I had been using my OLD ipod nano ( ithink the very first model) for music and whatnot while riding my 36er at the beach. Lately it had started having some problems, probably age related, so I decided to buy the newest gen 6 nano. it is SMALL!
There’s no more center wheel since it’s all touch now, but because of its super tiny size, it’s harder to navigate the touch screen icons and change from song to song or get to other functions. And since I always wear full fingered gloved (KH Pulse gloves) it’s even harder to hit the right button or even get it to recognize my touching it with gloves on. That was never a problem with my old nano.
I am now thinking of cutting off just the very tip of the glove, to expose my right index finger; I think that will give me much better control of the buttons.I got the 8G which is 4x more than my old 2G nano. That was actually more space than I even needed, but it’s nice to have the extra space if you ever need it.
So I just wondered if you have the new gen 6 nano, what your feedback is on it. I think once I get used to it, it will be easy to use, and I do like the clip on feature so I don’t have to use velcro any more. Another nice added feature is the fm radio. Too bad they didn’t include am as well, since I like to listen to talk radio also when riding.
The old nano is definitely smaller than its pre-curser the “mini”.
I have a 3rd? gen nano (It looks the same as a 1st gen but has rounded edges) and love it. I would not get one of the new ones because of the lack of buttons. I like to be able to use it in my pocket
The new Nano definitely aims to do less than the previous ones, which I think is fine since the screen was already too small, and the new Nano is even smaller. If you want to watch videos get the iPod Touch. But I’ve heard the complaints that the UI (user interface) is harder to use. Definitely not glove-friendly.
It seems more along the lines of the Shuffle, which is intended more as a “press play and go” type of thing. Unlike the tactile click wheel, now you have to look at it to do much with it. Not good for the unicyclist on the go.
But what do I know? I still have a hard drive-powered iPod Classic, which I don’t use for unicycling. I could play songs off the 16GB Micro SD card in my Android phone if I wanted, but so far I haven’t gotten into the music-while-riding thing, except when practicing in one place.
I went ahead and modified my right glove to expose just the tip of my finger, and it makes all the difference, even when using my old click-wheel nano. I don’t really need to look at it much when riding, since I usually program a playlist of things so it just plays.
The volume control are two round “click” buttons on top of the 6 gen nano, which are easy to adjust without looking, as is the click button on/off power function. You can play video on it, but I bought it mostly for music and podcasts. It does also have a “shake to shuffle” feature, which you can disable or enable. I just needed to replace my old nano which was dying, and this seemed to be a good choice, being so small and it just clips on wherever you want it. The sound is excellent too.
I guess just like most things, you just get used to it over time, but the click wheel did have the advantage of skipping to the next/previous song without having to look at it. One place to clip the 6th gen for easiest access might be right on your wrist, and since I always wear long sleeved shirts, that might be the best place to keep it, and be able to see and navigate it easily.
funny it doesn’t show the headphone cord! That’s the one thing that could be a pain, unless you just wrap it/feed it up your arm, or I guess UNDER your shirt-if you wear long sleeves like me-and up to your ears. Now I’m seriously thinking of taking it back for a refund (I have 90 days) and buying the 5th gen, which still has video, fm, pedometer but also has a video camera and has the much easier to navigate click wheel. The 5th gen also has a speaker so you can listen without headphones.
Here’s a video that shows all its features. Too bad they don’t make them anymore, so you have to find them either used or refurbished.
5th gen is OK. Never used the new nano, but don’t think I would. I liked my square, 4th gen?, I-pod the best of them all. Super long battery life even when changing songs all of the time. 5th gen is alright if you don’t change to much and make it light up, at minimum it’s extremely bright.
Overall, 5th isn’t bad, probably better than the 6th. This touch screen fad has got to go.
I really like the features on the 5th gen, especially the voice memo so you can record on the fly. I often have ideas for things that I have to stop and write down, so this would be very convenient. And the built in video camera is cool, as well as the built in speaker. And it’s still about the same size as my 1st gen nano. I returned my 5th gen. It was just much to hard to navigate while riding and it was as slippery as a watermelon seed!
I was looking for a new mp3 player, really liked that 5th gen model, but stuck with my faithful SanDisk Clip.
I had heard that the 5th had speaking menu’s and thought that would allow me to navigate without looking at the unit. I wanted to be able to navigate between FM and mp3. When I stopped by the Apple store, the salesperson said, “no, that feature is about two generations away.”
I like the smallness of the Clip, it’s handy to navagate thru mp3 music, but does need to be looked at to switch between FM and mp3.
Wow. That sounds like a really cool unicycle hardware project. We used to post step-by-step instructions with photos showing how to do complex projects just like this one. Do you think you could start a new thread and do a write-up?
