Re: Help support Automatic Screen Rotation (Univeral Portrait support) for the N900
 

Glad we're on the same page. Please comment on the bainstorm.

Re: Help support Automatic Screen Rotation (Univeral Portrait support) for the N900
 

I don't like the rotation of home screens. There are widgets which are simply too wide to fit in portrait, so they would either be cut off or have to be shown in landscape. In any case it just doesn't seem elegant to me, and I can't really see it happening like that.

I would keep it very simple, either no homescreen at all (making it the phone as described in my previous post or some static image), or perhaps a single portrait homescreen which can have its own widgets.

The dashboard is anything but a simple problem, and so far nobody seems to have come up with a satisfying solution to what happens to the thumbnails if the screen is rotated while the dashboard is showing.

I don't see the point of voting yet, when nobody has come up with a completely thought-through proposal yet. There are issues that have been pointed out in great detail before by people like ragnar, who do UI design for a living. It's not productive and a bit disrespectful to just glance over those issues.

Re: Help support Automatic Screen Rotation (Univeral Portrait support) for the N900
 

I don't actually care that much about universal portrait support*, but what does bother me is rather simple scenario everyone will face... what happens when you receive let's say a e-mail? From what i've gleaned from previews and... ahem... a review I would have to use both hands, unlock the phone and open the e-mail app.

That seems rather awkward to me, but I have an idea... how about the lock screen which we all know it's got, provides some useful information instead of just being a iPhone rip off. Have it display your recently received emails, txt, up coming calendar events/taks and any other info that relevant. This is a feature iPhone users have been clamouring for since the first iPhone came out.

Have that screen auto rotate so if I do receive a email out on the street I can get it out of my pocket flick the unlock slider or power button and quickly glance at the message. Portrait support in the email / messenger apps becomes irrelevant because if it's something you need to reply to you will be using the keyboard.

Just and idea...


* It would be nice - I most certainly don't support the "I don't want it" group of developers that seem to think it would double there UI code workload... I have an idea for that as well... if you don't want to support it in the app your making no one is forcing you to code/support it ;)

Re: Help support Automatic Screen Rotation (Univeral Portrait support) for the N900
 

What if the widgets had some mechanism to resize and or relocate upon rotation? This is the type of solution we're working to bring to fruition, not just a messy rotate and that's it.

I've come to notice that with the solutions many are now supporting in the Brainstorm, for anything to be feasible, there may be a need to limit widgets to 480x480, but that is still a pretty large widget, larger than an N95 screen, so it shouldn't be a problem for most widget designers.

Could you check my solution (I think its solution #5 in this Brainstorm), and tell me if it sounds inelegant to you if done properly and successfully? I like my idea, and everyone else does so far. Not sure how possible it will be to implement it, but a good solution is at least possible if thought out properly.

You seem to have some new ideas. Please post them in the brainstorm, at least as a comment if not a solution. Registration only takes a couple minutes.

I don't think the dashboard is so hard an issue. The tiles can show the apps in native orientation if they only support one, or be rotated for apps that support that. The position of the tiles would stay the same, just the data in them would need to change. Then there's the issue of titling the tiles, but just not showing a title in portrait could be a solution. You can always just look and see what it is.

You may see no reason, but it helps us to get votes on the solutions in the brainstorms so we know which ideas are supported and which we should ignore. Community involvement in a positive manner is always needed, and the more the better.

So head on over and be heard!
http://maemo.org/community/brainstor..._in_fremantle/

Re: Help support Automatic Screen Rotation (Univeral Portrait support) for the N900
 

Good ideas, Ovek! Why haven't you posted them in the brainstorm?? We need as many thoughts and ideas as possible to get a good solution for everyone. I never even thought about what you said until now. Please post it to the Brainstorm.
http://maemo.org/community/brainstor..._in_fremantle/

Re: Help support Automatic Screen Rotation (Univeral Portrait support) for the N900
 

I'll post the same concern I have posted in the other thread here, too. Don't know if it was already mentioned, but I think it's important to think about it...

But what is, if you're lying in your bed sideways, like this an you want to surf the web or just read something... The screen would change the orientation to portrait mode... wtf?!

I would love to see a function in which the front camera would detect the orientation of your face and based on that change the screen orientation... xD

Re: Help support Automatic Screen Rotation (Univeral Portrait support) for the N900
 

That by the way is an interesting question. Okay, the apps keep running, but do they get *all* which are emitted on dbus or elsewhere? Will they even see that the orientation of the device has changed? Or is the dashboard the only application which listens on dbus for those events at that time and then has to tell all applications that the orientation changed?

I take that as a question to one of the brainstorms :)

Re: Help support Automatic Screen Rotation (Univeral Portrait support) for the N900
 

That all might be, but do you expect it being there overnight? Add your ideas to the existing brainstorms, let other people *think* about how it can be done - it is not there yet and needs serious considerations to get it correct.

Re: Help support Automatic Screen Rotation (Univeral Portrait support) for the N900
 

What IMNSHO is sexy about that idea is that I can have *8* home screens then (or maybe just 1 portrait mode home screen, which just sees the most important widgets).

I guess only when you want to have the same widget available in portrait and landscape mode without starting it twice. Or have it resizable in a way that the width of the widget shrinks to the maximum available width in that orientation if it is smaller than the widget width.[/QUOTE]

Re: Help support Automatic Screen Rotation (Univeral Portrait support) for the N900
 

What if you have a wide face? >:)