How to get the switch back to LOCK mode

Thank you!

Apple markets the iPad primarily as a data consumption device (browsing, email, eBooks, Twitter, RSS). To a fair extent it is also a data creation machine; in my case it certainly is, during and outside work hours. It is not marketed as a primary listening or telephony device. The iPod app is included but I don't think either Apple or iPad users at large consider the iPod app a critical app for their iPad.

In the previous incarnation the volume control and rocker switch beside it covered both volume control + muting and rotation lock, and offered users instaneous and easy to learn access to both functions. To mute one would press the bottom half of the volume control to decrease volume: after a little over half a second the device would instantly mute. The rocker switch beside it allowed a user to instantly switch rotation lock on and off as needed.

The decision to switch the behavior of the screen lock switch to a mute button is a mistake. There are now two buttons fully dedicated to audio when one button took care of all basic sound issues before as noted above.

Worse, the single action to lock or unlock rotation has now been exchanged with the following, consisting of four steps. Any of these steps may fail temporarily because of finger misplacement or slow clicking speed, requiring additional attempts.

The process now is:
- double-click the home button
- swipe the multitask bar to the right
- click the rotation lock icon
- click the home button

What used to be an elegant, single, instantaneous action has been replaced with a cumbersome and inefficient set of four sequential actions consisting of three different physical gestures (clicking, swiping, pressing). Those users who do a lot of reading on their iPad will quickly tire of this set of actions, especially when compared with the previous singular and instantaneous action of the rotation lock switch.

When I commute by bus or subway, I will sometimes be standing and holding on to a railing with one hand. When I am standing and reading, say, an email in portrait with a link that launches the Google Maps app in landscape I now have to do some nifty juggling and balancing with the above four actions. If I'm in the hallway and want to show a colleague something and quickly need to freeze screen rotation or switch and freeze, I will have to navigate and juggle. Even reading in bed, when I shift around to a different position, dealing with the rotation lock will be cumbersome. I've even found myself with the screen locked, rotating the iPad, then double-clicking which then brings up the multitask bar in a 90 degree angle from my new perspective.

I question the wisdom of this, fiddling with something that was so direct, elegant, and simple. I see how, on paper, it's looks great that the iPhone and iPod Touch now share the same rotation lock sceheme with the iPad. However, if sharing across all three devices is a paramount concern, there's a lot of work to be done. Why is the keyboard so different on the iPad? Why is the iPod app different? Why is Mail in landscape different?

The fact is the iPad is a different device given its dimensions and its use case is different. The rotation lock button is fundamental in such a large device that, yes, at times is a bit unwieldy because of its weight and size. Being able to quickly unlock and relock the screen is mandatory for regular use of the iPad.

Apple obviously makes great design decisions but they are not infallible. (Witness how the buttons which disappeared on the 3rd generation Shuffle reappeared on the 4th generation incarnation.) Removing rotation lock from the iPad's rocker switch is a similar mistake: It cripples active use of the device. Perhaps Apple could offer the user a system preference indicating whether they want the rocker to be a rotation lock or mute switch. Maybe they could even do anonymous data collection of this preference to see how people use this.

I am hoping Apple reconsiders this decision. Here's looking forward to the comeback of the rotation lock switch.

The mute switch mutes system sounds so that if you are listening to music, for example, at a good volume, then you don't get mail, MMS, low battery etc. notifications.
Sound from music and videos etc. is not affected by the switch.

In your opinion, yes, your post is correct. In my opinion, I disagree. I sent feedback to Apple to change the screen lock back to a mute switch.

So as I don't disagree completely with your post, I do disagree that the change back to a mute switch as "a mistake". I personally like it this way better....for me. You don't and that's fine.

You probably should really let Apple know about your displeasure at http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad as this message board is administered and used by the public, not Apple.

I also sent feedback to get that lock turned back to a screen lock button since I primarily use this as a reading device and not an iPod. I originally thought long and hard before I bought this device, now I'm considering getting a Kindle DX! The software switch is not nearly as convenient since I use this a lot on the plane!

deggie wrote:
2 taps, a slide and one tap and that is a pain?

You must have a really good life.

It is a pain when you have to change the orientation lock multiple times (when viewing/sharing documents with charts/graphs that may not be oriented the same way as the rest of the document, or architectural drawings that you may want to quickly change which direction you are viewing it from.

The mute notifications should have been put in software, not the orientation lock.

You probably should really let Apple know about your displeasure at http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad as this message board is administered and used by the public, not Apple.

yeah, but posting here gets more people to give feedback

proven28 wrote:
It is a pain when you have to change the orientation lock multiple times (when viewing/sharing documents with charts/graphs that may not be oriented the same way as the rest of the document, or architectural drawings that you may want to quickly change which direction you are viewing it from.

Why on earth would you be using any kind of orientation lock at all in those 'quickly change' circumstances? Just leave the iPad alone and tilt it when you want to. Why you would want to be constantly flicking a switch on and off, I don't know.

igmackenzie wrote:

proven28 wrote:
It is a pain when you have to change the orientation lock multiple times (when viewing/sharing documents with charts/graphs that may not be oriented the same way as the rest of the document, or architectural drawings that you may want to quickly change which direction you are viewing it from.

Why on earth would you be using any kind of orientation lock at all in those 'quickly change' circumstances? Just leave the iPad alone and tilt it when you want to. Why you would want to be constantly flicking a switch on and off, I don't know.

Did you read what I posted or did you just read the first sentence? Documents are oriented in one direction, landscape or portrait. However there are documents out there that you might want to view from different angles, such as architectural drawings, or documents that have charts in the opposite orientation.

If you have a document that is portrait and then on page three there is a chart that is landscape, if you rotate your iPad you can see it in the correct orientation, except now it is much smaller because it is fitting the landscape page into the portrait orientation. If you lock the screen and rotate now you are using the entire screen.

If you are looking at a blueprint from say, the front of the drawing, but now you want to look at it from the side, if you rotate your iPad it will keep it oriented the way the document was created. Lock the screen and you can look at it from any angle.

Having to use the software solution (double click, swipe, push, click) every time you want to change the orientation on these types of documents is a real frustration already. Especially when you want to show it to other people and quickly change the orientation.

It makes a lot more sense to me to move the "Mute Notification" feature to the software switch since using that feature is something that will probably only need to be done twice... first when you start watching a movie/listening to music, and second when you are done.

Message was edited by: proven28

No, sorry I have to agree with proven28. One way in which I prefer the hardware lock is when using maps in the car. If I'm at a light and I want to take a quick glance at a street name, it's much handier to be able to just press the lock and turn the ipad to check. Trying to get into that software orientation lock is impossible when you only have a couple of seconds and don't want to take your eyes off the light any longer than absolutely necessary.

Just curious, why not orient the screen on the iPad before driving? Then you don't have to worry about it changing at all while driving.

But Apple doesn't use this message board to justify anything that they do. They never have. If you recall the issue with the antennas on the iPhone4, a lot more people posted on message boards, but very few actually notified Apple.

Complaining to those who can not help you does nothing for the resolution of your issue. Quite honestly, complaining to those that CAN help you isn't necessarily the best route either. Discussion and proposed solutions and real-world examples to justify the solutions work better than "I want it back!!".

Fair question. Very often I find I may change orientation as I go, depending on which way the route is currently running, to show me the largest possible part of it. But when there's a wiggly curvy side road, it's nice to be able to lock the screen just while I turn the ipad to read that street name, and then go back to shifting between portrait and landscape depending on how the turns are taking me.

EDIT Personally I have no use for muting, not of anything, so to me there's no gain at all in this change. I wonder how many ipad users actually use the mute more. I do on my ipod, but that's not how I use my ipad at all.

proven28 wrote:

It makes a lot more sense to me to move the "Mute Notification" feature to the software switch since using that feature is something that will probably only need to be done twice... first when you start watching a movie/listening to music, and second when you are done.

There is more to it than that. Primarily, the fact that you should not have to be using the device to mute notifications.

But I think igmackenzie and myself (and others in this thread) agree that the same holds true for the orientation lock. I just don't get locking and un-locking multiple times in one document as something a lot of people have issues with. Apparently I'm in the minority on this one, but it just doesn't make sense to me.

proven28 wrote:
If you have a document that is portrait and then on page three there is a chart that is landscape, if you rotate your iPad you can see it in the correct orientation, except now it is much smaller because it is fitting the landscape page into the portrait orientation. If you lock the screen and rotate now you are using the entire screen.

OK, I see what you mean now. Yes, in that circumstance, I can see why you would prefer the switch to lock orientation!