News: iPad Mute Switch Here to Stay with 4.2

If you were hoping Apple would give you the option to use the hardware switch on the iPad as either a mute switch or orientation lock switch with iOS 4.2, you’re going to have to look at jailbroken alternatives. Over the weekend, a reader of 9 to 5 Mac emailed Steve Jobs and got a pretty simple response.

As part of iOS 4.2, Apple transformed the iPad’s orientation lock switch into a mute switch, leaving orientation locking as a step of double-tapping the home button, swiping left, and selecting it (as on the iPhones with multitasking). A number of people complained, especially since the iPad didn’t need quick and immediate muting, as compared to a phone. One reader, Robert, sent an email to Steve Jobs:

Robert:In iOS 4.2 for iPad is the switch on the side going to be the mute and not screen orientation lock from now on?

Jobs:Yep. Sent from my iPhone

Robert: Are you planning to make that a changeable option?

Jobs: Nope.

It’s always funny when people email Steve Jobs over random development/customer service questions, but more importantly, what would you rather have on the side of your iPad…a mute switch or an orientation lock?