Cover flow is a way for you to flip through your Album artwork, or
covers. I have no vision, so exactly how it works I can't say, but
it's a more visual way to pick an album to listen to. Turn the iPod
sideways to activate it (hold it horizontally and tip it a bit towards
you). It should say "cover flow" when you do and will say "now
playing" when you turn it back.
Also, if you watch movies on your iPod, you will want to turn it
sideways to get the picture (no pun intended). When playing Video you
cannot access cover flow. Also, it will not switch to cover flow if
the hold switch is in the locked position.
On Nov 6, 2008, at 08:23, Chris Gilland wrote:
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
