Patent ID: 7551945

Claim:
A mobile communication apparatus having a longitudinal axis, and having operation modes, comprising: first and second housings each having front and rear surfaces and a rotation axis located between said front and rear surfaces, displaying means provided on said front surface of said first housing, and adapted to display image data or character data on a screen; operating means provided on said front surface of said second housing, and having a plurality of keys to be selectively operated by a user; rotating means for connecting said first housing with said second housing, and to allow said first and second housings to be rotated with respect to each other under the condition that said rotation axis of each of said first and second housings is axially aligned with said longitudinal axis; rotation angle detecting means for detecting a rotation angle and a rotation direction of one of said first and second housings with respect to the other of said first and second housings when said first and second housings are rotated with respect to each other; and setting means for selecting, from among said operation modes, an operation mode corresponding to the combination of said rotation angle and rotation direction detected by said rotation angle detecting means, and setting said selected operation mode to ensure that said mobile communication apparatus assumes said selected operation mode, wherein said operation modes includes a television mode, said mobile communication apparatus is operative to turn the channel on the basis of the combination of said rotation angle and rotation direction detected by said rotation angle detecting means when said first and second housings are further rotated with respect to each other under the condition that said mobile communication apparatus is in said television mode.