RAZR Car Dock limited to Horizontal Orientation

[DC2010]

We recently upgraded to the Droid RAZR and while we love our phone are greatly disappointed in Motorola's decision to restrict the factory Car Dock display to horizontal mode. Yes you can rotate the phone vertical, but the display orientation remains locked in horizontal mode.

We bought the car dock ($60) and no one at the Verizon store was even aware of the orientation limitation, nor does the retail package OR documentation indicate this limitation.

We Emailed Motorola asking if there was a software update or setting to fix the issue. After nearly a WEEK we got the following response from support.

**************
"Thanks for reaching out to Motorola.
We do apologize for the late response.
We are sorry but it does not have a vertical orientation option when on the car dock.
It only has horizontal orientation."
**************

Seems Motorola thinks it knows what it's users want more than we do, so just as including unwanted apps that we can't uninstall (VZ Nav, NFL, Netflix and others) we've wasted $60 on an accessory that is useless to us because no one considered how this SECRET limitation might affect users.

 

[timattard]

TBH think your being a bit picky, why would you want it vertical? surley it would get in the way of the windscreen more and the gps would not be great hence why all sat navs are vertical

 

[zoxxo]

DC2010
You may have a defect in the phone or the dock. I have the MAXX and it rotates the orientation correctly when I rotate the phone. I use to have the horizontal limitation when I had the Bionic, so I was thrilled when I saw that the RAZR did not suffer from the same limitation.

Some things you might try:

- Go into settings/display and make sure "Auto-rotate screen" is enabled. - Try rebooting the phone to see if there might be a setting that needs to be cleared.

If those options don't work, I would definitely head back to the Verizon store and report that you have a defective phone.

timattard
I don't think DC2010 is being too picky. There might be locations on the windshield where you need to place the phone, and the best way to place it is vertically. Also, I have at least one car management app that I use that is easier to input data when the phone is rotated vertically. On the Bionic, I was always frustrated because I couldn't tell what the next field would be when in horizontal mode, but vertical mode was easy to tab between and tell what field I was entering the data in.

 

[menmyjeep]

The RAZR and RAZR Maxx both rotate to the verticle position for using GPS or whatever app you are using for that matter.......you just need to get out of the pre-installed "DOCK APP" for it to work and it DOES work perfectly. You get out of this app one of two ways; first you can use the back button and then simply select any app you want including the navigation app and use it in portrait or landscape position or; two, you can download an app from the Android market called "Dockblocker" that when configured, it will automatically block the pre-installed dock app from launching in the first place so there will be no need to ever do anything extra.

Hope this helps everyone with this same issue

 

[zoxxo]

menmyjeep is spot on. I am not a fan of Moto's car dock app, so I downloaded the default CarHome app that Google releases with Android, and that Moto removes to replace with their own. The default app will rotate to both positions, which works well for me. If your're interested, you can Google Car Home. It's in the android market, but it's blocked for most Moto phones.

 

[mcoomer]

If your're interested, you can Google Car Home. It's in the android market, but it's blocked for most Moto phones.

xda is your friend... If you search the market you'll find Car Home Ultra but not the generic app. Follow the link to download the apk or to get a QR code. The only thing I miss is the dock app on my Droid X had a space for one favorite app (Gas Buddy) but the newer dock apps don't. Wish I had the old dock app back.

Mike

 

[tnstra]

Sorry but mine works fine. I do use Car Dashboard and its sweet. It gives weather, altitude, speed, direction of travel, and spots for 4 apps on 5 different screens so 20 apps with large icons. And if the screen lock is off in settings it will work in 3 orientations. Sorry it doesn't work upside down, but then neither do I. LOL

 

[zoxxo]

If you search the market you'll find Car Home Ultra but not the generic app.

Car Home is there, but Verizon or Motorola have prevented us users from downloading the app in favor of their own monstrosity. The generic version works great, contrary to what the market says...

 

[zoxxo]

So I'm curious, has the OP solved the problem, or is this a post and run?

 

[Armchair]

I tried lots of different car dock apps and a bunch of car dock blockers, the only app that I have found so far that works to keep the orientation portrait instead of landscape for my Droid 3 non-rooted Verizon when placed in the car dock is "display orientator" Display orientator | AppBrain Android Market.

 

[mwyarm]

I don't have the razor yet. But I'm plannng to buy one soon. However, I use the Bionic and I installed display orientator to solve the problem as well. It is a shame that developers or others don't see that portrait is an option because there's not that much landscape space on the dashboard so for some of us we want choices versus decisions made for us.

 

[zoxxo]

I haven't visited this thread in a while, but saw it active today. Since the ICS update I've been using the default dock with my MAXX. I've tried a few other dock programs, but they look just as bad as the default dock, so I haven't moved to anything else.

Anyone have a dock program that your using with ICS that works and displays well?