Don't worry, don't worry, you'll still be able to shut the sound off. We're just not sure how you'll do it and how quickly you'll be able to manage it.

But but but, you say, I've spent hours poring over every physical detail of the iPad from the photos and there's a little button right above the volume controls, just like the iPhone. What does that do?

Well, since the iPad is not a phone, there's little reason you need to have such immediate access to the mute. No one is going to be shutting off the ringer on their iPad before going into a meeting. At least we hope not. And according to AppleInsider, that little button's getting a needed makeover.

Besides a mute button is a bit of unnecessary on a dedicated e-reader/media device with all that touch screen real estate. Instead, Apple has altered the functionality of the switch to be an orientation lock. That means just because you shift a little in bed while you read, you don't have to let the e-book rotate to landscape then rotate back. There are plenty of apps that give you that functionality in their settings (Stanza, for instance) but just as many other apps do not (we're talking about you, Facebook).

And really, who wants to be toggling back and forth through their settings interface looking for an orientation lock that may or may not be there when they need it? Wouldn't it make more sense just to put that master control right at your fingertips? Yeah, well Apple thought so too.