Irritating iPhone Rotate

I love the iPhone, I spend a good chunk of my day using it and even go to bed with it. Get your minds out of the gutter, I’m not talking about that, but I’m sure there’s an app for it. Anyway, one of the most irritating things about the iPhone for me is trying to read my email or surf the web when I lie down. Every night before I fall asleep I try to answer all the emails I received that day on JohnNemec.com and catch-up on my favorite blogs. But as soon as I lay my head down on the pillow the iPhone screen rotates. So I have two options, hold my head and iPhone at an awkward angle or just sit up in bed. Either way I’m not accomplishing my goal of winding down for bed as well as trying to be productive. Since the iPhone still hasn’t added a lock option to temporally disable the auto-rotate feature other workarounds must be made. I found on Macworld.com a nice trick given by Chris Pepper on Twitter.

The other day I was lying on my side, trying to read a web page on the iPhone. I turned the iPhone 90° clockwise, but it obligingly re-rotated the text 90° counter-clockwise, leaving me again out of sync. I grumbled something about the irritation of being outmaneuvered by a handheld gadget. Amy’s brilliant suggestion: rotate it another 90° CCW. Since the iPhone doesn’t offer 180° rotation, this left the text rotated 90° in alighnment with my head.

If you didn’t get it right away, that’s OK, I had to actually take my iPhone out and try it. Hold your iPhone upright and lay down, while in your email or Safari. Your screen should rotate. Now rotate your iPhone another 90° so your Home Key is pointing to the ceiling. You should now have a horizontal view iPhone screen perfect for bedtime viewing.

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