I have just gotten a new iphone and I noticed that when I play itunes, if I am holding the phone in a “portrait” position, the forward and back buttons are clearly visible. If I hold the phone in “landscape” it switches to an array of album covers and the forward and back buttons disappear. This was also the case on my old itouch. It’s annoying when I run because if I want to skip songs (which I frequently do) I have to stop running and hold the phone precisely in portrait.
Is there any way to remove this feature, or to somehow have the forward and back buttons visible no matter how you hold the phone?
Kind of. If you put your iPhone to sleep (which it probably is if you’re running) and then double-tap the home button, you’ll get a set of dedicated music controls that won’t switch with turning the device.
I also expect this to be “fixed” soon (-ish), since Apple got rid of Cover Flow in iTunes with version 11. They might do the same with iOS 7 - just a WAG.
ETA: Which earphones are you using? With the original iPhone ones (or a lot of fancy, aftermarket ones), you won’t even have to look at the screen to skip - just double tap the remote button.
Well, you can portrait lock the phone, meaning that you freeze it in portrait mode and prevent it from switching to landscape. Double-tap the Home button, and then in the row of icons that appears at the bottom of the screen, swipe to the right. The portrait lock button is the one on the far left with a circular arrow on it.
On a related note, if you’re using headphones with the standard controls, press and hold until you hear the Siri double-ping. Then you can just tell it to play the song you want. Not 100% reliable, but often good enough. But I vote for the double-click-to-skip method as the simplest and fastest.
OK, this brings up a question that I have. Gestalt says that he’s asking about this for when he runs, but is it possible to run when wearing the earbuds that come with an iPod/iPhone?
The reason I ask is that I can’t get the damn things to stay in my ears for more than five seconds, they just fall out. I was thinking that with the new design they would fix that, but I got the iPhone 5 in November and the new earphones fall out just like the old ones did. If I sit perfectly still, they will stay in, but even opening my jaw a couple of times is enough to work them loose. I can’t walk across the room and have them stay in; running would be out of the question.
Is it just me? I have to use the Sony earphones with the loops that go around the outer ear.
I don’t know. I’ve never used the earbuds that come with any device, because they all sound shit. At the moment, I’m using custom molds attached to the original iPhone cable, so I get the best of both worlds. And they sound awesome!
I don’t have any problem with the stock Apple earbuds. I don’t run, but I walk and workout at the gym all the time with them in, and they never fall out.
My wife, on the other hand, finds them impossibly uncomfortable. Might just be ear shape and size. Molds might be the way to go.