Do we have a built-in clock for bookmark date?

[Joey]

Hi guys,

I cannot find an option to adjust the date or time in the setting section.
And if the reader is not connected to CONNECT software for like two or more days, my bookmark dates will be set back to some point in 2004 or 2005.

I tried to search and read threads about this issue;
however, no one seemed to have this problem.
So just wondering if this is normal or something.

Also we cannot edit the bookmarks of books in the reader through
CONNECT software, can we?

This forum really helps me a lot with this wonderful reader.
Thanks guys!

[NatCh]

Welcome to MobileRead, Joey.

I hadn't noticed the dates on the bookmarks yet, so good one on you. I haven't had my Reader connected to a PC for about a week now, and the dates still say what I'd expect them to, so I don't think I can help with that part.

You can adjust bookmarks in Connect, but only in files that are in the PC side of Connect -- not on the Reader. If you want to do that, you have to set your marks on the PC copy of the file, and then xfer the file to the Reader and the marks will show up. If you want to change them on the PC again you have replace the Reader's copy with the adjusted one.

I don't set a lot of marks on my files, because I want to use the 'all bookmarks' menu to quickly swap between the things I'm reading (by holding down the mark button for 5 seconds), and a big list would defeat that purpose.

[Joey]

Originally Posted by NatCh

Welcome to MobileRead, Joey.

I hadn't noticed the dates on the bookmarks yet, so good one on you. I haven't had my Reader connected to a PC for about a week now, and the dates still say what I'd expect them to, so I don't think I can help with that part.

Thanks for your response, NatCh.

The bookmark date thing is really weird.
I noticed this because I used to organize my bookmarks by dates.
Thus, it's kind of important to me to have accurate time.
Just curious how this clock thing works inside the reader.
In my case, it seems the time will be synchronized with the time
in the PC running CONNECT software.
And we cannot set it on the reader side, which does not make much
sense to me.

I will just contact sony customer service about this and
post what I get from them afterwards.

Also, in the future, hope sony team willallow us to modify bookmarks in the reader through both reader itself and CONNECT.

[NatCh]

No question but that there are some rather ... curious holes in the software on both sides of the USB cable. We have some hopes that at least some of the more glaring issues might be addressed in a firmware update before too long, but I don't think there's anything concrete on what or when.

[Joey]

I contacted sony reader customer service today.
As expected, they never heard of anything like this.

They can only say it might be the problem of software.
So temporary solution would just be a hard reset of my reader.

And we will see what happen in the next few days.

[Joey]

Unfortunately, my bookmark date went wrong again this morning.
It's been like 4 or 5 days since last time I connected my reader to PC.
It lasted longer than before actually but still was not a satisfactory result.
So just give a second call to Sony Reader customer service.
This time, after several minute discussion with software engineers,
the answer turned out this situation is 100% normal.

According to them, since we don't have a built-in clock inside the reader,
everything regarding time is obtained by synchronization with PC.
It's absolutely normal that date and time are reset after a couple of days or weeks.
And days it takes to lose time accuracy vary from devices to devices.

Also, since this should be a software problem, it's possible to be fixed by
a firmware update.
Right now, I can only live up with this minor problem.

Hopefully, the update will come out soon.

[Echoloc8]

For what it's worth, Joey, I'm experiencing the exact same thing. Bummer.

-Rich

[BobVA]

Interesting - this perhaps explains the surprisingly high current drain measured by diabloNL [and discussed by Natch ] when the Reader is powered off. Sounds like the main processor is keeping the time.

Besides the timekeeping, I hope they'll fix the power drain as well. (Or maybe give us the option to turn off the timekeeping to do so.)

[NatCh]

It's a thought, BobVA, I think you might be onto something. Just one thing, it was diabloNL that did that excellent measuring, I wouldn't want to take credit for his work even if I didn't like the guy so much.

[Bob Russell]

Same thing happens to me. But I think you only see it on the main bookmarks list, not the list of bookmarks for a particular book.

I try to ignore the dates, but occassionally it's kind of annoying to have that imperfection standing out so much on my "perfect Reader." Aesthetics are everything in a device a personal as an e-book reader, and is a big strength of the Sony Reader in particular.

On the other hand, if the dates are causing battery drain, I'd agree - either take them away or give us the ability to turn the clock off from settings.

[diabloNL]

Originally Posted by NatCh

It's a thought, BobVA, I think you might be onto something. Just one thing, it was diabloNL that did that excellent measuring, I wouldn't want to take credit for his work even if I didn't like the guy so much.

Thanks, I think.

I never use the bookmarks so if that is the reason they keep the processor running then I would love to see an option to shut it down. Why not the same functionality like the PSP. So if you slide the power switch to "off" it goes in standby but when you hold it in the "off" position for around two seconds it goes completely off.

[igorsk]

There IS a clock in the Reader, however it gets reset on each reboot. The clock is synchronized when you connect the Reader to PC with Connect software running. Apparently lbprs500 can do it too, though I'm not sure if it's done automatically.