Hold your breath someone is about to tell the greatest lie EVER!
I recently bought the Zune 8gb, and while I generally really like the zunepad navigation, I find it is unpredictable to the point of being unusable when I am wearing gloves. I would have expected that with my gloves on I would not be able to use the touchpad features, but that the clicking would work. This has not been my experience. Usually I cannot get any clicks to register (center click or directional clicks). To my disappointment, I can't even get the clicks to work when I turn off the touch feature. Initially I figured it was just the zune misbehaving in low temperatures (15-20 degrees F), but if I take my gloves off outside it works fine, and indoors with the gloves on doesn't work.
For what it's worth, I use the device one handed in my right hand with my thumb oriented horizontally. Apart from the glove issue, I found the zunepad easy to use and intuitive to learn.
Hello from Puerto Rico
If it's too loud, you're too old.
This isn't going to help much...I think it's perfect. I use the touchpad cause it works, and it works well. No complaints. Sorry. Oh, and my wife agrees. Thanks.
I love my new Zune!!
wetkindling:Maybe someone with a medium sized hand would give you better feedback.We want feedback from all sorts of people. Big hands, small hands, left handers, right handers... no handers. It is slightly more feasible for us to design it in such a way that it will work for your hands than for you to, say... change the size of your hands.
how I learned to use the pad, it HAD to be trial and errorHow long did it take you to learn how to use it? Would you categorize the learning process as more frustrating or more "fun?"
Sure Daklu, my pleasure to expound a bit, thanks for your interest. I too use the side of my thumb as you do, but again, it's a large thumb. I really feel that having the Zune 80 for only a few weeks, the learning process and tactile repetition may increase my hitting the "sweet spots." So yeah, maybe a slightly larger squirkle for mitts like mine.
Which brings us to the second part. I am still learning and still finding little nuances in the use of the pad. Sometimes by serendipity I find a new way of using the pad. It is defiinitely NOT frustrating, but I wouldn't call it "fun" either. A good manual would preclude, or shorten a learning curve. Sometimes once one knows the proper movements it is easier to "hardwire" those moves by proper repetition.
Sometimes I find things happen when I don't expect, or I expect things to happen when they don't, such as sweeping horizontally across the pad may do different things depending on the menu you are in. Or vertically may move the list, or affect the volume depending on what mode you are in. This can get confusing and affect the learning curve.
Thanks Daklu, good luck.
I bought my Zune 80 from Zune Originals, and started off with the 2.2 firmware.
I am left handed and primarily use my right hand (thumb) to navigate my zune pad. At first it seemed like the zune pad was biased towards the left. When I say that I mean that even if my thumb was slightly towards the middle of the pad (but definitely on the left side), a press of the pad would yield a middle-button register. On the right side of the pad, I could be far to the right, middle/right, and it would always register a right-button register, as I thought it should.
Over time though (a couple days to a week), it seemed like either I was getting better at using it, or the device somehow learned my tendencies, but I no longer have this problem. Pressing left on the zunepad yields a left button press, even when I'm not far left on the pad, just how I like it.
Besides that issue in the beginning of my 80's lifespan, I love the zune pad. I mostly use tactile, but the touch is great for scrolling long lists of songs, and even for scrolling down items one by one. I'm very impressed with its sensitivity/resolution.
One thing I do find as an issue with the pad is its left and right scroll sensitivity. Scrolling left or right (Swiping my thumb/finger left or right on the zune pad) does not have the same responsiveness as scrolling up or down. Granted, I mainly use tactile left and right button presses to scroll left and right, but I thought I'd report that "issue" in case others liked to use that method.
I also recently learned that the zune pad is comprised of just one button, with the touch sensor determining which "button" is being pressed. Pretty cool.
Yes, since the 2.3 update, the left-right axis sensitivity is definately increased to positive effect.
I am a right handed user with the zune 80 and long, skinny fingers :)
I knew of the touch based interface prior to buying the unit and had seen demo videos on various gadget blogs. I daresay that's what sold me on the device. The only thing I could ask in terms of improvement would be a central "tap "being equivilent to a "click". I use the Zune in bed and my spouse could do without the clicking. Not a big deal , but a silent interface would be nice. I do sometimes accidentally scroll when pressing the dpad because the travel can be enough to regster as a movement to the zpad. If this does not work for users with large fingers pehaps it could be an option for those who would like it.
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