topic Apps Locked in Portrait Orientation Problem in Tablets

Apps Locked in Portrait Orientation Problem

staz1000 — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 19:17:00 GMT

I think I have discovered a design flaw in the Tablet S. I installed 'Where's My Water?' last week and found that the app has the orientation locked into portrait as many apps do. The problem is the app locked in portrait with the thin side of the tablet to the left. As a right handed person this meant that it became uncomfortable to hold after a fairly short period.

I have emailed Sony Support and their response was that the problem is caused by the app and not the tablet. Having done some development work on Android I know that the app can force an orientation within the manifest file but the developer can only select portrait or landscape, and not WHICH portrait or landscape.

This means that the problem lays with Sony. As they developed a tablet which has such a design they should allow the tablet to work in either portrait mode for use in either hand. This makes total sense to me.

I have put those points back to Sony Support but they have simply repeated their points and said the the fault lies with the developer. I have previously installed one of my own apps on the tablet I can confirm that setting the rotation to portrait works in the same way as with Where's My Water.

Not acceptable IMHO. And not an acceptable response from Sony. Any ideas anyone?

Apps Locked in Portrait Orientation Problem

smellyonion — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:12:15 GMT

yep I too have experienced this, in vertical apps made for phones it defaults yo the position you mention above.

a tablet of these ergonomics should force the orientation.

Apps Locked in Portrait Orientation Problem

lemurville — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 18:40:23 GMT

Get the app Orientation Control from the market place

Apps Locked in Portrait Orientation Problem

staz1000 — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 08:13:03 GMT

Why should I have to pay for an app to solve a problem that shouldn't exist in the first place?

Apps Locked in Portrait Orientation Problem

tobarre32 — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 09:17:16 GMT

Amazingly I downloaded the official Playstation app & it only works in portrait mode with the thick side to the right!!

Apps Locked in Portrait Orientation Problem

staz1000 — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 10:23:03 GMT

Excellent! I'll make sure they know about that in my next email, cheers.

Apps Locked in Portrait Orientation Problem

breedBenR — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:54:50 GMT

If you should buy the Orientation Control payed app: it does work and circumvents this issue.
a blank black bar will appear in your notification tray allows you to enforce a orientation preference:

normal portrait = with the thick side to the right (natively supported, selectable in Android 3.x ready apps,

the default portrait mode for older apps that prefer portrait)

reversed portrait = with the thick side to the left (natively supported,
selectable in Android 3.x ready apps, disfunctional in older apps)
normal landscape = with the thick side to the top (natively supported,
the default landscape mode for older apps that prefer landscape)
reversed landscape = with the thick side to the bottom (Sony thought this would not be handy,
above mentioned App allows to select this one)

'older apps' = apps developed for Android 1.5, 1.6, 2.0/2.1/2.2 phones, and not updated for android 3.x/4.x

Apps Locked in Portrait Orientation Problem

vvandelo — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 08:27:22 GMT

I have reported exactly the same problem the 3 october 2011 to sony france using Cut the Robe and Shredder Chess games as examples. I have never received any satisfying answer since then. I am going to try the 'orientation control' app and see if it helps.

Update: I bought the Orientation Control app and I do confirm that it does fix this issue using reversed portrait mode.

Ce message a été modifié par: vvandelo

Apps Locked in Portrait Orientation Problem

staz1000 — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:24:32 GMT

Why has this question been marked as answered? It has not been answered.

Apps Locked in Portrait Orientation Problem

mpattenden — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:55:54 GMT

to be honest I'm not sure how the marking gets applied - but I would say that whilst you may not like the answer of buy an app it is a solution and at 96pence it's not gonna break the bank.

just my humble opinion of course....

Padster

Apps Locked in Portrait Orientation Problem

staz1000 — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:16:21 GMT

Is no one going to even give me an answer as to why this question has been marked answered?

Padster, Sony have released a product with a clear flaw. They've then tried to pass the blame onto the developers which is completely untrue and now I'm expected to pay for an app to overcome their flaw. I'm sorry but that isn't the standard I expect. Utterly ludicrous.