Auto-rotation is a common feature on many smartphones and it enables your screen to shift from portrait to landscape or vice verse when you physically turn your phone. You may find it useful for reading text and browsing the Internet or auto-rotation may be a distraction when you play games. This function may prove more useful with some applications than others.
AutoRotation
On a cellphone and similar devices, such as the iPod touch or a tablet computer, auto-rotation is what occurs when the device detects that you have turned it on the side. Your cell phone or tablet then turns the on-screen content or image to the side, usually 90 degrees. When you turn your device back into portrait mode, the image returns to its normal state. This feature relies on your phone's accelerometer, also known as g-sensor, to determine position via acceleration and tilt.
Benefits
Auto-rotation is especially useful if you are viewing extended text on your smartphone. Because text, such as on Web pages or text documents, scales to the ratio of your device's screen, it can be quite small and difficult to read in portrait mode. However, auto-rotation enables landscape mode and text-heavy applications are easier to read. Auto-rotation is also a feature of some games, messaging and email apps and, when you turn your phone, camera applications generally rotate buttons so that you can read/understand them. On the iPhone specifically, auto-rotation functions the same as the iPod touch, and shows the coverflow of your albums if you have this feature enabled.
Considerations
If you are not a fan of auto-rotation, you can generally turn it off from individual applications such as your messaging app while allowing your phone to auto-rotate with other applications. Phones such as HTC's Evo Shift also allow you to turn off auto-rotation all together from the Settings section. Several applications exist to disable this function on the iPhone. Note that auto-rotation is not available with all apps. For example, the Angry Birds touch-screen games for your smartphones are some of many games that display in landscape mode regardless of the orientation of your phone. You must physically turn your phone to find the best viewing angle.
Warning
Content on your phone may require a few minutes to adjust after you turn the phone and the content auto-rotates. Images must scale to the correct ratio. Thus you should try not to turn your phone quickly back and forth, to give it the time it needs to adjust. Furthermore, your phone's accelerometer may not recognize that you have turned it if you are holding is at an angle or on your side. To remedy this, turn the phone back to its original position and then back. Holding it perfectly vertically or horizontally may also enable your cellphone to better auto-rotate.
Tags: your phone, turn your, turn your phone, have turned, iPod touch, landscape mode
