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Recently, I updated my iPhone to OS 4. A lot of cool new features! My personal favorites being Multitasking and Folders. However, a few days after the update, something strange started to occur: I couldn’t use the landscape view. When I turned my iPhone, the display didn’t rotate with it. Very annoying!

At first, I didn’t understand why. Then, I saw an icon I had never seen before in the status bar (top right):

If the icon could speak, it would probably state my exact problem: the rotation is locked! I love icons that speak!

So I searched everywhere in the settings to try and find something related to the rotation. Nothing. Then I googled it. At first, the only things I found were apps allowing me to control the rotation, but this is not what I needed. It had to be something in the OS, not in an app.

Then I found this: How do I lock rotation with iOS 4 / iPhone OS 4?, Exactly what I needed!

It seems the option to lock the rotation is a new feature in OS 4. The only weird thing is where it is located. In my opinion, it should have been somewhere in the settings, but it’s not. It’s in multitasking view (click twice on the Home button), then swipe right to see something like this:

It’s the left icon, which is kind of confusing as it’s near the iPod controls. It looks more like something to “refresh” your iPod playlist… Anyway, now I know. Problem fixed!