Forma Just ordered new Kobo Forma

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by Alan_S

I understand you, that's why I'm with koreader and not nickel. With koreader you can have time and more useful info all the time (you choose what you want to see).

With nickel, you can't do this.

As of very recently, actually you can do this in nickel. See this thread, post #6 has the install zip. It's a hack, so obviously, use at your own risk.

It works OK on a ClaraHD and a KA1. It also works on a Forma if you turn pages via tap/swipe but I think it needs some extra development work to respond to the Forma's page buttons.

[jiminrussell]

Originally Posted by Alan_S

Sorry, but it isn't true.

KA1 has about half battery life of H2O. I know, you mentioned HD, I don't know about it, but KA1 works for me about 5-7 days, H2O worked (or, still works, but I know use KA1 mainly) 10-14.

So, yes, I can live with 5-7 days reading time, but it still is true, battery last about half of H2O's one.

It's not just "haters", it is a hard fact. Different things is, does it impacts you too much, or you can accept it and use device with more frequent charging.

Is this using Kobo software or KoReader? You say in previous post that you are a KoReader user so I assume your battery life experience is with that software rather than Kobo's software?
I certainly agree that the battery life on KA1 is not as good as it is on H20 or even the HD (I have all three of them) but I regularly get 2 weeks of usage out of my KA1 before I have to recharge it, from memory the HD and H2O both generally lasted for 3+ weeks between charges (I rarely use them anymore). I guess it depends on how much reading you do each day and how much you use the front lighting and what brightness setting you use it at as well as the natural light on the KA1 etc. As you say, however long the battery lasts if it meets your needs then it doesn't really matter how many days/weeks it lasts.

[Alan_S]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

As of very recently, actually you can do this in nickel. See this thread, post #6 has the install zip. It's a hack, so obviously, use at your own risk.

Well, in a way it is third party software. I know it may be useful for those that prefer nickel (I guess they never tried koreader, but it is just my opinion) and I brave enough to play with hacking firmware files.

In a way, if you want to play with your device in this way, koreader is maybe better and safer way. But yes, it is good to know that there's more people who prefer to see clock all the time.

[Alan_S]

Originally Posted by jiminrussell

Is this using Kobo software or KoReader? You say in previous post that you are a KoReader user so I assume your battery life experience is with that software rather than Kobo's software?

I use only koreader, nickel isn't started at all, on all my devices.

But, for battery info, it isn't important as I tested (or better said, used) all my devices in pretty much the same way, even if days may be a bit different (no two days in our life are same), it is same software, similar reading practices, times, etc.

Even if nickel has a bit better battery economy than koreader, it doesn't matter, on H2O you'll still get about double battery life than from KA1.

It may be important info for someone who wants to know which software manages battery in better way, koreader or nickel, but for same user who uses same software on each devices, this point is mute.

And yes, from what I know, nickel does manages battery a bit better, so you maybe would get 5-10% more reading time on nickel if you read really a lot (3-10 hours per day). With hour or less, it is maybe 1-2%. These percentage is my estimate, not something I actually tested, as I never use nickel, but I know that it does has some better battery management (nickel after about 7 seconds turns everything and leaves only IR grid and needed system to wake device. 7 seconds is needed to render next page. I don't know how it works with devices without IR grid, it may have same system. H2O has IR, KA1 doesn't).

[hel]

Received mine Forma today. So far all is good except one minor but very annoying thing: to wake it I have to press button and swipe screen. And no way to change this behavior.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by hel

Received mine Forma today. So far all is good except one minor but very annoying thing: to wake it I have to press button and swipe screen. And no way to change this behavior.

I think we're all wondering what this is all about.

[jiminrussell]

Originally Posted by hel

Received mine Forma today. So far all is good except one minor but very annoying thing: to wake it I have to press button and swipe screen. And no way to change this behavior.

Yeah I don't like the swipe that they introduced with the new firmware. Prior to the firmware update from earlier this week (4.11.11911) mine didn't require me to swipe after pressing the power button to wake it up. The swipe seems like a totally useless function to me, just slows down getting to my book to read. I had to return my device as it was freezing on me so I can't check settings now to see if there is a way to turn the swipe function off but I don't recall seeing anything in settings for it, won't have the replacement until Monday or Tuesday next week.

Hopefully Kobo eliminates it from future firmware or at least makes it an option we can turn off, or maybe there is something that could be added to the config file to stop it.

[PeterT]

I believe if you have the sleep cover and use it to put the device to sleep and wake up that the swipe message does not occur.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[kansaskyle]

On Kindle, the swipe screen was present for those that had advertisements enabled. Even with a sleep cover, it was a way to force you to view the home screen and the ad before showing you your book.

Maybe Kobo is preparing to add ads! Oh noes!

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by kansaskyle

On Kindle, the swipe screen was present for those that had advertisements enabled. Even with a sleep cover, it was a way to force you to view the home screen and the ad before showing you your book.

Maybe Kobo is preparing to add ads! Oh noes!

That's what I'm worried about. Maybe as an optional "feature" for Formas sold at Walmart, or something.

[Uschiekid]

Originally Posted by Alan_S

I use only koreader, nickel isn't started at all, on all my devices.

But, for battery info, it isn't important as I tested (or better said, used) all my devices in pretty much the same way, even if days may be a bit different (no two days in our life are same), it is same software, similar reading practices, times, etc.

Even if nickel has a bit better battery economy than koreader, it doesn't matter, on H2O you'll still get about double battery life than from KA1.

It may be important info for someone who wants to know which software manages battery in better way, koreader or nickel, but for same user who uses same software on each devices, this point is mute.

And yes, from what I know, nickel does manages battery a bit better, so you maybe would get 5-10% more reading time on nickel if you read really a lot (3-10 hours per day). With hour or less, it is maybe 1-2%. These percentage is my estimate, not something I actually tested, as I never use nickel, but I know that it does has some better battery management (nickel after about 7 seconds turns everything and leaves only IR grid and needed system to wake device. 7 seconds is needed to render next page. I don't know how it works with devices without IR grid, it may have same system. H2O has IR, KA1 doesn't).

This assumes that the (potential) inefficiency of koreader doesn't get exponentially worse on a bigger screen/with KA1 hardware. This may be irrelevant to you personally, but without rigorous testing, asserting that KA1 battery is half as good as the H2O is just bad science. Especially as many users only use nickel and may care tuppence about how it performs with koreader.

What it really boils down to is, while it is perfectly helpful for you to say your usage, and your experience, it is not very helpful to widely proclaim that someone else who might have a more typical usage is plain wrong (your earlier post # 105), especially without saying the caveat that you use koreader, so your experience may be weighted/biased.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by rcentros

That's what I'm worried about. Maybe as an optional "feature" for Formas sold at Walmart, or something.

Forma sold at FNAC has the same "feature".

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Forma sold at FNAC has the same "feature".

Likewise for direct from kobo. I suspect it’ll have an on/off option in the next firmware but that’s just a guess

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by Alan_S

nickel after about 7 seconds turns everything [off?] and leaves only IR grid and needed system to wake device. 7 seconds is needed to render next page.

7 seconds to render the next page? I don't know how you would know this since you don't use nickel... maybe back when the home screen was still the carousel (aaahhh the carousel) and the Kobo Touch was this sparkly new thing and there were all sorts of laggy page turn bugs (and not consistently so even then you'd only hit the ~7 second lag occasionally)...

But no, it's definitely not 7 seconds now. Maybe not even 1 second. I haven't timed it. But it's faster than moving my eyes from the bottom of the screen to the top.

[rashkae]

I can concur that the KA1 battery lasts only about half as long as the other kobo models, with stock firmware. This is observed on two different KA1 units, (vs multiple H20, H202 and Clara HD)

However, the battery on the KA1 is not that much smaller in capacity, as far as specs go. I suspect that a large part of the KA1 battery life issue has to do with the RGB leds of the first generation Comfort Light. Later iterations of Comfortlight do not use RGB leds, (rather they have red/orange LED's that are only capable of producing the desired colour.) Reading with White light on the KA1 illuminates *all* LED's, the RGB ones being used to produce white light. On later devices, reading with white light would dim out the coloured LED's.

The Forma has a yet again smaller battery, but in practice, I expect reading time per charge to be between the KA1 and the H20, (except for people who read with light completely off)