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iPod touch Lying in bed, the accelerometer is needlessly clever.

S

sagnier

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 19, 2007
128
0
Portrait/landscape flipping works well for the most part, but when I'm lying in bed it is rather annoying. I'm sure you know what I mean - I often, nearly always actually, want to use Safari and Mail in portrait mode when I'm lying on my side because it's awkward to type with both hands when one arm is underneath me. Also, if I've drawn something landscape in sketchbook mobile and I save it to my photo library it thinks it's a portrait and displays it accordingly. (admittedly, this is a problem with sbm - I should be able to tell it I'm drawing in landscape)

So, there should be a way to force portrait mode (without resorting to any hacks). Does anyone agree? It's a shame, because there is a way of forcing landscape mode, namely by making two quarter turns until it's upside-down. So it's like they've half-enabled this functionality, albeit inadvertantly.

My suggestion for a solution would be to enable a quick flip upside-down to lock it into portrait, and then onto its side for sleepy, one-handed typing.
 
I have been saying this since I got the iPhone and then really hammering the idea home since I downloaded the Kindle app for iPhone. That app has a lock orientation within the app. That is super fantastic if you ask me and it is a missing feature in the iPhone OS. Whether you like portrait or landscape more it is undeniable that the accelerometer lacks bedside manner. Most who have used their phone in bed, especially laying on their side, should be able to agree.

It is a nice to have, much like copy and paste was but Apple is douchy enough to likely never give it to us or release it in say iPhone OS 6.0 and make it look like it was their idea and we should lick their asses for finally giving it to us (like copy/paste).
 
Kinda embarrassing to make a big deal of it, but I totally agree. Most of my time with the iPhone checking email etc is either on the run or in bed since I use its alarms to wake me. Only in a very rare and infrequent context do I even want to use landscape mode. It could have been missing and I would have never cared.

I might be more extreme than you two, but they would be smart to let the user change this default.
 
And I genuinely thought I would be the only one doing it.

The rotation thing is kind of really tedious at times. I kinda agree with (L)-It would be so much more useful to be able to set the landscape rotation lock thing.

But if every app had a preference pane for this, under the "Apps Settings" place, there would be millions for my app filled iPod Touch. It should be under a setting in the General pane in my opinion.
 
I have also been missing this feature in the iPhone OS... this is why I dont really play around with my iPhone at night, cause i tend to lie on my side which triggers the accelerometer.
 
(L) said:
Kinda embarrassing to make a big deal of it, but I totally agree. Most of my time with the iPhone checking email etc is either on the run or in bed since I use its alarms to wake me. Only in a very rare and infrequent context do I even want to use landscape mode. It could have been missing and I would have never cared.

I might be more extreme than you two, but they would be smart to let the user change this default.
Click to expand...
But it isn't embarrassing. I mean at least not to me. I read things in bed while on my phone and such. Maybe it is admitting that I have little else to do in bed aside from sleep but who knows. :eek: I'm ok with saying I use my phone in bed.
 
I do believe that touching the screen while you rotate keeps that orientation....
 
Lorenz0 said:
I do believe that touching the screen while you rotate keeps that orientation....
Click to expand...

You may very well believe this but it doesn't seem to work. :)

The more I think about it, the more annoying it is. How difficult would it be for apple to implement some sort of gesture to ignore the accelerometer, or lock it's orientation? I guess they won't cos then it like 'our lovely landscape/portrait switching is less than perfect'.

In all other respects it's a marvellous device.
 
...Ah well, its not the first time I've looked like a chump on these forums - its probably not the last.

Maybe I got that from an earlier OS version... who knows.
 
There is a way

It locks if you do the Right Thing. I think this is the procedure: you get it into portrait mode, then rotate it so it's face down, towards the floor, and hold it for a couple seconds. Then it will stay in portrait mode till you hold it face down again.

I don't have mine with me now, though, so I can't check it. But it's something like this. I learned this from MR some time ago, so if you can figure out what to search on, you should be able to find it.
 
Lorenz0 said:
I do believe that touching the screen while you rotate keeps that orientation....
Click to expand...

This only applies to Photos-In Safari, it tilts whether or not you touched it. Normally I don't use Photos though.

sagnier said:
You may very well believe this but it doesn't seem to work. :)

The more I think about it, the more annoying it is. How difficult would it be for apple to implement some sort of gesture to ignore the accelerometer, or lock it's orientation? I guess they won't cos then it like 'our lovely landscape/portrait switching is less than perfect'.

In all other respects it's a marvellous device.
Click to expand...

Well, I don't think it's difficult for Apple to implement it-Some eBook readers have this feature already. Stanza/Kindle have the orientation lock thing. It's just Apple probably doesn't know about this "problem". How they deploy this though is the key thing.

Whether it is neatly hidden in the General settings pane or cluttered under the bottom Apps settings page in the Settings so that every app, even though if it doesn't specifically have a settings page would appear on it.


Gasu E. said:
I have no comment on the discussion content, but I am getting tremendous enjoyment out of reading the thread title over and over again. :)
Click to expand...

How's your 27" i7 iMac doing? ;)
 
MobileRSS and some other apps also offers the option to turn it off. It's super, super, annoying... there needs to be a way to turn it off systemwide. My biggest annoyance is with the email client doing it.
 
What actually is the behavior?

Ok, I've played with it a bit now, and I'm very confused. It looks to me like it does the following: the screen flips from portrait to landscape, in all apps that do flip, whenever the ipod is rotated, **except** when it's in landscape and is rotated to the right, so the top is down. Then it stays in landscape.

Also, when the keyboard is called up in one orientation, it stays fixed in that orientation no matter how the ipod is rotated. Which seems to answer the OP's request regarding typing, at least. If I start with a portrait keyboard, it stays portrait, and if I start with a landscape keyboard, it stays landscape, no flipping at all. In Safari, at least.

This is on an iPod Touch, recent (2G?), with 3.1.2. Do other apps behave differently than Safari? I remember learning a "screen lock" maneuver involving facing downwards, but it doesn't seem to do it anymore -- just the "stay in landscape on rotating right", which always happens, no special locking procedure.

Did this all change with OS3?
 
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