Hi, am I the only one who is not satisfied with Nokia's support (or lack thereof) for portrait browsing?

I submitted [Bug 9995] a few weeks ago to highlight the fact that portrait browsing only has the full screen mode, and that you cannot display the menu bar or the address bar in the browser when it's in portrait mode.

The two responses I got to that bug were disappointing. The first reply from a fellow Maemo member said Nokia will not support this, the second from Nokia said that it was "too easy" to workaround, but is it really?

I realized then that I had not provided enough information in the bug report to highlight the extent of this problem (a lesson in the future for everyone who submits bug reports). So, I decided to reopen the bug, and provide more information, because I believe it is a compelling bug, and that Nokia should fix it, because it involves major loss of functionality.

There are 13 different use cases [see below] in the browser that disappear when browsing in portrait mode. To me, this is major loss of functionality. I would probably agree that it's too minor of a problem if the user had to switch to landscape mode to accomplish one infrequent task every now and then, but 13 tasks?!!! Here is what I'm talking about, when you're browsing in portrait mode, you cannot do any of the following:

1- Display browsing history
2- Access bookmarks
3- Add page to bookmarks
4- Navigate "Back"
5- Display the menu bar to observe the following:
The title of the web page
The Radio Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI)
The Battery level
The WiFi connection status
The time
Other information in the system tray
6- Launch new window
7- Reload page
8- Find on page
9- Access downloads
10- Access details about the page
11- Access the options menu
12- Toggle full screen mode
13- Close the browser

Am I the only one who thinks this is a major problem?

Nokia already knows people want to use their N900 in portrait mode. It acknowledged this by adding the "support" for it. Of course, the reason people asked for portrait mode is because many times they have only one hand to use their phone (portrait mode is almost always done with one hand). Now, a user is not supposed to, or at least should not be expected to, change their phone to landscape when only using one hand because:
1- Landscape was designed for two handed use, and
2- Changing from portrait to landscape in one hand risks dropping the phone

So, how can Nokia possibly think that it's "too easy" for users to switch from portrait to landscape when they're using only one hand, and how can they possibly think that this will not be an annoying problem when there are 13 different use cases involved?

I mean, you can't even go back, see what time it is, or how much battery you have left when the phone is in portrait mode. These are very frequent use cases.

Doesn't this bug deserve to be fixed? Nokia's response indicates that it won't be in PR1.2.

This is sorted out in PR 1.2

Cheers,

Barrie

Really? That would be awesome good news!!!

If they only said so, I wouldn't have had to write this long post and waste people's time

Number 15
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?p=577393

Simple search would've recealed so many hidden secrets.. check the wiki for the PR1.2 and you'll find out about the full changelog...

who cares about portrait mode for browsing all i care about is portrait for texting

Would you believe me if I said I tried? I also got the impression from Nokia's feedback that it would never be supported :s

lol, you shouldn't text and drive though. Trust me it's dangerous. The first time I took my N900 out of the house, I almost rear ended someone

dont think he mentioned txting while driving :-) would just be a nice feature to have for quick sms on the go ie walking etc :-)

looks like to community are working on it though :-) nice one :-)

i just want to be able to text with one hand thats all. its by far the most annoying omission on Nokia part. before anyone starts with the but you have a full qwerty keyboard bla bla bla. I KNOW and i love it, but i want the option of texting with one hand if needed