Do you use your fondleslab predominately in…

[Beardy]

Certainly all the fondleslabs I’ve ever owned the camera has always been in the middle of a short side, so would be at the top when using it in portrait. The thing is I have always used them in landscape unless the app forces me to use portrait. This wasn’t really an issue until facial recognition came to fondleslabs and now I find that my hand is always in the way.

I was wondering therefore, if this is me being an awkward sod in finding it more convenient to use a device other than the designers intended (highly likely) or if it was a more common usage mode and therefore something the designers might address in future updates.

[Wowbagger]

Portrait. We mostly use ours as a substitute Grauniad and their app is definitely best in portrait. I also do a number of Killer Sudokus a day, which only seem to work properly in portrait.

Rarely, we watch a telly prog on the ipad and that is better in landescape.

[hubner]

Landscape on a phone usually only when texting or typing more than a few words as the "keys" are bigger.

Or watching a video.

[Kim]

Haven't we had this thread before?

Phone mostly portrait, because that's what the aspect ratio dictates for sensible handheld use, and most apps are designed to work that way.  Usual exception for taking photos and recording/viewing video, which should almost never be portrait.

My tablet is 4:3, so works pretty well in either orientation.  Landscape when the keyboard's attached, or when doing serious typing using the onscreen keyboard.  Portrait for reading ebooks.  Otherwise, whatever's most convenient at the time (often dictated by the presence of the charging cable on the short edge).

But generally, when not out and about or in bed, I prefer to use a real computer.

[T42]

Whatever the app works best in. Since it's usually something to read - books, newspapers - portrait predominates.

[drossall]

Whatever the app works best in. Since it's usually something to read - books, newspapers - portrait predominates.

+1.

[Polar Bear]

Whatever the app works best in. Since it's usually something to read - books, newspapers - portrait predominates.

+1.

+2

[perpetual dan]

I too swap angles to suit what I’m doing.

@beardy do you hold it symmetrically with both hands, or would a 180 degree turn get your thumb off the camera?

[Beardy]

I too swap angles to suit what I’m doing.

@beardy do you hold it symmetrically with both hands, or would a 180 degree turn get your thumb off the camera?

Symmetrically with both hands. It’s a bit large to hold one handed. Even with my grate hams.

[perpetual dan]

Fair enough. Mine fall a bit like holding an SLR shape camera, so left hand more under and behind than along the side.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[Kim]

I think the thing this thread is missing is the size and shape of slab that people are fondling.  There's a big difference in landscape usability between a 6" 19:9 smartphone and a 12.9" 4:3 iPad.

[Beardy]

I think the thing this thread is missing is the size and shape of slab that people are fondling.  There's a big difference in landscape usability between a 6" 19:9 smartphone and a 12.9" 4:3 iPad.

Allowing for all the options would have made a very long list to vote on.

[drossall]

Interesting example though of how you ask the question, and what question you ask, affecting your conclusions.

It seems quite credible that people who prefer smaller tablets (or to use phones, even larger phones) do so mostly with reading in mind, and that that would tend to be portrait. On the other hand, I do find my preferred small tablet a bit small for Zwift, which is obviously one of the inherently-landscape apps mentioned in the question. If I wanted to do more watching of videos and so on, I think my normal tablet would be larger and my answer would be landscape.

[Kim]

Quite.  And as soon as you attach a physical keyboard to a tablet, it pretty much enforces landscape use.  (Mine mostly gets used this way when I'm away from home, when it becomes a communication and note-taking device as well as a reading device.)

MIL has an iPad in a case with a keyboard that's quite awkward to remove.  It might as well be a laptop^[1].



_{[1] With great battery life and MIL-friendly operating system.}