[Firmware 1.4] How many page turns are you getting

[fred_yu_job]

Originally Posted by 3d0g

Next 1000...

power-on - no change
......
5000 - no change

Thanks for the effort!
keep going on...

[Bismar]

Originally Posted by HamsterRage

Really? 8000 page turns is about 20-30 typical novels on the smallest font. That's a hell of a lot of reading, and I'd suspect that for most people would take more than 2 weeks to complete - and 2 weeks was the other half of the advertising on the battery life.

From the "How many books do you read...?" thread in one of the other forums, it looks fair to say that most people are reading under 100 books a year, or at most 4 books every two weeks. That's still going to be well under the 3000 page turns Bismar got.

So I'm struggling to see how a mere 3000 pages would be a make-it-or-break-it issue for anyone, since that would mean having to plug the unit in for a few hours every three weeks or so. Especially when, if you're reading that much, you'll have to plug it in to sideload the books onto it in the first place.

This assumes everyone uses the smallest font to read. I use the medium font which equates to the small font due to internal formatting.

For an epic space series like 'Deathstalker' each book roughly equates to 1200 page turns fully justified.

So for me 2 and a half books will roughly drain the battery, and that IS a make-it-or-break it issue for me, as i can easily go through that in under 2 weeks.

[3d0g]

Next 1000...

power-on - no change
5100 - no change
5200 - no change
5300 - no change
5400 - no change
5500 - no change
5600 - no change
5700 - no change
5800 - no change
5900 - no change
6000 - no change

[Pookeysgirl]

Originally Posted by 3d0g

Next 1000...

power-on - no change
5100 - no change
5200 - no change
5300 - no change
5400 - no change
5500 - no change
5600 - no change
5700 - no change
5800 - no change
5900 - no change
6000 - no change

Your experiment made me curious so I let my battery drain and re-charged it to full and I marked down exactly what I did yesterday just to see what I'm approximately getting out of my battery too. After 3 Sleep/Power Off cycles, 3 Sleep/On cycles (when it goes to sleep and I hit the power button before it shuts off on me), 3 times I turned it on and loaded my book from the I'm reading page and 632 actual pages turned, I have 3/4 battery left. In one day. By the time I'm done tracking this, I won't be anywhere near 6000. And yesterday is pretty much what I do everyday (I read at my desk off an on throughout the day, not my boss knows that ).

[3d0g]

Originally Posted by Pookeysgirl

Your experiment made me curious so I let my battery drain and re-charged it to full and I marked down exactly what I did yesterday just to see what I'm approximately getting out of my battery too. After 3 Sleep/Power Off cycles, 3 Sleep/On cycles (when it goes to sleep and I hit the power button before it shuts off on me), 3 times I turned it on and loaded my book from the I'm reading page and 632 actual pages turned, I have 3/4 battery left. In one day. By the time I'm done tracking this, I won't be anywhere near 6000.

Oh, I'll bet you it is.

The battery indicator is very non-linear. if you look at my earlier data, my kobo went to 3/4 after 200 page turns. Now I'm at 6K and there's still a bar left in the battery...

[Pookeysgirl]

Originally Posted by 3d0g

Oh, I'll bet you it is.

The battery indicator is very non-linear. if you look at my earlier data, my kobo went to 3/4 after 200 page turns. Now I'm at 6K and there's still a bar left in the battery...

I hope so, even if I make it to 3K I'll be happy!

[HamsterRage]

Originally Posted by Bismar

I use the medium font which equates to the small font due to internal formatting.

I wish I knew what that meant.

I did a quick check, and the Deathstalker books come in at about 550 pages each in paper. That's substantially longer than what I would have characterized as an "average" book. Of course "average" only has any meaning in the context of the "How many books do you read a year" question. I was figuring about 350 pages as an "average" book. So 4 novels each two weeks would be about 1400 paper pages, which would be 3054 Kobo page turns according to Bismar's settings.

Personally, I know I usually read at about 400-450 wpm, and that translates to just under a paper page a minute for most paperback novels. So three "Deathstalker" novels which would be 1650 paper pages and about 3600 page turns ( ~ 1 charge cycle) on the Kobo would translate to about 27 hours of reading for me. And my 425 wpm pace is more than 2 times that of most readers.

For all I know Bismar may read at twice my speed, so he's only getting 12 hours of reading out of a single charge, and he's sitting on a beach all day catching some sun while he catches up on his reading, so 3000 pages turns a charge could be a real problem.

But I think it's going to take me a couple of weeks to find 27 hours to get through 3 Deathstalker books (although I might be tempted to skim them since I've already read them all), so, for me a least, 3000 page turns isn't going to be an issue. This is clearly a YMMV thing, though.

[clintbradford]

Our batteries are rated at about 500 complete discharge-charge cycles, max.

That means if we charge it once a week, we have nine years of life from the battery pack.

Charge twice a week, almost five years' use.

I have read the "8,000 page turn" claim. That is meaningless to me. And, IMHO, a weird marketing department decision to claim.

We have devices that will run for darned near five years of use - on the average. If that is upsetting to anyone, then they should have purchased a Nook. (grin)

Clint Bradford

[Stinger]

Completely agree with you Clint. In 5 years we'll all probably have 3rd generation Kobos. Also, even though battery replacement is not supported, if you're careful about not snapping the case when opening the Kobo, replacing the battery wouldn't be all that difficult (I'm sure a local electronics repair shop could lend a hand, too).

Anway, here's what I said regarding the battery life claims in the old battery life thread, and I still believe it to be true:

Originally Posted by Stinger

I always thought that the 'UPTO 2 weeks' meant something like, "If you read for an hour before bed, it'll last 2 weeks". In my experiences UPTO estimates always use numbers based on liberal usage like I mentioned, the not-so average grandma reader

The 8000 page turns is probably also a naive calculation, where they calculated how much power it takes to do a single page turn, and divided the average battery capacity.
This kind of simple calculation would ignore the fact that nobody is going to do 8000 consecutive page turns like that. Which means it doesn't account for additional drains on the battery:

• Power down, Power on (at least a couple screen updates, plenty of internal memory reads, processing, etc)
• ANY other operation besides page flips will usually include a page refresh + processing (display tab to check battery, change font, browse library, GOTO next chapter, etc)
• even powered down, the kobo has to use minimal battery power to keep the clock/date system going

Technically speaking, it can do 8000 page turns, if you ignore all that crap, so they can put it on the box without getting sued. Same goes for the 2 weeks... it can last two weeks, sure, but it won't be anywhere near 8000 pages since you also have all the battery drains I mentioned coming into the equation.

Notice specifically what they say, note the 'or' & 'approximately':
"This charge will last approximately 8000 page turns or two weeks of average reading."

Marketing people get payed a lot of money to brain-f**k you, and they do it well. Sometimes they get sued for false advertising, sure, but I think Kobo is safe by their careful wording.

[roguefan99]

Nicely stated Clint.

I find it strange that people are talking that that they cant charge the Kobo every week or two weeks, but I would dare say there are other electronic items they charge more often (my phone is every couple of days, ipod the same).

As for the 8000 page turns comment, how many people here have a laptop or netbook? How many of these people have actually gotten the battery to last as long as the companies claim. Same goes for cameras. Battery claims are for the best conditions thus you rarely get the claim.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by zoran

I planned to use SD card for ebook storage, but might change my mind if true.

--- some lines deleted ---

Sqlite uses one file to store data. Operating system may take
any number of additional files to read and write to it. Developers
decide how it should work. I'm now sure why should "journal" file
be shown on the desktop application screen.

Best regards.

Personally, I like the SD card for my books since if nothing else, I can always pop it into the laptop's card reader and read the books there. The drop in page turns is not a deal breaker for me though one source says I could be reducing my battery life by ~5% though that conclusion was vigourously disputed by other posters. Depends on exactly what battery is in the Kobo was the closest to a conclusion. Note that these are books I am using Calibre to transfer to the Kobo.

Not an SQLite expert but generally a journal records changes in the database. Makes recovering from a crashed/corrupted database much easier since applying the journal to a backup copy of the database recovers the database at any point in time.

Regards,

Given that when I saw the file, my Kobo had "crashed", seeing the journal was not a big surprise. After the processing new content had run sucessfully, the journal file disappeared.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by roguefan99

Nicely stated Clint.

I find it strange that people are talking that that they cant charge the Kobo every week or two weeks, but I would dare say there are other electronic items they charge more often (my phone is every couple of days, ipod the same).

As for the 8000 page turns comment, how many people here have a laptop or netbook? How many of these people have actually gotten the battery to last as long as the companies claim. Same goes for cameras. Battery claims are for the best conditions thus you rarely get the claim.

I managed to exceed the suggested maximum battery life on a Toshiba laptop by turning it on and then leaving it alone until the battery discharged, switch to AC message popped up -- actually took 90 minutes longer than rated. Not exactly very useful but no one said I was going to be able to use the laptop and achieve that battery life. On the truth in advertising side, the other battery life number for actual use was only 15-20% higher than what I saw in my use. Close enough for government work and advertising claims.

[3d0g]

Next 1000...

power-on - no change
6100 - no change
6200 - 5th level drop
6300 - no change
6400 - no change
6500 - no change
6600 - no change
6700 - no change
6800 - no change
6900 - no change
7000 - no change

[clintbradford]

3d0g>> ... 7000 - no change ...

If there was a "Most Patient and Diligent Kobo Tester" award, I would nominate 3d0g in a heartbeat. Or in a page turn.

[3d0g]

Originally Posted by clintbradford

If there was a "Most Patient and Diligent Kobo Tester" award, I would nominate 3d0g in a heartbeat. Or in a page turn.

I must say, I wasn't really expecting this. As the kobo battery life is clearly holding up as advertised (at least under optimal conditions), I'm really beginning to wonder why so many are complaining.

I suspect not many have actually done a test like this and prematurely panic when the battery gauge drops after a couple hundred pages or they badly under-estimate the number of pages they're really reading. A 400 page novel generally does not equal 400 kobo page turns...