I blame the iPhone for what is possibly the single dumbest thing in the history of gadgetdom...

SLIDE TO UNLOCK

I have an app to destroy this abomination in my Android phone. (Stock, not rooted)

Please tell me that somebody's done one for iOS.

Note: don't want to jailbreak, as I really don't know all the ups and downs of it, plus I don't feel like having to re-do everything any time a new rev comes out.

Yea, it is pretty much a needless step. Kind of useful in a phone with a resistive touch screen, but thats pretty much it.

I too feel like you should just be able to choose either
A: unlock with the lock button or,
B: unlock with home key.

Good point, it IS getting quite annoying now that I think about it.

There's only one situation where it has a use. If you have a Bluetooth keyboard and that a key is depressed it will turn on the iPad. If you carry the iPad and the keyboard in the same bag it could quickly lower your battery. But the fact that the slider is there turns off the iPad thus saving battery.

Better yet, do a total shutdown and be done with the frickin' slider. The iPad is not something you carry in your pocket anyway...

So, do the jailbreak people actually do any modifying of the actual OS? It feels weird to me coming from a Windows Mobile phone with XDA-Developers and PPCgeeks that I have not installed a half dozen different keyboards and lock screens on my iPad yet. Why haven't these things been modded?

Why do you not like this feature? I own an Android phone and i've never used that app which disables onscreen unlock feature. I think if I let my iPad or Android unlock with a button, it would unlock randomly in my pocket or backpack.

I don't often have an issue where I'm randomly turning on my devices, since the buttons to do so generally require a fairly deliberate press. So an extra step really bothers me, no matter how insignificant or simple.

Also, if they unlocked in a pocket or backpack, so what? They have a capacitive touch screen and nothing in your backpack or pocket could possibly activate it or run anything.

Extra battery wasted.

Like what, a half a percent? The screen automatically turns off after like a couple minutes.

I'm going to chip in and say that I hate the feature as well. Some of us don't take our ipads outside, thereforce there's no need for a slide to unlock. A simple option in settings to turn it off is all that is needed and should not be hard to implement.

A step further would be tie it to your wireless settings. When your on your home wireless - option to have it off. When on any other wiress or 3g...opt to leave it on.

I believe there is something out there to delete the slide feature already. You can choose what method you want to unlock with, or simply disable it altogether.

There is one for iPhone and if one doesn't exsist yet for iPad, I'll be willing to bet it'll be out soon.

wow, i've never really paid attention to this... i honestly don't mind it at all

:shrug:

I hate this attitude that people take. It's OUR phone. I don't need someone to wipe my ass for me, feed me, or bathe me either. I certainly don't need someone to manage my lock screen or battery usage for me. I have a Droid X which thankfully removes this god awful feature if you so desire within the settings, and I haven't ONCE accidentally turned on my phone, butt dialed, or deleted stuff. Simply hit the lock button to lock and hit it again to unlock, no god awful sliding.

What is fine for you isn't necessarily fine for other people. As you can see with the Droid X, it's certainly not that difficult of a feature to add, to be able to turn it on or off, so people can do what they want with THEIR phone.

This kind of attitude is what ticks me off about my car...GM tells me when and when I cannot lock or unlock my doors. There is absolutely no setting on the Camaro to keep the doors unlocked, they automatically lock when you start to drive which is annoying if you are stopping to pick someone up, stop at the mailbox, etc. It's my car that I paid 34k dollars for, there is no reason I shouldn't be able to tell it to keep the doors unlocked at all times should I decide that's what I want.

Furthermore, the phones won't work unless they have some sort of capacitive touch, so 99% chance they aren't going to delete anything while in your pocket unless you have your hands or some capacitive thing like a stylus in there anyhow. Certainly not enough to hold an icon in, wiggle it, then delete it and confirm deletion. Sometimes in a hurry or something that slide might be annoying. And if someone finds it annoying, that's their business.

Well I don't need to be babysat, and it's not a difficult thing to add (clearly, since some phones have the option of disabling it), so there really is no reason not to have it.

It's not laziness as you describe it, it's personal preference. I've had a couple phones with the slide to unlock and it freaking blows. You may love it, but not everyone may love it and that doesn't make them idiot or lazy.

And the forum is for public discussion. The OP was stating his opinion on the matter. If you feel the discussion is useless, no one is forcing you to be here participating.