Orientation Switch on iPad Will Soon Be a Mute Button

[Jeff Campbell]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.tuaw.com/2010/10/25/ipads-orientation-switch-to-mute-switch-change-will-be-permanen/' target='_blank'>http://www.tuaw.com/2010/10/25/ipad...ll-be-permanen/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"When iOS 4.2 gets rolled out to iPad users sometime in the coming weeks, the button on the side that, until now, has prevented the screen from swapping between portrait and landscape will become a mute switch, just like it is on the iPhone. However, since this is clearly a software-managed control rather than being hard-wired, some users were hoping that this might be configurable somewhere in the settings."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1288034355.usr105634.jpg" /></p><p>I like the orientation switch so this is not good news for me. Apple won't even make it configurable apparently, which is par for the course with Apple when it comes to modifications of hardware controls. What are your thoughts, good or bad?</p>

[rockinthesixstring]

No big deal really. iOS4.2 will have the same screen orientation lock abilities as the iPhone, which IMO works great. They're basically adding functionality and not taking any away.

Sure the "press and hold" of the volume button jumps to mute, but it's still a pain. I welcome the change.

[Sven Johannsen]

Guess I agree with rockinthesixstring. sliding the tray right to get to the spoftware screen lock shouldn't be any tougher than flipping the hardware switch. Making the switch do the same on both platforms is a good first step in combating all that platform fragmentation.