I got that, but by design, if you rotate the device, then hit the button, you'll get an instant rotate anyway. Why not just have a button to MAKE it rotate, regardless of the sensor? Saves battery and would work on devices without sensors, plus prevent accidental rotations. You don't like that idea? Both are similar, but I just think mine goes another level. Most Nokia devices with ASR allow you to use it optionally, so I assumed a toggle would be present on my solution. Maybe those that haven't used the N97 should study that device's ASR solution, since it was based on Nokia's design ethic.

Well, darn... sjgadsby and timsamoff beat me to the answer... and while I appreciate the compliment, I think Gadsby did a better job than I could.

But here's my personal observations nonetheless...

1) Tim's point about the prolific posting is key. As someone with way too many posts I can attest first-hand-- I know my passion and level of engagement has rubbed many people raw so you're not the only one who's caught flack for it. If you only knew how many times I refrained from hitting the Reply button...

2) The "Indifference" thread was started in irreverent humor mode... but even at that I do think JayOnThaBeat was trying to oblige you.

3) There IS a tendency here to erect instant walls to ideas that have either been hashed over ad nauseum or are seen as requiring a lot of work. I feel your pain on that too because as a relentless idea generator (o, the gifts of ADD) I run into those walls a lot myself. That said-- some of the resistance is misguided IMO. It tends to shut down creativity at the worst possible times. Perhaps a maturing Brainstorm section will help facilitate improvement.

You've got at least as much passion as I do so I welcome you for it. However, it can work against you if not doled out in well-paced measure (to Tim's point). On the other hand... you could take heat off of me.

You just proved one of my points any way.

I didn't start this thread.... this is the anti-thread lol.

I started the who-cares-thread.

Too many threads on one subject simultaneously, and this is what happens.

Oops, sorry Jay, didn't mean to give you more credit than you deserve.

EDIT: I fixed my statement

I'm looking forward to the release, so we can go back to having better threads.

I like reading about new stuff / discoveries / hacks / etc.

Everything lately has just been b*tching :-/

It was inevitable.

It may be hard to find, but I commented on a thread from wayyy back about how I didn't understand why adding a cell capability to the tablets needed to be so polarizing.

Ah, foolish me. How could I be so naive.

The N900 has significantly changed the game. It is forcing a (r)evolution upon a community that was finally starting to establish a status quo.

Ah well. We old farts need a shake up now and then, and it feeds the noobs.

Indeed I don't like that idea because we consider that in most cases the user wishes to have autorotate on or wants to the device to decide optimal mode. Having to enable ASR first then, or needing to go to some button, sucks. There are use-cases where the user wants it off, I admit that (and gave examples), but then I say: allow the user to put ASR mode off because usually the user wants it on.

Now, if it is put off (with side effect accelerometer not using juice), you could say indeed "instead of putting ASR mode on you may wish to prefer to manually rotate the screen once". The interaction required for either toggle is roughly similar, and a manual rotation might lead to better desired effect than ASR because ASR mode gives wrong effect.

However my bottomline is that users by default do not give a flying **** about all this, and just want the device to take care of it. They want to use the device instead of having to configure all kind of bells and whistles.

When users complain due to experience about an application being sub-optimal, a solution could be sought on a case-by-case scenario, based on community feedback and popular demand (Brainstorm). That seems to me the most efficient way for development resources spend.

Creating the dashboard and widgets with both landscape and portrait mode support seems like a real pain. The widgets are not grid aligned like on many competitors, so rotating could cause some confusing moments. A developer could have input on to if there is a memory footprint increase of having to maintain 2 positions for everything.

The big thing to me is that there are only 4 use cases that are personally relevant for portrait mode.

1. Phone
2. Calculator
3. Note tablet w/ stylus
4. Music player

ogahyellow, assuming those are the only relevant portrait mode use cases totally ignores one of the greatest devices of the decade, the N95, which ushered in the totally portrait mobile computing we see today. You can do ANYthing in portrait with relative ease and convenience, as the N95 showed. I've composed and posted 99% of all my blog posts, device reviews, articles and market analysis reports, including images, from my N95 or other one handed review devices, so I know firsthand. I don't even use PCs anymore, and doing so now is a big shock. (my device is broken, my backups are on loan or sold because I'm financially struggling, and I have to wait for a gifted N900 to get mobile again) You might need to research the N95 and N97's rabid user base and find out exactly what can be done in one hand in portrait nowadays.

Having used the iPhone in portrait mode, I can honestly say that typing and composing anything in portrait mode is not for me (way to many mistakes). But every individual is different.