iOS 4.2 is coming to the iPad soon, and it’s going to change the tablet’s orientation lock switch (that dinky clicker on the side panel) to a mute switch. But what if you’ve grown accustomed to using this slider as a rotation lock and want to keep it that way? Hard cheese, says Steve Jobs – it’s going to be a mute switch and that’s the end of it.
One brave 9to5Mac reader shot this question to La Jobs via email: “In iOS 4.2 for iPad is the switch on the side going to be the mute and not screen orientation lock from now on?”
To which he received this typically to-the-point Steve Jobs reply: “Yep. Sent from my iPhone”.
After asking if Apple planned to make the iPad switch function a changeable option, the reader was treated to the following slice of Jobsian terseness: “Nope. Sent from my iPhone”.
Steve Jobs didn’t feel the need to elaborate, or talk about why Apple has decided its users don’t get to choose what function the iPad’s side switch fulfils, and some critics might feel that’s hardly surprising given Apple’s usual “Nanny knows best” approach. Still, we suppose one way to keep its orientation lock functionality intact is, well, not to update your iPad to iOS 4.2 when the update hits in November…
