The only thing id want in portrait mode is the messaging app, yes we could stop walking for 2 mins to reply but what if your other hand is busy? Like walking the dog, holding shopping bags etc etc, in apps like this (apps that require alot of text input) should allow the user to have both modes to use at will, its not a show stopper but we have been using mobile devices with portrait orientation to text for years, why change it now? What if your chating via IM? You dont want to stop walking to use both hands every 30 seconds etc just to reply.

There's no onscreen keyboard that you can use to send messages in portrait mode, so you'll have to use the sliding-landscape-mode keyboard anyway.

Then I'll suggest that portrait-mode onscreen keyboard should be made

I'll vote portrait mode for:
Music player
messaging (at least reading)
Calendar (at least reading)

Without a portrait mode on-screen keyboard, more than half of the use cases proposed here can be deleted.

(at least reading)

What's the problem with tilting your hand sideways and reading it?

These are things I think should be _rotatable_ (usable in both portrait and landscape):


1) The system "list of items" widget should be rotatable, so that you can use it in portrait mode (more items visible = faster browsing through the list, less width = less detail per item) OR landscale mode (more detail per item, but fewer items visible).

This definitely applies to Contacts, Media Player (audio or not; portait - just the list of titles/artists/tracks, landscape - include the cover art), buddy list IM, conversation list in IM/SMS, MAYBE the IM/SMS messages themselves (until you go to compose one), and if there is a list/menu driven version of the application launcher (like the application menus in older versions of Maemo).

2) Media Player for audio controls

3) Rhapsody, if there's still going to be a dedicated Maemo app, should have a portrait mode. Basically, same use case as Media Player.

4) Skype. Same use case as the basic phone functionality of Maemo 5. Same with other VOIP apps. It's ok if video-calls are landscape only, but audio calls should be rotatable between portrait and landscape.

5) Document Viewers. All of them should be able to display in either mode. Those that allow editing, I can see only doing editing in landscape. But viewing should be doable either way. That applies to web pages as well (web browser should be rotatable).

6) task/todo list (I suppose this sort of fits into item #1, but I wanted to call it out). Edit items in landsacpe, view in landscape or portrait.

7) Calendar (event list and day view should be rotatable, but perhaps not week view nor month view, which I can see as being landscape only)

8) simple calculator view (but advanced calculator in landscape; in fact, on the iPhone, rotation is how you select simple vs advanced calculator modes, there's no other widget for it that I'm aware of).

9) added since I posted in the other topic: the screen saver mode should be viewable in either orientation, IMO. Not like desktop "colliding galaxy" screen savers, but like cell phone style screen savers that show you that you have X unread messages, X unread emails, X unread IMs, X% battery left, X missed calls, X voice mails, X bars of signal, which carrier you're on, etc. THAT status screen should be viewable in both portrait and landscape.


.....


in contrast, there are things that I am fine with only having a landscape mode:

a) IM/SMS/Email message composing

b) text editors (memo editor, plain text file editor), and probably editor modes of document viewers. Really, anything that you KNOW is going to be heavily driven by text entry is probably going to be ok to have a landscape only restriction (so, in a way, that covers the previous item too). And, I think with the revelation that they aren't planning to have a portrait mode virtual keyboard, this makes perfect sense.

c) Xterm (I'd hate to have curses based sessions constantly being messed with by rotation, and the canonical terminal dimensions, 80x24, are definitely wider than they are tall) ... with xterm, it's not just that it's text input driven, it's that it's a fixed width text grid. Sure, you can re-size an xterm on a regular display, but you don't generally see people doing that frequently -- they pick their preferred window geometry, and keep it. I've never seen someone re-orient it in the middle of a curses driven application, for example. That would just be ... disorienting, and probably create visual clutter. So, for me: xterm = landscape only.

d) VNC viewer -- some might make the case for it in portrait mode, but I doubt I'd ever use it that way. And I definitely want it to have landscape mode.

e) movie/tv-show/video viewing from a local file (not flash on webpages, as it would probably be too complicated to force some web pages into landscape, while allowing others to be portrait or landscape). Even low-def/non-wide-screen video needs 480 pixels of width... Though, I suppose if it's a specialized video that is narrower than 480 pixels, that'd be fine... but what's the point in catering to that special case?


I think that's it... I think probably most other things are things about which I'd be agnostic. And I can't think of any application that should be "portrait mode only" (not even the phone dialer).

While operating a mobile device with one hand, what is it that you suppose people are doing with the other? I mean, do you think that in at least a few cases their other hand is involved in a primary task that should have their attention?

In today’s litigious society and in markets where a contributory negligence defense could somehow place fault on the actual device for allowing it's operator to be distracted (<I don’t agree with this, but it happens), I'm not sure it is a good idea for a manufacturer to promote one handed operation of a smart phone.

It is bad enough with just SMS >> EXAMPLES << imagine if people were booking hotel rooms, looking up lyrics to songs they just heard, or Googling recipes in order to decide if they need to stop at the market for ingredients on the way home while, all while they hurtle down the road @ 60 miles per hour while supposedly operating a 1, 1/2 ton vehicle.

It will be a while before lawsuits start hitting the news from the many injured or killed when a Los Angelos commuter rail train crashed with a freight rail and 25 people died. Edited: Just recently there was a Boston trolley accident in which 49 people were hospitalized. In both cases a possible cause stated was "operator distracted while text messaging". Although the investigations are not complete or may be found inconclusive, perhaps enough attention has been given to texting as a possible cause that a device manufacturer and/or a service provider could be named in a few of those civil actions.

Just a thought.

Edit: Correction made. Replaced with italicized text

It isn't. Look at Eldars screenshots.

UGH... design by litigation is even WORSE than design by committee. Lets NOT go down that path, please.

Has there been any popular (smart)phone in the past that is landscape only?