What is album flow any way, that is something I never understood.
Chris.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jacob Schmude" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS X by
theblind" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2008 9:39 PM
Subject: Re: Shuffling on the IPod Nano 4th G
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
