Re: Portrait mode use cases
 

lol john, you know that analogy was flawed.. but I had to click the Thanks button for making me LOL anyway :D

I've been hearing many explanations\excuses about not having portrait mode in N900. In general I've 'accepted' the current condition.. but I feel that none of the answers really 'clicked', maybe because none of them have been really candid\open in the delivery.

Re: Portrait mode use cases
 

Yes, exactly! I should have been clearer in adding: the widgets/buttons/text-boxes/etc would not be allowed to breach the boundaries of the two boxes -- they must fit entirely within them.

I love the 'book' anaolgy. We'll hence-forth call it the a book-ui. The idea is that items can fit on two square pages, and these two square pages can be easily oriented landscape or portrait through a simple rotate.

This solution is quite elegant.

... and with that the Book UI concept was born ...

YARR!
}:^)~

Re: Portrait mode use cases
 

Well, I really hope that you're half-kidding with this. :)

Making it crappier for the main use case, to support another use case, it's not a tradeoff without any loss. The beauty of the Home canvases now is that you can do free and pixel perfect layouts. Place items exactly where you want, as many as you want, and the items can be relatively free sizes. Align items with the wallpaper image etc.

Following the clever analogies, what pearl of wisdom could I come up with...

Either you can be the architect of your own home, and design it the way you like, make the walls and measurements down to an inch. And "it only works in landscape", the building would topple down if you turn it. Or you can build your home out of a couple of huge lego blocks, in which case you can also turn the whole cube around 90 degrees.

Ok, it's the best analogy on the internets. Or then not.

(And yes, there are of course other ways to solve this.)

But please, it's not zero peanuts.

Re: Portrait mode use cases
 

So right now, the real question is not anymore :
do we need the portrait mode on the N900 ?
but : How built the portrait mode on the N900 ? :rolleyes:

Re: Portrait mode use cases
 

Can someone help me to understand something very basic here

WILL THE COMMUNITY HACKED ROTATION SUPPORT WHICH IS ALREADY AVAILABLE FOR MAEMO 4 WORK IF ENABLED ON THE N900?

I mean if some one re-engineered the current rotation support on to the n900 will it work?

Thanks

Re: Portrait mode use cases
 

The current rotation is x rotation base, quite like the maemo 4 version was. So, most of that work is already done. All applications need to do is set their window to support portrait mode.

Re: Portrait mode use cases
 

As to the other comments, let's just say that we are investigating options on how to extend the currently limited support of portrait mode. Whether that would extend significantly, we would definitely also support portrait in switcher. On desktop I don't see rationale for it for multitude of reasons, most having been mentioned already before, but for example bg image being an addition to the already mentioned examples.

Re: Portrait mode use cases
 

So my question is that will the community be able to hack that x support to the default applications including the desktop? It doesnt have to be perfect but will it atleast work like the current rotations support in n8x0 tablets?

Thanks

Re: Portrait mode use cases
 

The background image issue is not an issue at all: in portrait it becomes an up/down slide rather than a side to side slide. It's actually a more natural motion (IMO) for the thumb anyway (similar to a vertical kenetic scrolling list). The important info (the widgets) would be clearly readable at the correct orientation and easily accessible.

A few more use cases (just to throw it out there):

• Changing tracks while jogging after pulling the unit from the pocket. Jogging with both hands tied up is very difficult.
• Changing tracks while riding a bike. Ok with one hand, dangerous with 2. Generally I quickly skip tracks, not play with playlists, and I often do this without looking, on empty rural roads. It's rather safe
• Using the device as a 'remote control' for ones PVR or HTPC.

Just thought I'd throw those in there. Anyhow, as before, we'll see what the market says.


YARR!
}:^)~

Re: Portrait mode use cases
 

How is the background orientation becomes a problem?

It should rotate along with the rest of the on screen items. Just like paintings hung with string to nails on a wall, they just follow gravity.