thing]

I thought that way for a bit, but I think the reason is to prevent accidental volume adjustment. The lock switch / lock mode is to prevent unwanted control actions, leaving the volume buttons unlocked partly defeats the point of the lock mode.

True, but on the other hand: what are the chances of an accidental volume adjustment on an iPad - with the screen off? It is an interactive device after all which you don't really stuff into your pockets like an iPad.

 

[JeffDM]

True, but on the other hand: what are the chances of an accidental volume adjustment on an iPad - with the screen off? It is an interactive device after all which you don't really stuff into your pockets like an iPad.

What if you put the iPad in a bag, brief case or carry-on and it moves around with the other contents?

 

[Burger Thing]

What if you put the iPad in a bag, brief case or carry-on and it moves around with the other contents?

And to listen to music via the iPod app via Headsets? Then the Volume Rocker will still work, despite if the Screen is locked or not. Same as the iPod Also, the mute switch won't mute the music btw.

Edit: Ok, sorry, maybe you meant if the ring-(email)tone volume will be changed. Have a WiFi only iPad and wasn't thinking about that. Still, don't think it would be a big deal.

The new configuration is overall a step backwards, IMHO