Is there a generic way to rotate the view to portrait? I'd like to try taking memos (e.g. Maemopad+) or reading pdfs in portrait mode.

Or, is it application specific and, if so, which applications allow rotations?

Scott

There's no generic way and i don't know of any applications that allow for rotation...except fbreader and some image viewers maybe (also in that case only the image is rotated not really the entire app). However i'd love to see that functionality as well

scott: Out of curiosity, are you a Palm user turned tablet user? (I realize the majority of Palm devices use this orientation.)

Actually even I thought o this - strange that Noia didnt think of changing apps orientation. Particularly for reading ebooks or any notes portair is much better in the sence you do vertical scrolling less.

Again, my old Zaurus (tablet form C1000) also had auto rotation when the screen was rotated from portrait to landscape and vice-versa and also rotated thru a software option.

This is one glaring ommision (if indeed it is not there at all) in Maemo.

Another person for support for portrait mode.

I've read something about xrandr in the past but I'm not sure how well it's supported.

I can't speak for Scott but I'd like the option of using the tablet in portrait mode as well. Based on my use of a 770, due to the weight of the tablet and my own clumsiness, to be able to grip both sides of the unit securely. Holding it horizontally and feeling it flop up and down like a flag makes me nervous when I'm walking or on a bus.

Lots of people asked for rotation when the 770 was still young (and the world was a kinder, friendlier place where animals lived in peace and harmony with each other and men roamed free over the plains of Middle Ear-- but I digress...).

In any case, Nokia replied to those requests by bringing out the N800, which was designed in such a way that portrait orientation was much clumsier to use than on its predecessor (the infamous "hump").

Moral? The Nokia Itablet division is composed of cynical b*st*rds who hate all their customers.

I don't know about it being clumsier, it seems to work fine for me. But Nokia certainly seems to have no interest in making it work better, either. GRRRrrrrr.

As to Palm convert or not, I'm not, and it's obvious to me that for handwriting, you want a portrait mode, so you're not reaching across so far from where your hand rests on the bezel. Not like paper, where you can rest your hand anywhere, so I find taking notes on the left edge of the display in Xournal fatiguing.

But, there are applications that do portrait mode, among them VNCviewer. Turns out logging into a 1024x768 desktop in portrait mode lets you view almost 1/2 of the screen, and only have one scrollbar. (768px + scrollbar = just fits in 800px) evince also can do this, though there it's painfully apparent it's rotating pages, when in, e.g., continuous mode.

There's a thread around somewhere discussing the use of VNCviewer with a local Xvnc server to run non-hildonized X apps. The combination would allow you to (relatively) easily run any directly ported apps in portrait mode.

No, actually. I've used a regular Tablet PC, and found that it just felt wrong writing on the N810 in landscape mode. For whatever reason, my hand wasn't resting right, although I may get used to it w/practice. (I also should try it w/the keyboard out; maybe that will give better support.)

As for pdf viewing, I'm trying to use the n810 to read papers (scientific), most of which are 2-column. So it would be easier for me to be in portrait mode, zoomed in to a single column, rather than landscape.

Just realized that I referenced evince without saying what it's good for. It's a pdf etc. reader, so that may help.

In portrait mode w/ the camera in the upper right hand corner and mapping the zoom button for page up, page down it would be ideal.
With the camera in the lower left corner and the k/b extended the dpad would be usable.