Version 1.2 of the iPad nano software maintains the iOS-like interface, but with a few significant changes. The first is that instead of displaying four tiny icons per screen, the nano now displays only a single, much larger icon at a time; as before, you swipe left or right to view other icons, and tap an icon to access its functions. While the app icons and background appearance are otherwise identical, the new interface feels more like Apple's Cover Flow feature, as you always see the edge of the icons to the left and right of the current one. It's also much easier to tap a particular icon, especially when walking or exercising.

One consequence of this new one-icon-at-a-time interface is that to avoid endless swiping, Apple has eliminated a good number of icons. iPod nano software versions 1.0 and 1.1 offered up to 17 different app-like icons: Playlists, Now Playing, Artists, Genius Mixes, Radio, Podcasts, Photos, Settings, Songs, Albums, Genres, Composers, Fitness, Clock, Audiobooks (if you'd synced one or more audiobooks to the iPod), iTunes U (if you'd synced one or more iTunes U audio courses), and Voice Memos (if a microphone was attached). With iPod nano software 1.2, most of these items are still available as options, but the default Home screen configuration contains 11 or fewer: Now Playing, Music, Radio, Fitness, Clock, Photos, Audiobooks, Podcasts, iTunes U, Voice Memos (if a microphone is attached), and Settings. You now access the Genius Mixes, Playlists, Artists, Albums, Songs, Genres, and Composers items--as well as the new Compilations--via menus within the Music app. (You can also access Audiobooks, Podcasts, and iTunes U from within Music. To use the Compilations list, you'll want to enable the new setting, under Music in Settings, to group compilations.)

Note that if you direct access to one or more of these sub-items, you can add them to the Home screen via the Settings app's Home Screen settings; you can also revert to the four-icons-per screen view. As with versions 1.0 and 1.1 of the nano software, you can also disable any item--except for Now Playing and Settings--you don't want to see on the Home screen; and you can rearrange icons on the home screen by tap-holding on any icon until all icons start shaking, and then dragging the icons around.

These are welcome changes that make the iPod nano's tiny touchscreen a bit more usable. However, once you get inside each app, the interface is largely unchanged compared to iPod nano software 1.0 and 1.1. For example, the nano's tiny screen doesn't leave room for navigation buttons, so exiting an app sometimes--but not always--required a left-to-right swipe. The result remains an interface that you often learn by trial and error. And when browsing lists, the small screen still often allows you to see only three and a half entries--track names, artist names, and the like--at a time.

It also remains a bit too easy to perform a change-screens swipe when you meant to perform a do-something-on-this-screen swipe; tap (select) and tap-hold (return to the main Home screen) are so similar that you often do one when you meant to do the other; and tap-hold itself does different things in different situations. (It's often simpler to just swipe to the right several times than to use tap-hold to return to the Home screen.)