Battery life!

[robko]

Yes, if you know you aren't going to be at it for a while (how long "a while" is depends on the individual person and their tolerance for boot time from full power down) turning it to completely off will maximize amount of time a charge will last. You have the option (under general settings) to set it to automatically power down (after 1/2 hour I believe). Sleep mode does use some power.

[cmm]

Thanks, I didn't see that setting in there.

[cutterjohn42]

Originally Posted by THE TERMINATOR

Doesn't the red light mean it's charging? mine is red when charging then blue when charged

late and obvious, but better than never I suppose, according to the MANUAL:
red/violet = charging
blue = fully charged

Anyways, I picked up one of these yesterday @ Borders before they disappear and the price is decent for a basic eInk reader, potential hackability is a bonus, however I'm still at the point of checking out the battery life on mine.

I charged the device up yesterday as soon as I had gotten it home, took the entirety of the 3h that the manual claimed that it might take even with it shutdown most of the time. Updated it to the 1.74 fw, as it came with 1.71 IIRC, over WiFi. (Charged just in time as my PRS-505 just drained on me... and my actual intent was to use the Kobo as much as possible over the next several days to ensure proper battery functionality anyways.)

Used it for several hours w/a sideloaded epub ATM (one that I had been reading on the 505 -- kind of a PITA getting it loaded as calibre was f'ing up so I did it manually). My battery stayed @ 100% per onboard indicator in the menu and so I did a reboot this morning and it still shows 100%, as I read somewhere here that the battery indicator might only update at boot time, not sure if this was a ref to old Kobo-1 fw or the current Kobo wifi fw since I haven't had much time to do research.

I presume that a) lasting several hours(not sure of page "turns" but must be at least 100+ plus monkeying around through menus and things) and b) batt indicator still reading 100%(full icon) in menu are good things as far as batt life goes? i.e. do the faulty ones start dropping the indicator right away?

[ltr]

Originally Posted by cutterjohn42

I read somewhere here that the battery indicator might only update at boot time

Not true. It's dynamic as it's accessed.

My Kobo WiFi battery lasts 12 days when exclusively using Sleep Mode, and lasts 40 days exclusively using power on/off mode, Reading two hours a day.

ltr

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by cutterjohn42

Anyways, I picked up one of these yesterday @ Borders before they disappear

Borders does not own the Kobo, so their demise will not see the Kobo disappear.

[cutterjohn42]

Originally Posted by sabredog

Borders does not own the Kobo, so their demise will not see the Kobo disappear.

No, but they likely would for $100...

[EDIT]
Menu batt meter icon: I'd've thought that it'd be dynamically updated, but I read in a thread here somewhere that it might only be updated on boot... might've been referring to an old firmware for Kobo-1 maybe...

So far it's looking like my batt is good, but I'll keep on using it for the next week to see how it holds up, then on to some hacking... (leaving it absolutely stock until I'm sure about the batt...)
[/EDIT]

[EDIT2]
...got battery meter down one "bar", but I expected that as I was running WiFi & browsing the store since WiFi is generally the #2 item behind LCD/backlight that are the highest sources of power drain on LCD devices and I can't imagine this device having specced a very high cap batt as in it's "normal" operational mode it's VERY low power...

did run into the power off rather than sleep w/a sideloaded book problem, and noticed that on reboot and re-verification of poweroff v. sleep w/book open that batt meter was back @ 100%... slept fine next boot IF I just left it on the I'm Reading screen... slept fine all day yesterday and earlier today when in the sideloaded book though...

i.e. I'm feeling pretty good about my batt/meter ATM on this one but plan to keep using it throughout the week just to make sure...
[/EDIT2]

[3d0g]

Originally Posted by sabredog

Borders does not own the Kobo, so their demise will not see the Kobo disappear.

Well, if borders were to 100% close (NOT the current plan), the kobo would disappear from the U.S. market unless they found a new distributer.

[cutterjohn42]

Originally Posted by 3d0g

Well, if borders were to 100% close (NOT the current plan), the kobo would disappear from the U.S. market unless they found a new distributer.

I think that Borders' has had it, unfortunately... I remember way back when they were the ONLY bookstore that had a WIDE selection of titles and all the rest were little broomcloset mall shops for the most part carrying only brand new/bestsellers and maybe a couple small shelves of slightly older titles.

The woman at the store told me that they only had the black? onyx? one in stock which was fine as that's the color I wanted. (You don't want a bright bezel if you're using it in sunlight as even my Silver PRS-505 is annoying and worse with that stupid chrome plastic crap that Sony INSISTS on slapping on everything... bugged the crap out of me with the Clies... half blinding myself all of the time...)

I get the feeling that they'll not be getting any more stock for a while, if ever so I was get 'em while they got 'em mode v. waiting for the firesale(good time to get some bookcases... )...

I noted that my box had a bunch of Borders branding on it too, so I'm guessing that in other stores and direct from Kobo that they have different packaging although the branding part was just a slip on outer shell...

[cmm]

Originally Posted by cutterjohn42

...got battery meter down one "bar" ...

I read somewhere here that the battery meter isn't linear or accurate, ie. the first bar will go quicker than the last bar, or vice versa.

I wasn't really paying attention, but may have noticed the first bar will disappear much quicker than subsequent bars.

[cutterjohn42]

Originally Posted by cmm

I read somewhere here that the battery meter isn't linear or accurate, ie. the first bar will go quicker than the last bar, or vice versa.

I wasn't really paying attention, but may have noticed the first bar will disappear much quicker than subsequent bars.

...mine seems to be be-bopping between full and one bar down last I remembered to check yesterday... hasn't shut down from no power so I have continuing confidence if a good batt and likely accurate as it gets sw meter icon...

[EDIT]
Bouncing between 1 & 2 bars gone now...

also noticed that it went to sleep while in the sideloaded book but that seems to be because I fell asleep reading or forgot to try sleeping it and it went to sleep by itself which it seems to have a pretty short timeout for...
[/EDIT]

...just have those nasty power down instead of sleep w/sideloaded book now. It's even happening when I exit the book to the I'm Reading screen where earlier I could still get it to reliably sleep from that screen and the first day it just always slept normally w/the same book sideloaded... this is offtopic though and I gather that it's supposed to be fixed w/next fw update...

[EDIT2]
...ahh found this official comment buried in the dim past wrt sleep/power off:
"1) Your Kobo Reader will now go to sleep after 15 minutes. This was the best balance between usability and battery life.
2) Your Kobo Reader will power off after being idle for 30 minutes, and a new very obvious power off screen will appear."

Both of which seem kind of silly as the CPU/system should be in a low power state already once a new page has been rendered... my PRS-505 never needed to power itself down and still had AWESOME(well, as expected compared to LCD devices) battery life...

The OP also mentioned something about people being confused about poweroff state w/Covers displayed... personally I just wish that I could have the screen blank when it's powered off. The sleep mode message might be nice to distinguish between poweroff and sleep. Minor thing but it's something that I'd've liked to've been able to pick on my own, since when I expected don't show cover for it to show nothing, but oh well...

Batt meter icon was down to 3 bars last night, not sure how many page turns but I don't think that I'm going to get anything like 10k at this rate, but neither did the PRS-505 plus I did monkey around a bit on WiFi and poke through other things, e.g. various menu options, settings menus, etc.
[/EDIT2]

[The Terminator]

Originally Posted by cutterjohn42

late and obvious, but better than never I suppose, according to the MANUAL:
red/violet = charging
blue = fully charged

Anyways, I picked up one of these yesterday @ Borders before they disappear and the price is decent for a basic eInk reader, potential hackability is a bonus, however I'm still at the point of checking out the battery life on mine.

I charged the device up yesterday as soon as I had gotten it home, took the entirety of the 3h that the manual claimed that it might take even with it shutdown most of the time. Updated it to the 1.74 fw, as it came with 1.71 IIRC, over WiFi. (Charged just in time as my PRS-505 just drained on me... and my actual intent was to use the Kobo as much as possible over the next several days to ensure proper battery functionality anyways.)

Used it for several hours w/a sideloaded epub ATM (one that I had been reading on the 505 -- kind of a PITA getting it loaded as calibre was f'ing up so I did it manually). My battery stayed @ 100% per onboard indicator in the menu and so I did a reboot this morning and it still shows 100%, as I read somewhere here that the battery indicator might only update at boot time, not sure if this was a ref to old Kobo-1 fw or the current Kobo wifi fw since I haven't had much time to do research.

I presume that a) lasting several hours(not sure of page "turns" but must be at least 100+ plus monkeying around through menus and things) and b) batt indicator still reading 100%(full icon) in menu are good things as far as batt life goes? i.e. do the faulty ones start dropping the indicator right away?

Ya sorry about being so late but I didn't see all the other pages I thought I was posting on the first page . I know thats what the Manual says but with the update it's different, they changed it so it would be simpler so now its just red when charging blue when charged.

[cutterjohn42]

Originally Posted by THE TERMINATOR

Ya sorry about being so late but I didn't see all the other pages I thought I was posting on the first page . I know thats what the Manual says but with the update it's different, they changed it so it would be simpler so now its just red when charging blue when charged.

I guess that explains why I couldn't figure out how RED == VIOLET... actually I'd swear that when mine is charging there's the red LED abut also seems to be a dim "blue" (?) one as well, then it goes to a brightly lit blue LED when charged...

My battery seems to be fine, although I charged it again after it got down to c. 50% or so... last I checked again yesterday after a couple days of use it was down 1 bar, but forgot to check again just before I shut it down for the night...

i.e. seems that mine is as good as can be expected... now for some fw goodness and hope that they add some basic features, e.g GOTO PAGE #, bookmarks(?! WTF would want to use bookmarks with books?!), and maybe open up the browser(mostly useless but I can see times where it'd be handy and they SHOULD be able to do it... then we wouldn't have to resort to hacks...)

[cutterjohn42]

Double post, but days apart and a small update... Kobo-wifi down to looked to be 50% on batt meter icon yesterday when last used... went into sleep mode left it overnight and when I looked this morning had the connect to charge message...

So... battery life isn't nearly as good as on my PRS-505 but I guess it's OK... would've been nice if they with a bit higher cap batt though especially since they included WiFi(MAJOR power draw, probably most on this device by quite a bit if on...)... esp. if they ever open up the builtin browser to allow some general browsing...