IPhone auto-rotation: out of control • Hacker News Board

Re: IPhone auto-rotation: out of control

#21

Post by bensummers » Mon, Oct 12, 2009, 6:24 PM UTC

Zev wrote: post #20

haseman wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't suggest it as a default setting. If power users want an alternative to holding the device up and shaking it until it switches, this could be it. You make good points, it's not intuitive, but it is a solution that wouldn't require more cluttering UI

Where else is there an "Only for power users" feature in iPhone OS? There's no precedent for this sort of behavior in the iPhone's UI anywhere. No other built-in app has that kind of setting. The closest that I can think of is the developers debug menu in Safari. And thats not "hidden", its just tucked away because its only meant for developing and does get in the way otherwise.

In my informal poll of iPhone users, those I would consider non-technical also were frustrated with auto-rotation. I don't think this is something for power users only.

Re: IPhone auto-rotation: out of control

#22

Post by rwmj » Mon, Oct 12, 2009, 6:25 PM UTC

bensummers wrote: post #4

chrismear wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might actually reduce clutter, since plenty of apps are now individually adding rotation options to their settings. Having a system-wide setting would simply consolidate all of these in one place.

It was Tweetie 2's auto-rotation which pushed me over the edge and into writing 800 words about a telephone.

Not sure I recognise your problem with the iPhone on British trains. Maybe the trains wherever you are move faster than London Midland :-)

Re: IPhone auto-rotation: out of control

#23

Post by bprater » Mon, Oct 12, 2009, 6:26 PM UTC

It's worth checking out how Amazon did their iPhone Kindle. When you initiate a rotation, it pops up a little button at the corner of the screen for about 2 seconds that allows you to lock that orientation. Most elegant implantation I've seen. It doesn't solve the issue of the user wanting to initiate a rotation without the accelerometer.

Re: IPhone auto-rotation: out of control

#24

Post by rbritton » Mon, Oct 12, 2009, 6:26 PM UTC

Zev wrote: post #7

haseman wrote: post #5

Could easily be solved by a setting that turns off accl switching and allows users to make a two finger twisting gesture on the screen to rotate it.

The iPhone's accessibility makes use of a lot of the two finger gestures already. Not this one, but most others. http://www.apple.com/iphone/how-to/index.html#accessibility.... . This particular gesture doesn't really make sense for Apple to use (for rotation, or anything else); its not very intuitive. It doesn't map to any other gesture that users have done on the computer before. Apple would have to teach users how…

Preview and a few other OS X apps do currently support a rotational gesture on trackpads. It's not very widespread or widely-known, but it is there already.

Re: IPhone auto-rotation: out of control

#25

Post by bensummers » Mon, Oct 12, 2009, 6:38 PM UTC

rwmj wrote: post #22

bensummers wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was Tweetie 2's auto-rotation which pushed me over the edge and into writing 800 words about a telephone.

Not sure I recognise your problem with the iPhone on British trains. Maybe the trains wherever you are move faster than London Midland :-)

It's mainly a problem when standing up on a busy commuter train. Luckily I don't do that much.

Re: IPhone auto-rotation: out of control

#26

Post by mcav » Mon, Oct 12, 2009, 6:39 PM UTC

Zev wrote: post #20

haseman wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't suggest it as a default setting. If power users want an alternative to holding the device up and shaking it until it switches, this could be it. You make good points, it's not intuitive, but it is a solution that wouldn't require more cluttering UI

Where else is there an "Only for power users" feature in iPhone OS? There's no precedent for this sort of behavior in the iPhone's UI anywhere. No other built-in app has that kind of setting. The closest that I can think of is the developers debug menu in Safari. And thats not "hidden", its just tucked away because its only meant for developing and does get in the way otherwise.

A lot of the iPhone settings could be considered for "power users". There's a setting to tell the phone what to do when the home button is pressed; there's one to turn on Caps Lock, Shake to Shuffle, change the Photos' slideshow transition... they aren't unreconicilably technical, but they're subtle tweaks to functionality that power users would enjoy most.

Re: IPhone auto-rotation: out of control

#27

Post by bensummers » Mon, Oct 12, 2009, 6:50 PM UTC

jimbokun wrote: post #17

I recently acquired an iPod Touch, and have not been able to deduce how to activate the rotation feature reliably. I twist it around various which ways trying to make it rotate, and sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Reading this article actually gives me a better idea of how to make it happen reliably. Specifically, I didn't realize that the accelerometer detects motion relative to gravity (makes sense, but I…

It's not exactly a sign of successful UI design that knowing an implementation detail of the hardware is helpful in controlling your phone.

Re: IPhone auto-rotation: out of control

#28

Post by marbletiles » Mon, Oct 12, 2009, 7:31 PM UTC

Surely this solution is still going to fail the walking/train test -- the icon will be on the screen permanently in those situations.

The phone will detect movement, the icon will appear, it'll fade after a few seconds, the movement will be interpreted as the "shake to bring it back", it'll reappear, then fade, and repeat ad nauseum.

Re: IPhone auto-rotation: out of control

#29

Post by drinian » Mon, Oct 12, 2009, 8:31 PM UTC

bprater wrote: post #23

It's worth checking out how Amazon did their iPhone Kindle. When you initiate a rotation, it pops up a little button at the corner of the screen for about 2 seconds that allows you to lock that orientation. Most elegant implantation I've seen. It doesn't solve the issue of the user wanting to initiate a rotation without the accelerometer.

On the other hand, unless you're on the International Space Station, you probably have enough space to rotate the screen relative to gravity and lock it.

Re: IPhone auto-rotation: out of control

#30

Post by Zev » Mon, Oct 12, 2009, 9:35 PM UTC

bensummers wrote: post #21

Zev wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where else is there an "Only for power users" feature in iPhone OS? There's no precedent for this sort of behavior in the iPhone's UI anywhere. No other built-in app has that kind of setting. The closest that I can think of is the developers debug menu in Safari. And thats not "hidden", its just tucked away because its only meant for developing and does get in the way otherwise.

In my informal poll of iPhone users, those I would consider non-technical also were frustrated with auto-rotation. I don't think this is something for power users only.

I'm not saying that the problem is only a power users problem. Just that the proposed solution is. A simple toggle switch somewhere in Settings.app would work just fine. Or some other solution. Just not this particular solution, a multifinger rotating gesture to rotate the device.