i tried out a friend's iPhone today (incidentally, he doesn't really like it and bought an old Sony Ericsson P900 (?) recently. That's his all time favourite phone).

I was playing around and noticed that I couldn't view the screen all the time while wearing sunglasses. I've never had this problem with angles on the N900. Anyway that as an aside, I was trying to flip between portrait and landscape mode.

The main home screens don't have landscape view as far as I could tell, and some applications, such as the Calendar, didn't either. The main rotateable applications that were there were photos, music player, calculator, internet browser. He has hardly bought any apps so it is quite bare.

Anyway, I'm sure soe iPhone users can let me/us know which parts are rotateable and which are not.

Anyway, many people want portrait ode for the N900 an similarly I would say some things don't need any orientation change, while other applicatios will find it very useful with the option available.

Great observation! I dislike how reviewers point out the lack of portrait mode in most apps on the N900 but disregard that the iPhone is mostly stuck in portrait. Maybe an iPhone-centric brainwashed worldview I suppose?

Observation

The case FOR portrait mode is one handed operation
now look at how iPhone users use Portrait two handed.
I believe this is because when typing they still would like to see as much of the application as possible. or is it that certain apps dont do landscape?

When the iPhone was first released, there was a lot of hype and media coverage about its landscape mode support and cool auto-screen-rotation feature. What most journalists forgot to mention is that landscape orientation was only supported in 3 applications (Safari, iPod and Photos). The menu and all the other applications were stuck in portrait mode just as in every other phone.

It took 2 years and tons of complaints from iPhone users before Apple finally implemented landscape support in a few more apps (the email client most notably). This by no mean means full landscape support across the board. The menu and several apps (Calendar, Google Maps, Weather, etc) are still stuck in portrait mode. The YouYube app is still stuck in landscape mode (which is a real pain when you just want to watch videos while browsing the web. You end up having to rotate to watch the video then rotate back to continue browsing). Some apps support both orientations but restrict some functionalities to a specific orientation (the CoverFlow view in iPod for example is only available in landscape mode while its list view and main menu are only available in portrait mode). The grass isn't that much greener on the other side of the fence.

When it comes to third party applications, the situation is the same as on Maemo: developers can choose which orientation they support. In practice, pretty much all iPhone apps support portrait mode. Landscape mode on the other side is a lot less common. Typically, landscape mode is supported in apps where it really makes sense (apps that display photos or videos for example).

The issue of screen orientation on the N900 is slightly different though. Regardless of whether you call the N900 a smartphone, a mobile computer or a cyber toaster, the fact is that many N900 use cases are identical to those of a mobile phone. You use your N900 standing up in the bus and in the subway with one hand grabbing the rail. You use your N900 in the street with one hand grabbing the bag or the kid. You use your N900 in the supermarket with one hand pushing the trolley. In all those common situations, one-handed portrait use is mandatory. And in general, when you just want to check something out quickly, it's much easier to grab your phone with one hand and do everything one handed in portrait mode.

Having a portrait mode phone with spotty landscape mode support is much easier to sell to mainstream users than the oposite. Nokia could try to implement portrait mode support only in applications where it makes the most sense but they would have to challenge the view that most people have that the default use case of a phone is in portrait orientation. Implementing portrait mode support across the board might be a more realistic goal (if they want to go mainstream anyway).

from my personal experience it is because it's hard to operate any touch screen device one handed, no matter if its landscape or portrait.

touch screens (especially capacitive ones) require you to keep your thumb away from the device until it reaches the button you want to press, only then touch it. this is really awkward if you try to do it for a while. much easier to use your other hand (which is far enough away from the device).

this is one of the reasons why for every day use, i prefer real phones with numeric keys and softkeys - like the my S60 model. you can safely keep your thumb on the device all the time, it will never cover the screen, you can actually feel when you reach the next key and there's no way you could accidentally press a key when you only want to rest your finger on it.

Check out the portrait mode on this baby . . . . iphone eat your heart out . . . lol


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kkS2...eature=related

IMHO the most important part for which Nokia should enable portrait mode is the dashboard (tasks view). Otherwise you cannot switch from one portrait app to another one without going landscape inbetween.

Well, you can, but the UI will be 90 degrees around. The buttons would remain just as pressable. The portrait thumbnail would actually look to be the right way round.

Dashboard has of course the wallpaper and easy access to the Home view, so portraiting Dashboard very quickly leads to the need to portraitify Home.

Interestingly there is also a device width issue here (refering to portrait mode).

The N900 lends itself better to one handed portrait use cause its thinner in that dimension, and its thickness also allows a better grip. Ths allows the thumb to reach acros the width of the screen.

I certainly find the phone app comfortable in the hand to make calls with.

I suspect that your hands might be too small for a screen that would meet your requirements. The iPod touch screen is actually wider than the n900's, but the touch is about as small and as thin as these things get. I can use it comfortably for extended periods of time with one hand in portrait mode [insert joke]. I don't know if you've ever tried one, but this is the baseline; if you can't use a touch with one hand in portrait mode, there's no hope.