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judd · Jul 19, 2002, 11:39 AM

Just curious to know what people think of the new trackpad style thumbwheel on the 10 & 20 gb ipods.

cmoney · Jul 19, 2002, 11:44 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by judd:
Just curious to know what people think of the new trackpad style thumbwheel on the 10 & 20 gb ipods.<hr /></blockquote>it works okay. it's not as smooth as using a real wheel which physically moves, but overall it's a good compromise considering it should have better reliability. at first, i wanted to tap on it to do a click since it was similar to using a trackpad, but it doesn't recognize that as a click. i do have to wonder if static electricity will affect it like it's been known to affect some laptop trackpads before.

judd · Jul 19, 2002, 04:30 PM

yeah it would seem to me that the feel would not be the same as the original thumbwheel. Could the reason why they changed to a trackpad be less for reliability and more to do with saving depth space and therefore making the ipod thinner

cmoney · Jul 19, 2002, 05:51 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by judd:
yeah it would seem to me that the feel would not be the same as the original thumbwheel. Could the reason why they changed to a trackpad be less for reliability and more to do with saving depth space and therefore making the ipod thinner<hr /></blockquote>Maybe, but the new iPods are not significantly thinner than the old ones. Seems like a big design change to shave just 1.5mm from the iPod. You don't really notice the difference in your hand either, it's pretty insignificant.

escher · Jul 19, 2002, 09:06 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by judd:
Could the reason why they changed to a trackpad be less for reliability and more to do with saving depth space and therefore making the ipod thinner<hr /></blockquote>I think they switched from wheel to trackpad for the same reasons as for the PowerBooks: It may be more reliable. But most importantly: a trackpad is cheaper than a wheel! It's all about achieving higher margins.

Escher

CIA · Jul 19, 2002, 10:35 PM

The 20 gig is actually slightly thicker than the 10 gig & 5 gig model.

ericwass · Jul 19, 2002, 10:50 PM

I believe the reason they switched the wheel because many people (including me) were finding that the wheel eventually lost friction and would start spinning just by movement of the iPod. This causes headaches when you're on the treadmill and the volume keeps going way up or way down uncontrollably. Also, dirt tends to get under there.