Database Users

Disabling orientation change on power on and keyboard slide.

Anyone know if it is possible to change the TyTn's annoying habit of making unwanted reversions from landscape to portrait orientation?
On my machine it:
1. Always changes to portrait when the device is switched on, even if it was in landscape when it switched off. Some idiot obviously thought this was a "feature" since it comes up in landscape initially and then switches to portrait as you watch.
2. Changes to portrait when the keyboard slide is closed even if it was in landscape before the slide was opened. This is a useful feature poorly thought through. Auto switch to landscape on open IS logical, but it should not assume you want to go back to portrait when the slide is closed again.
I'd be very happy if I could just disable both these "features", but ideally I'd be able to keep "switch to landscape on slide open", with or without "revert to previous orientation on slide close".

JohnHind said:
Anyone know if it is possible to change the TyTn's annoying habit of making unwanted reversions from landscape to portrait orientation?
On my machine it:
1. Always changes to portrait when the device is switched on, even if it was in landscape when it switched off. Some idiot obviously thought this was a "feature" since it comes up in landscape initially and then switches to portrait as you watch.
2. Changes to portrait when the keyboard slide is closed even if it was in landscape before the slide was opened. This is a useful feature poorly thought through. Auto switch to landscape on open IS logical, but it should not assume you want to go back to portrait when the slide is closed again.
I'd be very happy if I could just disable both these "features", but ideally I'd be able to keep "switch to landscape on slide open", with or without "revert to previous orientation on slide close".
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I don't have problem #1, and I wonder if it's being caused by the orientation sensor being triggered at the wrong time. The sensor is magnetic, so if there is a magnet (any magnet) making contact the screen orientation will be landcape. Others here have noticed that even the magnetic closures on the official Tytn case from HTC will trigger the change.
Problem #2 is strictly software and yes, it's damn annoying when a UI designer assumes that the only functionality needed is the one that best fits his/her needs with no regard to anyone else. The only solution I can offer you, short of writing an app to do this yourself is to map a key to orientation switching and switch it yourself once you retract the keyboard. (A side gripe here is why the orientation settings are buried so deep that only a power user can find it).

I think I did see an app for changing orientation but will need to search.
By the way it starts (sometimes) in landscape because the mechanism that changes orientation is a magnet switch. A magnet on the keyboard is moved when you slide it open and operates the switch. Howver since there are powerful magnets in some carrying cases these can operate the switch (as if the keyboard was open) Then when you take it out of the pouch it takes a second or to and reverts to portrait.
You can operate the switch manually by running a magnet along the side of the casing. (not that I'm suggesting that as a solution )
EDIT: perhaps this will help
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=1098622#post1098622
Mike

Thanks guys.
I have been able to get a rotation icon on the today screen (iLauncher) and to map rotation to a hard-key using a combination of iLauncher and Resco KeyMapper. But rotation takes a noticable time (seems to redraw at least four times, probably a poor model for the today screen plugin architecture) and it is irritating to have to do it twice when you do not want it at all.
With further experimentation I find it goes according to the slide position when switched on - if you open the slide and then turn on, it always switches to landscape, if you switch on with the slide closed it always switches to portrait. I suppose this makes sense - it reads this magnetic switch at power on and acts accordingly. But if Rob is right, maybe this is a "feature" of one of the utilities I've installed. Next time I have to do a hard reset I'll see if it still happens with the base OS.
I was really hoping there'd be a registry key I could change to modify this behaviour or that there'd be some utility I could buy that allowed me to hook any action I wanted to the slide switch (or none). For example, it would be more ergonomic if it turned on on opening the slide as well as changing to landscape.
See what you mean about the magnet - maybe if I got a strong enough one it would permanently magnetise and stick!

[Q] Force portrait mode?

Is there a way to force an application into portrait mode or spoof/disable the accelerometer to maintain portrait orientation across applications? Ideally in the long-term it'd be nice if there were an elegant solution for handling portrait vs. landscape devices and screen rotation - or maybe more apps just need to take this into account - but a workaround for apps that don't would be nice.
My primary use case for this issue is when lying sideways, holding the tablet sideways to read on the Kindle application. The tablet thinks it should be in landscape mode, but I want it in portrait mode lying sideways with me so I can read it. The Kindle application can lock itself, but it always does so into landscape mode on tablets. This is inconvenient since it is easier to read on narrower displays (it's trickier for your eyes to wrap around to the beginning of the next line the longer those lines are).
Using the CyanogenMod beta I came up with a workaround - be sure you have the 180 degree/upside down rotation position disabled so that the display won't flip upside down - now when you turn it upside down it will stay in whichever portrait rotation it was previously in. Unfortunately, I was not able to figure out a similar workaround in Beast ROM since the display always rotates, even to the 180 degree/upside down position.
Now I might like to switch back to CyanogenMod in the long term (I use it on my Nexus One and like all the options and developer goodies it gives and it's kinda neat/convenient to be running similar software on both devices), but I think I currently like the Beast ROM better since it feels more solid and less buggy (it's particularly embarrassing trying to explain to friends why the camera orientation is messed up in CM >_>).
Anybody have any other solutions/workarounds for this issue? particularly something that might work with Beast rom?
~Troop

I would also really like to know if this is possible, for basically the exact same reasons you would.
In the past I would have thought that this would be a really high priority issue, but my experience has been bookreading does not appear to be a very highly used application of pdas/tablets - I remember when the HTC G1 first came out, there was a surprising lag before usable bookreader apps were released...

Just incase anybody is interested, I brought up this question on stackexchange as well:
http://android.stackexchange.com/qu...fault-screen-orientation-in-android-specified

There are apps that should lock you in to portrait or landscape. Just install one on your device and you should be good to go. Here is an example:
https://market.android.com/details?id=kennethcheng.com.autorotate&feature=search_result

blazingwolf said:
There are apps that should lock you in to portrait or landscape. Just install one on your device and you should be good to go. Here is an example:
https://market.android.com/details?id=kennethcheng.com.autorotate&feature=search_result
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks, but unfortunately the problem is more complicated than that. Once you turn off auto-rotate, your device goes back to its default orientation mode.
For a tablet, that is landscape

Uncontrollable Orientation Behaviour

When applications that are GPU accelerated are switched to full screen, the screen orientation always switches back to default (with the Asus on the Transformer logo on top). This is regardless of the orientation you have set.
For example:
A)
1.) You have rotated your screen upside down
2.) you run Angry Birds
3.) the screen switches back to standard default orientation
B)
1.) You have rotated your screen upside down
2.) launch youtube
3.) play a video
4.) switch to full screen
5.) the screen automatically switches back to standard default orientation
I have upgraded to 3.1 recently and don't seem to remember this being an issue before with 3.0.1 before.
Is anyone else also having this issue?

ok, is anyone with 3.1 NOT having this issue?

I get the same thing happening, and I think I would go as far as to say that it's actually intentional behavior on the part of Asus and Google to make the orientation revert like that. It makes more sense for fullscreen video to default to that orientation so as to ensure that it's consistent with the proper docking position, which is with the docking port on the bottom. Most people who watch fullscreen video for any extended period of time are probably going to dock the device.
Why do you turn the tablet upside down in the first place? I understand that having the ability to rotate 270 degrees is sometimes helpful for games and multi-user applications, I just don't see how using the tablet in its default orientation would pose a problem.

I'm typing on phone so briefly, the reason I need the transformer to be upside is due to the design of the variable angle stand of the official asus transformer skin case.
The case stands by folding in a scalene triangular fashion.
20 degrees above horizontal requires upside down.
75 degrees above horizontal requires right side up.
So most of the time when you use it in your lap, you want only 20 degrees

Applications are allowed to overide the orientation. This is true for most media players. It'll force the screen into the default landscape mode. App controlled so not honeycomb issue
Sent from my Transformer TF101

Sounds like a bit of a design oversight on the part of Asus.
Now as far as fixing it, you only have a few options. While you do have the ability to disable auto rotation on the screen, that's going to cause the tablet to simply default to the 0 degrees landscape orientation. What you need on top of that is a way to manually set your orientation, and so far I've never seen an app or ROM that does that. That's not to say it's impossible, just that I've never seen it done. The other option is to buy the keyboard dock, but that's a little excessive unless you really think you need it.

This is due to the fact that the dev of the app has forced it to lock in that orientation (landscape right side up, there's an app called androsensor that will give you more info). There was another thread concerning the same topic in themes and apps section. Your best bet is to email the app developer when you run into this.
One example is airport mania, if you were holding the device upside down and launched the game, it would force it to run right side up. I sent them am email with a description of what is happening and that the official sleeve (although I don't have one but felt it was with mentioning) is designed so the device is upside down with camera at bottom and charge port at top. Got a reply within the day and an update in the market within 3.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App

klau1 said:
Uncontrollable Orientation Behaviour
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Click to collapse
To much beer, not enough sex

There is an option to lock the orientation in the settings. So once it is upsied down you can lock the orientation and it shouldn't change.
I am not with my TF right now to test this though.

no, that doesn't work.
I don't recall this being a problem prior to the 3.1 update. Having to purposely ask each developer to change the orientation when none was necessary before is simply unacceptable.
Having bought something as simple as a case with it's multi-angle feature, one expects it to work out of the box.

As far as I knew, apps like Moboplayer always stayed in the default landscape orientation during video playback

I don't use Moboplayer much, but as far as I can recall, the Youtube app worked upside down in full screen before.
Can someone with 3.0 confirm?

Horizontal upside down

I really like having my tablet upside down which is fine for dolphins for pad and some others, but video players and games revert the orientation back to right side up. I thought that locking the rotation would keep it upside down but it doesn't work. Does anyone know a way to lock it or is it thor rom?

You can try running a different rom, but I believe the result will be the same.
Some apps, are programmed to run at a certain orientation.
Also note, that Thor's rom, the last I looked, currently the display lock button is inoperable, but I believe there is a software setting for it in the menus.

Yeah I meant the software toggle. Is there some way to toggle inverting the screen, so making the app think down is up?

nstong said:
Yeah I meant the software toggle. Is there some way to toggle inverting the screen, so making the app think down is up?
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What is the benefit to doing this?

so I can watch videos in the oriention where the docking prt is facing up. That's what I'm looking to do, just trying to figure out how.

2 things you can try:
1) Apparently MoboPlayer has an orientation lock setting somewhere. I haven't used it but people in the TF forums are trying to do the same thing as you are.
2) There is an app in the market that can force orientation. I've heard it works but again have not tried it: It is called Orientation Control.

Orientation lock works!! Had to go through all the steps of typing orientation in market (and spend 1.50). I think just ssumed it would something complicated. Thanks

Glad I could help

change orientation in Landscape apps CM7

Is there a way to change the landscape orientation of the kindle (using CM7) for full screen apps? More specifically, I have several games that are played in a landscape orientation, but they do not rotate if you turn the device upside down. The design of my case has a sort of stand, but the way its stands up is the opposite direction than most apps seem to default to. Is there a way to change the default landscape orientation?

Fairtrade128 said:
Is there a way to change the landscape orientation of the kindle (using CM7) for full screen apps? More specifically, I have several games that are played in a landscape orientation, but they do not rotate if you turn the device upside down. The design of my case has a sort of stand, but the way its stands up is the opposite direction than most apps seem to default to. Is there a way to change the default landscape orientation?
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Click to collapse
I've tried doing the same thing and can not find a way to do it. I did try disabling the 90 degree rotation but the games still play in the default landscape mode.

solved my own problem! check out this app here get your device in the orientation you want, and then lock it. it will keep that orientation when you go into apps. however, its not pretty and the simple ui isn't perfect. I'm thinking this would work better...but it costs money...so we'll see. this works for now though