IPhones can’t always figure out
which way is up. There are plenty of times when you’re lying down or leaning
back that the phone’s screen keeps shifting from portrait to landscape – now
it’s portrait... and back to landscape. There is a way to stop this constant
screen rotation.
First,
double-click the iPhone home button. This will bring up a list
of recently opened apps. Swipe the list from left to right. That will reveal a
set of music controls – stop, play, skip track, etc. Ignore those for right now
because we’re interested in the far-left button – that gray icon with a
circular arrow. Touch the icon and a message will come up reading, “Portrait
Orientation Locked.” Now, it doesn’t matter if you’re reading a text message
sideways on a roller coaster, your screen will stay vertical.
If you can’t remember whether
your screen has been locked or not, check for the lock icon next to your
battery indicator in the top-right corner. Curiously, this trick only works
vertically. You can't lock it to a horizontal orientation.
Locking the screen orientation prevents the
display from switching between horizontal and vertical
