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

[bouncer1]

The macbooks do not have a mute switch because when they are closed and in sleep mode they do not emit audible notifications like the iPhone and iPad do.

So when people are in meetings everyone has their notebooks closed and in sleep mode, right? Some boring meetings these must be... I thought everyone had their notebooks ready and on the go to take notes, present something, record something, etc. etc.

Iphones and ipad don't emit audible notifications when they are closed and muted either. So if you want to silence a macbook for a meeting you close it, if you want to do so for an ipad you put it to sleep and mute it, simple really. If you have any of them running they are equally prone to emit audible notifications, but somehow one of them doesn't have mute switch you just have to mute them via the toolbar or keyboard.

 

[zen]

I was thinking the same thing. Double click home > swipe to the right > tap lock. A few more steps but definitely not a hardship. On my iPhone 4 I use the mute switch much more often ... maybe that's because I'm on a iP4 though and not an iPad *shrugs*

Surely the problem now is that to lock the screen you need to exit any app you were using. That would be a major hassle.

 

[cmaier]

Surely the problem now is that to lock the screen you need to exit any app you were using. That would be a major hassle.

No, it doesn't exit the app.

 

[zen]

No, it doesn't exit the app.

Oh, is that the new double-click thing in iOS 4? Hmm. Not as bad as I thought, but still not ideal. Unlike the switch, which is perfect.

 

[devilbond]

No you don't, you can stay in the app and do it. All you have to do is double tap home while in an app, the multi-tasking bar will pop up. Swipe to the right, select the lock then tap the screen and you're back to the app. Done.

Oh, good.
That's "all I have to do" is it?
Let's tally it up...

NUMBER OF ACTIONS TALLY (hardware orientation lock)
Flick the switch (1)
TOTAL: 1 action

NUMBER OF ACTIONS TALLY (software orientation lock)
Double Tap (2)
Swipe to the right (1)
Select orientation lock (1)
Tap the screen to return to app (1)
TOTAL: 5 actions

That's a suck-factor of 500%, I believe.

 

[theRebel]

What's funny is if Apple had originally shipped it with this new button configuration and then swapped it around in 4.2, the same people would be complaining that it was better the old way.

No, not at all.

Ever since the iPad was introduced with the orientation lock switch, I have wished that I had the same functionality on my iPhone.

(and no, the software orientation lock on the iPhone is not the same thing because it only allows me to lock the orientation in one direction)

I have been using an iPad every day since May and I have never once had a need for mute switch.

 

[QuarterSwede]

Oh, good.
That's "all I have to do" is it?
Let's tally it up...

NUMBER OF ACTIONS TALLY (hardware orientation lock)
Flick the switch (1)
TOTAL: 1 action

NUMBER OF ACTIONS TALLY (software orientation lock)
Double Tap (2)
Swipe to the right (1)
Select orientation lock (1)
Tap the screen to return to app (1)
TOTAL: 5 actions

That's a suck-factor of 500%, I believe.

I've been doing this for months. Apparently my life has really sucked.

 

[BillyBobBongo]

You do actually get used to it.

I must admit I was very much against the change in the beginning, but I've got 4.2 on my iPad and it's really become second nature to go for the screen lock in the new way. Most of the time you're in the multitask bar anway...so it's really only a flick away.

 

[g-7]

Nobody is going to jailbreak for the sole purpose of changing the function of a switch.

Well, I am going to jailbreak for this very purpose.

 

[carmenodie]

I like tech but come on people. Who is crying to who? I have an ipad and I really like it but we shouldn't put so much of ourselves into these tech companies. we're just inflating their ego. IMHO.
So if Apple wants to change the effing physical switch from rotation lock to mute don't bi***!
It is a big a** company that really doesn't care if you find it effed up

 

[phpmaven]

THIS is why I hate Steve Jobs.

People want the ability to CHOOSE orientation lock or mute. Its not exactly rocket science - add a setting to let them choose which one it does.

What an *******...there's no excuse for this. The size of it is not the point here - this is classic Steve: 'I use it like this...so everyone else will too'.

It's MY iPad Steve - not yours!

(awaits unofficial patch via Cydia)

If it wasn't for Steve, you wouldn't have an iPad or probably any of the other cool Apple devices there are. There probably wouldn't even be an Apple if he wasn't the driven creative control freak that he is.

 

[cocky jeremy]

No. it's less convenient.

Currently:
Flip Switch, Rotate, Flip Switch. Process takes 1/3rd a second.

My finger doesn't move off the switch.

New:
Double tap home button. Flip running applications right to the lock orientation/Play controls - Note that there may be many flips here depending on how many applications you have running. Press on-screen orientation button. Rotate. Press screen button again.

Note that when I rotate, I have to relocate my finger to press the on-screen orientation button, which is in a completely different location.

Process takes 4-5 seconds and could be longer depending on the number of pages of running apps I have to flip through to get to the orientation button.


Envision a TV commercial demonstrating this functionality. you've just wasted 4-5 seconds of time with multiple on-screen hand movements. There's a 1/3 second solution now with no visible hand movements, that works, reliably, every time.

OMG!!!! 4-5 seconds?!?! What ever will we do with such an inconvenience? Sue Apple, sue the government. The world is ending!!!

 

[Matthew Yohe]

Because its SOO hard to use the volume buttons to turn the device volume down.

I hate apple more and more each year.

You can't do this when the device is locked or sleeping.

Exactly. They are being idiots about it for not offering the option.

Why should it be an option? So then they just remove the Lock Orientation icon in the dock then?

My user scenario. I have the landscape
Marware case so I am almost always in landscape mode. I lock it in because the rotation gets annoying when I don't want it. Trouble is, the desk riser is landscape volume up, whereas the full stand position is landscape buttons down which is how I do my bedside reading. If the iPad is asleep on my desk, when I go to use it in bed I have to enter my four digit code upside down, double tap the home button, slide the dock upside down, then hit the rotation unlock button, let it rotate then hit the rotation lock button again, then tap the home button. Then in the morning a have to do that same dance for the breakfast table for the "desk" position. The whole process used to be a flick of a slider. Whoever thinks that this is better has lost touch with reality.

Wait, why do you have to do this all upside down? If you can't do it another way, you are totally an edge case.

I'd like the switch to allow/disallow background apps.

Why? They aren't doing anything in the background.

 

[dtich]

Well we don't really have to wait to see it, we already have it on our iphones...

It's neither very fast, nor very functional.

But on the iphone you don't use lock that much, and it's not that problematic when the whole screen turns cause it's smaller. But whenever I am about to use it I think again because I just can't be bothered double cliking, then swiping, then touching, then single clicking or touching again to get back to where I was. I just want to turn the ipad around then lock it there with the switch.

Let alone that on the iphone from the home screen the orientation does not change to horizontal. In the ipad it does, all the more reasons for a dedicated switch.

At the very least give me a damn option what I want to do with my switch, if I don't care for mute, and I have mute on the volume anyway, why can't I use it that way?

tstststststst....

ummm. it's not your switch, it's apple's. you just buy it and use it. you want your switch? design it, build hardware and write software for it, then it's yours...

all i'm saying is i - me - find it very fast and convenient. ymmv. i find it no problem, i find it second nature. i have used it for a while. i actually had *more* trouble locking the orientation with the switch because i never knew where the switch was, the pad was rotated so many times (one of the brilliant things about it is that there is no "up"), and i had to feel around all the corners for it. with the software version i don't have that issue.

and no matter how many people list the steps required to access the software button i still say it's really fast -- i can do it just as fast, or as i point out, even faster than the hardware switch. i do it several times a day and never think about it.

you want to complain about it, go ahead. you want to bitch about it before you even use it, sure, knock yourself out. you want to complain that apple doesn't do everything you want.. heh, go 'head. i guess that's apple's fault for setting up such crazy high expectations in customer satisfaction that dufuses on newsgroups actually think they're entitled to weigh in on design decisions.

 

[Mr. Gates]

What a nice little chat.

Good thing there is Cydia.

The Jailbreak Community has really made these IOS devises great.

However I really would like to see another function button, one for the developers to choose the function,

 

[dtich]

No. it's less convenient.

Currently:
Flip Switch, Rotate, Flip Switch. Process takes 1/3rd a second.

My finger doesn't move off the switch.

New:
Double tap home button. Flip running applications right to the lock orientation/Play controls - Note that there may be many flips here depending on how many applications you have running. Press on-screen orientation button. Rotate. Press screen button again.

Note that when I rotate, I have to relocate my finger to press the on-screen orientation button, which is in a completely different location.

Process takes 4-5 seconds and could be longer depending on the number of pages of running apps I have to flip through to get to the orientation button.


Envision a TV commercial demonstrating this functionality. you've just wasted 4-5 seconds of time with multiple on-screen hand movements. There's a 1/3 second solution now with no visible hand movements, that works, reliably, every time.

no. the orientation lock button, and the audio controls, and the brightness control are always one swipe to the left from opening the multitask tray. it makes no difference how many apps you're 'running'. and the apps are in order, left to right, of last used app, so the app you are coming from to make any adjustment to orientation or brightness or playpause background music is always the first one in the list to the right.

it's... actually... very... convenient... and... pretty... well... thought..... out. as usual.

but. keep bitching...

 

[Bye Bye Baby]

Steve seriously you need to make this one an option. Stop pi**ing off the public with the I'm an expert about your life attitude.

 

[Pandakopanda]

I don't get the fuss about this. It actually makes more sense to me to assign the hardware button the mute function.

I often want to mute the device when it's locked and I don't intend to use it, like during a presentation. Currently I have to take the iPad out of the case, unlock it and press the volume button and put the iPad back in the case.

When I want to orientation-lock the device I'm always already using the device, so not having a hardware button is much less of an issue. Actually I find the software orientation lock more convenient because I'm always searching for the button when I'm in bed reading.

 

[zen]

Hang on...

If the iPad is muted by lowering the volume rocker, does that mean the mute switch therefore becomes totally useless? I presume the switch flips between mute and whatever volume the device was set to. So if the volume is set to zero, the switch will alternate between mute and zero.

Very poor design if so. My iPad is muted/volume zero 99% of the time, so I'm basically going to have a totally non-functional switch on the side of it.

 

[theRebel]

ummm. it's not your switch, it's apple's. you just buy it and use it. you want your switch? design it, build hardware and write software for it, then it's yours...

you want to complain that apple doesn't do everything you want.. heh, go 'head. i guess that's apple's fault for setting up such crazy high expectations in customer satisfaction that dufuses on newsgroups actually think they're entitled to weigh in on design decisions.

That attitude might sound reasonable except that people have already purchased iPads with the orientation lock switch and now Apple is planning to change the functionality of the product after the sale.

Also, consumers opinions on design decisions are always important since it is their decsion whether or not to purchase.

 

[jokermachine]

Do all you knuckleheads who think it's such a great idea know that if you hold down the volume down button for a second, it mutes the iPad?

So why take away a much used button function to double up a seldom used mute feature?

Idiotic.

 

[theRebel]

I don't get the fuss about this. It actually makes more sense to me to assign the hardware button the mute function.

I often want to mute the device when it's locked and I don't intend to use it, like during a presentation. Currently I have to take the iPad out of the case, unlock it and press the volume button and put the iPad back in the case.

So you think it will be easier to take the iPad out of the case, unlock it, flip the switch, and put the iPad back in the case?

How exactly is that better?

 

[tjcampbell]

This is a dumb change. You can easily mute it now just by holding down the volume rocker.

I agree.

 

[dtich]

That attitude might sound reasonable except that people have already purchased iPads with the orientation lock switch and now Apple is planning to change the functionality of the product after the sale.

that point i get. however, improvements need to be made, no sense in keeping something functioning less well if a change can be made. but i understand the annoyance/frustration at having to re-learn how to use something. we all often deal with this situation in making software-only updates as well. it's just a part of an ever-evolving design, but it certainly needs to be taken well into account when making fundamental changes to functions. apple is not making the decision lightly, there has been and continues to be much debate about it in developer circles.

Also, consumers opinions on design decisions are always important since it is their decsion whether or not to purchase.

from a marketing perspective, yes, indeed. consumer opinions are very useful and in fact necessary and fundamental. that's why i read this board exactly. i am just frustrated when i have to trudge through so many plain old bitch posts that are ignorant of the facts and in many cases not even coming from actual users. it is not useful to have people blathering on about design features when they have not experienced using them. rendering an opinion on something one hasn't used is perfectly fine of course, i would just think that in that case a bit of humility and open-mindedness might accompany the lambast.

 

[Burger Thing]

You can't do this when the device is locked or sleeping.

Wouldn't it be simpler if Apple changed the Firmware to make the Volume Buttons active all the time and keep the Orientation lock button?