Quote:
Originally Posted by Acousticvillage
The battery is one of the best things about the kindle. Does anyone really need longer battery life or solar power charging?
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The reports say the goal is to make it slimmer; not add battery life. Here is how it would work.
You make the Kindle slimmer by putting in a smaller battery. As a result the Kindle will not last as long (three weeks instead of six?). Then you add a case that is a battery. Design the case as a case you build a cover only (no backside shell). The cover is a large, thin battery wrapped in leather/pleather on one side and felt on the other side; it attaches along the side and flips to the back when it is open.
In regard to your original comment about battery-life that is long enough -- well kind of.
Amazon says: battery lasts six weeks, based on a half hour of reading per day with wireless off. This translates to 21 hours of reading.
However, this is just an approximation that does not hold if you turn pages quickly. The battery and processor are tied to page refreshes (the light is related to elapsed time). If you turn pages quicker than average you will have a shorter battery life.
I am probably a fast reader, but more importantly my eyes are a bit older too. This means that I use larger print than some people. As a result, I turn pages frequently. I suspect I get substantially less than 21 hours.
In addition, it assumes that wireless is off. I usually don't bother turning it on and off.
Finally, I really hope they add back Text-to-speech (probably not, though). This would also suck down battery life.
I don't have any problem with the current battery life, and its much better than a tablet, but I definitely don't get six weeks (or a week) out of it. If I didn't have a regular charging schedule it would run dry on a regular basis. Its not that big of deal for me to plug it in every night and then it never runs out. However, I suspect that there are people who would enjoy even longer battery life.