Two power-related things I'd like on the iPad

[JulianL]

There are two things that bug me about the iPad which I really hope Apple fix. I'm curious as to whether this is just me or if it bugs anyone else. My annoyances relate to switching my iPad on and off.

Of the two, my biggest annoyance is the slide-to-unlock slider on power on. I understand that it was a really nice piece of design for the iPhone to stop it draining battery if accidentally switched on in a pocket or bag, and of course it's needed for that, but for people like me who use their iPad only for surfing in front of the TV and never put it anywhere where it might accidentally switch on, that slider is an annoying barrier to using the device. I would so love to have the option to disable it so that I could just hit the home button to turn on my device.

I would also like a different way to turn off my device. I hope that one day Apple expose an API to allow an app to power off the device so that I could put a power-off button (probably a third party app) in the dock to power off my device with a single tap. When I'm using the device I'm interacting with the screen so it's a lot more natural to be able to tap the screen to power it off rather the reach round the side.

OK, these aren't big things but the Apple philosophy is all about the best possible user experience so, especially with the slider, I hope they realise that for many iPad user situations it is counter-productive and actively annoying.

- Julian

 

[Raydiatur]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

Well, what is the off chance that your screen goes dark, cracks OR it freezes up.

That's why it's physical. Just in case you can't respond with it through software. It'd be nice to have a home button on the screen. But if the app gets stuck, or the phone, what are you going to do?

It's in place to help you.

 

[JulianL]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

Well, what is the off chance that your screen goes dark, cracks OR it freezes up.

That's why it's physical. Just in case you can't respond with it through software. It'd be nice to have a home button on the screen. But if the app gets stuck, or the phone, what are you going to do?

It's in place to help you.

If the screen broke then I'd switch it off with the existing physical button. I was suggesting the ability to have a power-off app as an alternative to using the physical button, not a replacement for it - that would be crazy.

- Julian

 

[Streethawk]

Hmmm, i think you may be on your own here. Seems like a solution to a problem that, for me, doesnt exist.

 

[JulianL]

Hmmm, i think you may be on your own here. Seems like a solution to a problem that, for me, doesnt exist.

No problem. It's stupid to ask the question ("is it just me?") if I'm going to get all upset about one of the possible answers.

I can understand no one really getting my power-off app but for people using their iPad for what is essentially an expensive electronic coffee table book, i.e never going in a bag or a pocket and living its life lying on a coffee table or beside the sofa, I'm a bit surprised that no one else would like to be able to disable the slide-to-unlock feature and be able to go straight to the home screen when the device is powered on but never mind, I'll rejoice in my uniqueness.

- Julian

 

[sandman42]

As an iPhone and an iPad owner/user, I'll second that the slider feels redundant to me, for my usage, on the iPad. If I had the option to disable it on the iPad, I'd do it.

The software power off button (e.g. in the dock) doesn't seem as useful to me. You'd still have to hit the home button to get to it, then hit the "off" button. For me, hitting the sleep/wake button is just a reflex now, so I don't even think about it. That is to say it's not an annoyance for me (although now it might become one!), where the slider kind of is.

 

[boyced]

There's this application in cydia that let's you unlock the iphone with three taps of the home button. Look for 'quickunlock' in cydia.

 

[cmalinowski]

I'd be happy with a slider down the side so that I could swipe it with my thumb while holding it. In general, I don't mind so far but am a real newb to the iPad.

 

[nwcs]

I agree it would be nice to have some kind of alternative to the slide to open feature on the iPad. I think pressing and holding the sleep/wake button should be enough. Heck, if they could do it, double pressing the sleep button would be a great solution.

 

[topmounter]

Ditto, it would be nice to be able to turn-off the slider and have the option for a soft-key to power down the screen. After all, this thing isn't just a "Big iPod Touch"... right?

 

[GFLPraxis]

People turn off their iPads?