Leave eReader turned on (affect on battery life)

[derball2008]

Hi,

the title may sound somewhat irritating, but my question is whether I can leave my eInk device turned on all the time. There are two aspects spefically that I am worried about:
1) Can the screen "freeze" it shows the same page for a long period of time (say 1 hour or more)
2) I heard that only turning pages would cost energy. So theoretically, it wouldn't matter if the deviced would be turned on or off.

Am I seeing this correctly or is there some misunderstanding that I am not aware of?

Thanks.

[HarryT]

The screen only uses power when it turns the page, but a reading device is a computer: the other components of it such as the CPU, RAM, etc, all use power, too. However, most modern reading devices automatically go into a very low power state when not actively in use. Some of them - the Kindle, for example - actually can't be turned off, but only put to sleep.

[derball2008]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The screen only uses power when it turns the page, but a reading device is a computer: [...]

My bad, applied the power consumption from the display to the reading device.

[jscarbo]

Just turn off the wifi and let it go into low power/sleep mode. It uses little or no power. If you aren't using it regularly, you should still periodically check the battery level and recharge when it falls below about 25-30% charge level.

[theducks]

I leave my Pocket Pro 'on' all the time. E-ink spins its beads, then powers down the display (you can disconnect the display internally and the last image stays)

My K4 sleeps. I assume it really just turns off the WiFi (which I leave set to OFF anyway as I don't use their cloud service) to conserve power

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by theducks

My K4 sleeps. I assume it really just turns off the WiFi (which I leave set to OFF anyway as I don't use their cloud service) to conserve power

The Kindle will continue to download and sync while in sleep mode.

[susan_cassidy]

And index books, if any aren't indexed yet.

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

The Kindle will continue to download and sync while in sleep mode.

Depends. My Kindle Keyboard does, my Touch seems to save downloading for when I wake it up.

And you can switch a eink Kindle off - screen blanks

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Little.Egret

Depends. My Kindle Keyboard does, my Touch seems to save downloading for when I wake it up.

And you can switch a eink Kindle off - screen blanks

It isn't off, I promise you.

When you press the power button, the lockscreen pops up if you have one, or else the home screen. It does not go through the boot screen, like when you restart.

It is actually possible to poweroff the Kindle, but you need to jailbreak for command-line access or to run shellscripts.

[Tarana]

Powering off your Kindle or Nook (the only ones I have experience with) every night will save you some power. I do that because sometimes I go several days without reading.

Every Kindle ereader can be powered off. It will have a blank screen (no picture). Kindle keyboard - hold the switch for 6-7 seconds. Kindle 6" is also 6 seconds. I think my sister's Kindle Touch is also 6 seconds. I don't know the time for the PPW, but I know my Mom uses sleep mode until she goes to bed and then shuts it off. She might go a week without reading, so why waste the power? The Nook ST is similar.

As far as 'screen freeze', I've never had this issue unless it involves dirt accumulation and then I can't unlock the danged thing (Nook). With my Nook, I periodically take a slightly damp Qtip and go around the inside edges of the screen to free up dirt.

Gave my Nook ST to my sister. I still miss him. sniff. But I had too many readers. Same with ipods.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Powering off your Kindle or Nook (the only ones I have experience with) every night will save you some power. I do that because sometimes I go several days without reading.

Every Kindle ereader can be powered off. It will have a blank screen (no picture). Kindle keyboard - hold the switch for 6-7 seconds. Kindle 6" is also 6 seconds. I think my sister's Kindle Touch is also 6 seconds. I don't know the time for the PPW, but I know my Mom uses sleep mode until she goes to bed and then shuts it off. She might go a week without reading, so why waste the power? The Nook ST is similar.

The Kindle has not been powered off. See my previous post.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Every Kindle ereader can be powered off. It will have a blank screen (no picture). Kindle keyboard - hold the switch for 6-7 seconds. Kindle 6" is also 6 seconds.

That's not "powered off" - it's just asleep with a blank screen. When you press the power switch again it doesn't boot up (with the boy under a tree picture), it simply wakes up.

As I said in my earlier post, an eInk Kindle CANNOT be turned off. It can be rebooted, but not turned off.

[Tarana]

As I said in my earlier post, an eInk Kindle CANNOT be turned off. It can be rebooted, but not turned off.

I will not disagree with you guys, but I can say that you save power by getting the blank screen moreso than if you just had the screen with the picture.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Tarana

I will not disagree with you guys, but I can say that you save power by getting the blank screen moreso than if you just had the screen with the picture.

If you keep WiFi turned on, that's true, because "sleep mode with a blank screen" turns WiFi off, whereas normal sleep mode doesn't. If you don't keep WiFi on, the two modes are indentical.

[pidgeon92]

Originally Posted by Tarana

I will not disagree with you guys, but I can say that you save power by getting the blank screen moreso than if you just had the screen with the picture.

Once the pic is there, it's there. The display doesn't draw power again until the screen changes.