Karel details plans for Power Mangement

[JSWolf]

Why didn't iRex put in a high capacity battery with room for a second if the user wanted?

[Nate the great]

Because they are incompetent? (Do you have a better explanation?)

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Because they are incompetent? (Do you have a better explanation?)

Yes, because the bean counters wanted to keep the cost down. However, it will probably cost them more in the long run.

BOb

[tribble]

I think they used a small battery (half of what the iLiad has with almost twice the screensize) since they redesigned the hardware and it is theoretically possible to get the device to run for days with the implemented power management. Whoever decided to launch the product with the current firmware and battery runtime is responsible for the reputational damage iRex is taking now. And belive me, i am pretty angry at the moment.

[Over]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Any portable device that doesn't have power management cannot be version 1.0; it isn't done yet. At most it can be version 0.9.

This just shows that iRex, deliberately, launched an unfinished product. People are paying 600€ to be beta testers. That unethical.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Over

This just shows that iRex, deliberately, launched an unfinished product. People are paying 600€ to be beta testers. That unethical.

I don't know if it is unethical at all. Especially since they said upfront that the power management features were not included. Also, shipping something without some future planned features does not make it a beta test version.

You should have bought it knowing full well that this would be an issue.

BOb

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Especially since they said upfront that the power management features were not included.

Are you sure? I seem to recall that the product page did not say that until after the orders started shipping. I could be wrong.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Are you sure? I seem to recall that the product page did not say that until after the orders started shipping. I could be wrong.

I thought the said it before orders started shipping. Maybe not on the product page which was a mistake. However, you generally don't list the bad things about your product on product literature.

BOb

[Nate the great]

You should do so when you ship a product that is still in beta.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

You should do so when you ship a product that is still in beta.

Who said the product was beta? If iRex did officially say the the 1.0 firmware was considered a "beta" release that was yet another mistake on their part. I don't think those guys are very good at this. Still, unethical, I don't think so.

BOb

[Nate the great]

Wait. I want to change my previous statement.

I had implied that the device was still in beta because it lacked the power management software. I was wrong.

If the PM didn't work well, the device would be in beta. Since the PM is entirely absent, the DR1000 is still in alpha.

[bob_ninja]

Originally Posted by BKeeper

...
But iRex cannot make the same mistakes all over again, and they have.
Wanna hear something really scary, I have it on good authority that iRex is explicitly using the term beta firmware with their retail chain.

Do you realize the significance of this?
This makes us beta testers, which I'm not, beta testers don't pay for product testing, they get the product for free (maybe with a deposit) and sign NDAs.

I am a programmer and write software for living. There are some exceptions like:
1) Google having a product in beta for a very long time
2) Microsoft running beta for Windows and other important products for a long time and with *MANY* customers

However in general beta is 99.99% identical to the final product and doesn't last very long. Certainly that is case for smaller companies with less money. As for giving betas for free, I imagine that is exception more than a rule.

The point is, once you are in beta there are no significant changes going into a product besides bug fixes. My software is not even in beta yet (another couple of months) and I already need a permission for any bug fix requiring more than a couple of days to fix. Certainly no new features are being done.

So beta is basically the final product and the dividing line is very thin. In essence some marketing or product manager wakes up one morning and declares that the beta is over and the product is final. It is more or less arbitrary.

Originally Posted by BKeeper

....I thought they'd rather ship the DR with a car battery if they had to.

Now it looks like we are the ones getting external batteries anyway.

....

This is also my frustration. Not only are they using custom battery (as opposed to more common AAs) but also it is not easy to replace. Bookeen at least gave a simple cover and a single screw so that I can replace my battery when this one is too old.

I think companies end up sacrificing *TOO MUCH* for the sake of size/weight. They use a light compact battery with a flat shape so that it fits well into overall case design, yet end up causing is so much trouble long term.

This is a pure speculation:
I assume that the mass produced battery they use is not designed for frequent change so has a delicate connector. That means that even if they allowed easy removal we would risk damaging the delicate cables and connectors these batteries are built with.

That being said, why not use a battery like mobile phones with fixed connectors? Then when needed I could carry 1 or 2 spares and use them when away from a PC for a longer period of time. It is sad that the same mistake is being made by mobile phones, like iPhone (one of the main complaints).

Bottom line is if they wish to keep the slim design then:
a) allow easy replacement and sell spares
b) add 2nd 1300 mAh battery for 2x runtime

I prefer (a) as often DR is used in office or some place near a PC and can be plugged in most of the time. Anyway I am too frustrated that companies keep making such simple mistakes and neglect power source and runtime. Still their marketing keeps making inflated claims about runtime. This is industry wide problem, though.

[axel77]

bob_ninja

Altough it got massivly forgotten even by many companies, a long time ago, the definition of beta version was "limited user group", that is, alpha was "in house testing onyl", "beta testing with limted user group" and then general sale to market. Somewhere on the way many reinterpreted beta as "just not quite ready yet"... I personally a little mournful this original and crystal clear destinction got so forgotten by almost everyone today. One can argue about this point of limited user group, as its even unusual today. But one can argue is that when you deliberatly hand out bad or not yet ready software without warning, you are doing something wrong. And iRex is currently doing this wrong with the 1000.

About the battery thing I totally agree. I consider it a very bad move from a lot of industry to make devices with unexchangeable batteries. Its our whole economy today, we do no longer build things to last, companies just want the devices to fall apart after 2-4 years, so people buy new, altough they wouldn't really need to.

[bob_ninja]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why didn't iRex put in a high capacity battery with room for a second if the user wanted?

Just about all makers of pocket devices like eReaders and mobile phones place high priority on size and being slim. If you look at the all eReader batteries, they are very slim Lithium based batteries chosen because they can be packaged into a device without adding much depth.

Discordantly if were to add 2nd battery it would be sticking out of the case adding an odd bump. You might consider it ugly or inconvenient, etc. They are simply set in the old thinking, design and elegance over runtime.

Thus they need to realized that at some point runtime becomes more important than appearance/dimensions/weight. They crossed that threshold without realizing it.

[bob_ninja]

Originally Posted by axel77

bob_ninja

Altough it got massivly forgotten even by many companies, a long time ago, the definition of beta version was "limited user group", that is, alpha was "in house testing onyl", "beta testing with limted user group" and then general sale to market......

Certainly the definitions if they ever existed of alpha, beta and GA are now fuzzy. In particular Google's so called "beta" of Google mail doesn't even come close to your definition. Other companies also stray away. Not to mention prototype software that never goes into alpha or beta, but simply starts being used and becomes a finished product over night.

My original point was simply for people not to worry too much about labels like "beta" or "finished product" as the difference is often negligible.

The bigger issue is shipping GA product that is missing a significant feature - power management. That is why most/many users simply don't purchase V1, which is what I am doing - wait and see.

To be fair, remember Windows 1.0? How many people used it or complained about its deficiencies? It took Microsoft several versions and years to get to V3.1 and actually make it widely used. And this is from one of the major software companies!!!

I would cut some slack here and simply give them time. As for people who bought DR v1.0 .... not sure what to say. I would be angry as well.