Hi Jacob,
Thanks for the feedback. I should have said that the scroll-wheel
action in scrubbing is the only physical feature that I'd want to
change -- I'd also like to switch off the automatic switch to Cover
Flow mode when you tilt the Nano. The only way I can deal with this at
present is to lock my Nano after choosing settings so I don't suddenly
hear "Cover Flow" every time it tilts. This is far from ideal, but
I'm hoping for a software fix since, as you say, this is far from a
unique reaction.
It may be that the scroll-wheel scrubbing action can also be changed
in a software release, because I feel as though the movement of each
of my "scrubs" were scaled down by at least a factor of 3 or 4 --
maybe this is the relative size of the wheel. As far as I can tell,
on the 1G and 2G Nanos, one scrub around the scroll wheel was like
what you'd experience with one scrub around a larger size iPod. On
the 4G Nano, it's as though the action were scaled way down, and
scrubbing through a TV show or video (an hour in length) feels close
to the way I could scrub through 5 hours of audiobook on a 1G or 2G
Nano. It was great for the audiobooks, because you could scroll really
fast with the smaller wheel if you wanted to, and was just more
adjustable. Of course, those iPods didn't support video, so maybe
everything has been reset for TV shows and movies.
I'd also like to get improved information on battery (more than the
status of "charging", "charged" and "low battery") -- even if only
when connected up to iTunes. Again, this is not a serious concern.
Cheers,
Esther
On Nov 5, 2008, at 4:39 PM, Jacob Schmude wrote:
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
