so, basicly, can someone tell me what album flow is, and show me how to hold
the thing in my hand to make it switch? Yes, I do have just barely enough
vision to where I could somewhat see the screen. Not well enough to read
it, but I do have enough to see album artwork and the like.
Chris.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Esther" <[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 11:23 PM
Subject: Re: Shuffling on the IPod Nano 4th G
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
