Hi
I haven't had any previous generation Nanos, so I can't comment on how
the scrolling compares. However, compared to my classic, the Nano's
wheel seems to scroll faster. It doesn't actually seem to be more
sensitive, it seems to be for the simple reason that it is smaller and
therefore has to scroll more than the classic does around a single
rotation. I don't really have an issue overscrolling honestly, I use
my Nano one-handed, in my case my right hand with the thumb using the
wheel. I usually prefer to start at around the nine o'clock position
and scroll clockwise rather than the three o'clock position, and I
don't usually remove my thumb from the wheel between rotations (i.e. I
usually scroll continuously until I find what I want rather than going
a certain distance around the wheel then lifting my thumb up and
starting over). This is also how I operated my classic. Sometimes
though if you lift your finger up you move it along the wheel just a
bit without realizing it, and this is where the size of the clickwheel
can work against you, as you have to cover less distance to get the
same amount of scrolling as you would on a Classic for example.
The smaller click wheel isn't really an issue, but it might take a bit
of getting used to at first. I actually like how fast I can scroll
now. Personally, I only find one thing about the Nano annoying, and
that is the accelerometer. I love the shake to shuffle, but I really
wish I could turn off the automatic cover-flow (i.e. when you turn the
Nano sideways it goes into cover flow view). This wouldn't really be a
big problem except that when in cover flow the regular controls don't
work. This makes changing the volume while the Nano is in my pocket a
bit of a pain. If I could leave the rest of the accelerometer's
features on but just turn off that one thing it'd be perfect.
Unfortunately I can't turn this feature off at all, the only one I can
turn off is the shake to shuffle which I happen to really enjoy
playing with. This is really the only downside though and is far from
a deal-breaker in my opinion, especially since this could be fixed in
a future update and looking at Apple's support forums it looks like
I'm far from the only one who wants to be able to turn this off. I
wouldn't want to turn off the automatic video re--orientation either,
only cover flow. I still really love this Nano. The only thing that
would really make it better is for the Alarms feature to become
accessible as well as a few of the video settings options (the options
themselves are read but not their state). For example, the option "TV
Out" is read, but its three possible states (on, off, and ask) are
not. Ah well, nothing's perfect. But hey, we got our first out-of-the-
box accessible portable media player, and obviously they're improving
it. I'm more than happy with the nano. What I'm really looking forward
to though is an accessible iPod touch or iPhone. They've got the power
needed for genuine tts, and they're nice PDAs as well. Here's hoping :).
On Nov 5, 2008, at 21:03, Esther wrote:
Hi Chris,
I don't do a lot of rating on the fly using the iPod and scroll
wheel, so this isn't a big item for me. When I use rating, I usually
do this holding the Nano in my right hand, resting on my fingers,
while I use my thumb to scroll from the 3 o'clock position to the 6
o'clock position. I don't get any jumps when I do that.
The 4G Nano scroll wheel action is a lot more fine-grained than the
1G or 2G Nano wheels, and I'm more likely to overscroll when I pick
my finger up if I hold it in my left hand and use the index finger
of my right hand (for scrubbing or on longer menus). That may be
because the front and back of the 4G Nano is curved.
Scrolling action is really the only thing I'd like to change (back
to the 2G) on the 4G Nano, especially for scrubbing through
audiobook tracks. I even like the audio quality on the 4G Nano (for
music) better than the 2G's, although this is idiosyncratic. I'd be
curious to hear Jacob's impressions, though.
Cheers,
Esther
On Nov 5, 2008, at 2:11 PM, Chris Gilland wrote:
Ester, when rating things on the IPod itself, have you found that
the wheel when selecting the amount a stars is so pathetically
sinsitive that you get it say three stars, but then you remove your
finger from the wheel, and it jumps back say from 3 stars, say back
to one? It's extremely annoying.
Chris.
Second click of center of wheel:
If you don't hear a rating for the song, you can use the scroll
wheel to rate the track (0 to 5 stars; moving clockwise increases
rating, counterclockwise lowers it.)
Some of this (and other features) was covered in the original
core dump report of what was accessible on the iPod Nano 4G.
HTH
Cheers,
Esther
P.S. You can also check out the 4G Nano User's Guide if you
haven't already picked it up:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/iPod_nano_4th_gen_UserGuide.pdf
