IPad really wants to tilt in one direction...

Question

I just got an iPad 2 (as a gift).  I've noticed that to get the screen to change orientation takes tilting it about 30-45 degrees, exept in one direction where a tilt of only a few degrees, 5 or less, is required.  If I'm holding it in portrait with the button down, it takes very little for it to decide that the right side should be down instead, and it flips to landscape.  It's really irritating if I'm reading and happen to be holding it near level, or place it on a flat surface.  Is this a known problem and is there a fix?  I have a bubble level app which I've never calibrated and it shows the orientation correct to within a degree, so I don't see any obvious reason why one direction of tilt should be so different (30-40 degrees off in sensitivity) from the others.

Answer 1

I just used the (free) Clinometer HD app to measure it.  If you tilt it slowly you can see exactly what value triggers a change.
iPad 2: Right tilt is triggered at 9 degrees.  All others (left, up, down) are triggered at 29 degrees. 
iPad 1: Right tilt is triggered at 13 degrees.  All others are 29 degrees as with the iPad 2.
It looks like it's a parameter, and it's slightly lower on the iPad 2.
After more searching (and finally finding my way through all the irelevent "won't rotate" results) I find that others have noticed this feature before and speculation is that it's related to the Apple case -- they probably want it to rotate at the angle the case props it up to.  Maybe the difference (9 vs. 13) is related to the different cases for the iPad 1 vs. 2.  (It's also possible my wife's iPad 1 doesn't have the same version of software, and that's it's a software version difference.  But I'm pretty sure it does, I think she updated it in the last couple weeks.  She's reading and I don't want to keep asking if I can borrow it again...)
(Note: if I'm moving the iPad 2 I can get it to change with a right tilt as low as 0 degrees, but more often 5-7 degrees, it doesn't take a lot of motion to make it think it's tilted 9 degrees.  I think less careful testing, without the clinometer app, is the cause of my original "less than 5 degrees" estimate.)
Now I'm trying to decide if I should still visit the Apple Store tomorrow to confirm this.  (If someone else can confirm the angle on their their iPad 2 with the Clinometer HD app it would save me the trip...)