Cybook Gen3 V1.1 (Build 685) upgrade finally available

[dainys]

Originally Posted by bwaldron

After living with the update for awhile, I am also noticing faster drain of the battery.

I noticed faster battery drain too...

[Ortep]

Originally Posted by momghoti

How about it? Do the people getting quick responses email during business hours for them?

I mailed them at 17:08 and got a response at 17:39. Hmmm that is not 29 minutes but 31.

[AndyCapon]

Originally Posted by HarryT

They have build 674 installed, which is a lot "newer" than the previous build 538, and which appears to include all of the changes and bugs fixed in the update version 685. You can reflash it to 685 if you wish - I did with mine. It works, but I've not noticed any differences compared with 674. Might just as well leave it at 674.

674 on mine was still displaying version 1.0 instead of 1.1.

Also I found 674 crashed a lot with pdf files where 685 doesn't crash but just displays pdf files as blank pages!

If I go back to the 5xx version will I be able to display pdf documents?

Cheers

Andy

[elena]

did people who managed to downgrade solve the battery problem?

[Ortep]

Yes it did

[Sharone]

Hi guys

Not sure if this will be helpful to anyone but I have found that using the cybook outside of its cover does not trigger the page-not-turning-even-though-the-LED-turned-green problem as much (when using my right thumb). I switched hands while drinking a cup of coffee and it got the problem almost immediately after 300 - 400 perfect page turns. It might have been a coincidence but I don't think so. It is possible that this is sepcific to my unit.

Still on firmware version 538; decided to wait for the next update since there seems to be such a mixed bag of opinions.

I'm going on my first holiday since getting the cybook. Really looking forward to the cybook experience while waiting in the airport & being stuck in a plane seat for eight hours

[bob_ninja]

Originally Posted by dainys

I noticed faster battery drain too...

To clarify, do you actually observe a shorter total runtime (down to 10-20%) OR do you observe faster battery indicator decline?

I remember that mine used to stay at 100% for a long time, then quickly drop to 70% or so. Now the change is more gradual. So seems the battery state indicator may be changing more rapidly and evenly to better reflect true SOC, while the actual run time is the same as before. At least that is what I am seeing on mine.

[HarryT]

There does seem to be a genuine increase in the "idle" power consumption, Bob. Previously, if you left the Gen3 switched on, but idle, the battery charge would last for 4-5 days. With firmware 685, that's down to about 2 days.

[marcinJ13]

I have also noticed faster battery drain. I'm in the middle of moving and my PC is still in different country. I charged my CyBook and it lasted aprox 3 days (with my normal reading pattern). Thanks Buddha I had my external Mp3 charger which uses USB as well.

So I wonder what "Improvement: reduced power consumption" means.

Now the biggest disappointment I had about new firmware is that I really expected to have some folder/directory structure support.

- I don't use PDFs anymore (not since I learned how to make PRC books correctly)
- I don't listen to mp3 on Cybook
- I read books page by page (no need for me to press any button 20 times in the row)

So this firmware for which I waited long time decreased my battery life and at the same time didn't improve any aspect of my Cybook use. Way to go.

I think I will go back to previous version and wait untill firmware that works for me.

Regards

MJ

[bob_ninja]

Originally Posted by HarryT

There does seem to be a genuine increase in the "idle" power consumption, Bob. Previously, if you left the Gen3 switched on, but idle, the battery charge would last for 4-5 days. With firmware 685, that's down to about 2 days.

I see. thanks

I can only speculate that "improved event handling" is now consuming more power while waiting for new events. Odds are they are polling for new events more often.

Seems they have a lot more software tweaking ahead. Their polling period should start at a very low value after an event (so that the next one is detected rapidly) then gradually increase during inactivity (to reduce power consumption while reading). That would strike a balance between prompt response time and low power use.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by bob_ninja

I can only speculate that "improved event handling" is now consuming more power while waiting for new events. Odds are they are polling for new events more often.

I agree with you entirely that this is very likely the explanation as to what's been changed. The CPU is spending a lot less time than it formerly was in its low-power "hibernation" mode.