[OFFICIAL] Why did Kobo change the Sleep/Power Off behaviour? - Page 4

qwiggles · 07-04-2010, 04:42 PM

Sadly, I have to agree with the majority in here that making the Kobo power-off on its own is a very disappointing 'feature' that limits it greatly as an ereader. The language in the OP that shows the Kobo has no plans to change this irritating feature is frustrating: when companies start talking about the importance of managing your battery for you so it'll last longer, you know the battery is a dud and there's no way for them to get around it. The initial announcement of the new firmware seems to not correspond to this change:

"3. Battery Life
This was a software problem rather than a hardware one. Even when the device is in sleep mode, there is a negligible amount of activity on the device. The bug: in some situations, power consumption wasn’t tapering off as much as it should have when the device went into sleep mode. We found the bug and fixed it, so people should be able to get the 8,000 page turns they were expecting."

"We found the bug and fixed it" -- what happened to this? If the only way to conserve battery is to force shutdown, how has sleep mode been improved? Also, if there was a bug causing power consumption to not taper off when idling, how has it been addressing if the fix is to keep the device from idling longer than 30 minutes? Sounds like the idling power loss could not be fixed, as advertised, and the solution was to force the thing to shut itself down.

feedbakbwr · 07-04-2010, 05:15 PM

Perfect thanks.

patlaj · 07-05-2010, 03:05 AM

I posted to the comment thread on the Kobo blog about the upgrade, but that was before I read the Product Manager's explanation for the change here.

Update process was smooth, well-documented, and easy. I really like the font resizing and ability to hide the pre-loaded books. Sleep is nice too. But auto-shut-off has frustrated me about 10 times in the last 24 hours.

I just got back from overseas, which meant I had about a full day’s worth of travel. Time after time I got my Kobo out to read and had to wait ~47 seconds to power on and get back to my book. It used to be that you could get it out whenever you had a minute or so to read. Now you have to get it out a minute before you want to read so you can turn it on.

The funny thing is, I don’t remember anyone recommending turning the Kobo off to save power before. People guessed that even when it’s “on”, it’s not using any power, so no reason to turn it off. I guess that’s not true, but it seems strange that no one from Kobo jumped it to recommend it when people started complaining about battery life.

Anyway, I don't care if it's in "sleep", "off" or whatever. I just want it to be quick to go from stuck in my bag to out and me reading. Halving the start time would be a huge improvement - but 23 seconds is still a long way from what used to be instant.

HamsterRage · 07-05-2010, 09:50 AM

It's amazing that the ~45 second wait to get from "Off" to reading is so disproportionately annoying, but it is. For me it's 35 seconds to get to the "Home" page, and another 10 seconds to open the book.

Personally, I never bothered turning my Kobo off after the first week or so that I had it. I didn't see any difference in the life of a charge. The reason that I stopped was exactly the same reason patlag stated, all those opportunities to grab a quick page or two while you're standing in line, waiting for a bus, headed to the washroom or whatever and how they get thwarted by waiting for the device to power up.

My preference would be to see the device go into sleep mode after 15 to 30 minutes of idle time, and then NEVER drop into Power Off mode automatically.

Ideally, it would also be advantageous if the power up time could be cut in half. Something tells me that ~20 seconds to get back into the book from full power down would be tolerable.

RonH · 07-05-2010, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by qwiggles

S
"We found the bug and fixed it" -- what happened to this? If the only way to conserve battery is to force shutdown, how has sleep mode been improved? Also, if there was a bug causing power consumption to not taper off when idling, how has it been addressing if the fix is to keep the device from idling longer than 30 minutes? Sounds like the idling power loss could not be fixed, as advertised, and the solution was to force the thing to shut itself down.

Exactly.

By the way, with respect to battery life, I've been carrying a Palm M500 in my shirt pocket for seven or eight years now, charging it weekly. I don't notice any significantdecline in the lithium battery's performance.

I like everything about the Kobo firmware upgrade except this sleep mode change. I hope the development team will revisit this issue.

Duiker · 07-05-2010, 11:33 AM

I know that Kobo monitors these forums but I think it's important that we let them know how we feel by sending them an e-mail to their help desk. If they base their firmware changes by the feedback that they receive there, as they say they do, then that's the place to go...http://kobo.zendesk.com/anonymous_requests/new

Here's what I said

"Please please diasble the automatic power off in sleep mode. I don't want my kobo reader to power off. I want it to sleep. If I wanted it to power off I'd turn it off."

Pookeysgirl · 07-05-2010, 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duiker

I know that Kobo monitors these forums but I think it's important that we let them know how we feel by sending them an e-mail to their help desk. If they base their firmware changes by the feedback that they receive there, as they say they do, then that's the place to go...http://kobo.zendesk.com/anonymous_requests/new

Here's what I said

"Please please diasble the automatic power off in sleep mode. I don't want my kobo reader to power off. I want it to sleep. If I wanted it to power off I'd turn it off."

Great idea! I just submitted mine, including a request to get my book covers back on the off screen.

Duiker · 07-05-2010, 01:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pookeysgirl

Great idea! I just submitted mine, including a request to get my book covers back on the off screen.

Good one! Now if only I had spelled 'disable' correctly. Ooops.

Pookeysgirl · 07-05-2010, 03:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pookeysgirl

Great idea! I just submitted mine, including a request to get my book covers back on the off screen.

Excatly what I asked them:

Please (begging) remove the auto shutdown! The sleep mode is great but I don't want my ereader to shut off on me when I read sporadically all day long.
Also, I would like to have my book covers back. I don't know why you didn't leave that the way it was in the update. Thank you for considering my suggestions.

And this is the reply I get from George at Kobo:

George, Jul 05 15:22 (EDT):
Hi;

Thank you for you recent inquiry. We hope this helps. Make sure you have done the upgrade when it becaomes available to you.

1. To place the eReader in Sleep mode press the Power button once. This is a great way to conserve battery power. To start reading again press the Power button once

2. Please advise us on what is happening with your book covers?

Pookeysgirl · 07-05-2010, 03:39 PM

I replied again, hopefully making it clear this time that I was just making some suggestions for the next update.

Duiker · 07-05-2010, 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pookeysgirl

I replied again, hopefully making it clear this time that I was just making some suggestions for the next update.

They told me they would forward my feedback on to the appropriate department. I guess it all depends on who gets your e-mail

DKazzed · 07-05-2010, 04:06 PM

Can we go back to the old firmware until the new one comes out? I miss my cover art when powered off. I liked showing the world what I was reading when I wasn't reading.

fred_yu_job · 07-05-2010, 04:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DKazzed

Can we go back to the old firmware until the new one comes out? I miss my cover art when powered off. I liked showing the world what I was reading when I wasn't reading.

I asked the same question in this forum, and one of the suggestion was "go back to paperback books please!"

Pookeysgirl · 07-05-2010, 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fred_yu_job

I asked the same question in this forum, and one of the suggestion was "go back to paperback books please!"

Let it go already.

Tom Bombadil · 07-05-2010, 04:41 PM

I for one like the auto off, however others who apparently used to 'drive-by' reading raised a perfectly fine point. So why not just make something like:

Settings -> General -> Auto off after sleep -> 15 min, 1hr, 3hr, 12hr, Never

It shouldn't be that hard.

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07-04-2010, 04:42 PM	#46
qwiggles Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: Kobo	Sadly, I have to agree with the majority in here that making the Kobo power-off on its own is a very disappointing 'feature' that limits it greatly as an ereader. The language in the OP that shows the Kobo has no plans to change this irritating feature is frustrating: when companies start talking about the importance of managing your battery for you so it'll last longer, you know the battery is a dud and there's no way for them to get around it. The initial announcement of the new firmware seems to not correspond to this change: "3. Battery Life This was a software problem rather than a hardware one. Even when the device is in sleep mode, there is a negligible amount of activity on the device. The bug: in some situations, power consumption wasn’t tapering off as much as it should have when the device went into sleep mode. We found the bug and fixed it, so people should be able to get the 8,000 page turns they were expecting." "We found the bug and fixed it" -- what happened to this? If the only way to conserve battery is to force shutdown, how has sleep mode been improved? Also, if there was a bug causing power consumption to not taper off when idling, how has it been addressing if the fix is to keep the device from idling longer than 30 minutes? Sounds like the idling power loss could not be fixed, as advertised, and the solution was to force the thing to shut itself down.

07-04-2010, 05:15 PM	#47
feedbakbwr Redwood Original Posts: 59 Karma: 93478 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Kingston, Ontario Device: Kobo, Kobo Wifi, Kobo Touch	Perfect thanks.

07-05-2010, 03:05 AM	#48
patlaj Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: Kobo	I posted to the comment thread on the Kobo blog about the upgrade, but that was before I read the Product Manager's explanation for the change here. Update process was smooth, well-documented, and easy. I really like the font resizing and ability to hide the pre-loaded books. Sleep is nice too. But auto-shut-off has frustrated me about 10 times in the last 24 hours. I just got back from overseas, which meant I had about a full day’s worth of travel. Time after time I got my Kobo out to read and had to wait ~47 seconds to power on and get back to my book. It used to be that you could get it out whenever you had a minute or so to read. Now you have to get it out a minute before you want to read so you can turn it on. The funny thing is, I don’t remember anyone recommending turning the Kobo off to save power before. People guessed that even when it’s “on”, it’s not using any power, so no reason to turn it off. I guess that’s not true, but it seems strange that no one from Kobo jumped it to recommend it when people started complaining about battery life. Anyway, I don't care if it's in "sleep", "off" or whatever. I just want it to be quick to go from stuck in my bag to out and me reading. Halving the start time would be a huge improvement - but 23 seconds is still a long way from what used to be instant.

07-05-2010, 09:50 AM	#49
HamsterRage Evangelist Posts: 435 Karma: 24326 Join Date: Jun 2010 Device: Kobo	It's amazing that the ~45 second wait to get from "Off" to reading is so disproportionately annoying, but it is. For me it's 35 seconds to get to the "Home" page, and another 10 seconds to open the book. Personally, I never bothered turning my Kobo off after the first week or so that I had it. I didn't see any difference in the life of a charge. The reason that I stopped was exactly the same reason patlag stated, all those opportunities to grab a quick page or two while you're standing in line, waiting for a bus, headed to the washroom or whatever and how they get thwarted by waiting for the device to power up. My preference would be to see the device go into sleep mode after 15 to 30 minutes of idle time, and then NEVER drop into Power Off mode automatically. Ideally, it would also be advantageous if the power up time could be cut in half. Something tells me that ~20 seconds to get back into the book from full power down would be tolerable.

07-05-2010, 11:33 AM	#51
Duiker Addict Posts: 258 Karma: 30680 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Toronto, Canada Device: Kindle Paperwhite	I know that Kobo monitors these forums but I think it's important that we let them know how we feel by sending them an e-mail to their help desk. If they base their firmware changes by the feedback that they receive there, as they say they do, then that's the place to go...http://kobo.zendesk.com/anonymous_requests/new Here's what I said "Please please diasble the automatic power off in sleep mode. I don't want my kobo reader to power off. I want it to sleep. If I wanted it to power off I'd turn it off."

07-05-2010, 03:39 PM	#55
Pookeysgirl Wizard Posts: 1,705 Karma: 12696746 Join Date: May 2010 Device: K3, Kobo Mini	I replied again, hopefully making it clear this time that I was just making some suggestions for the next update.

07-05-2010, 04:06 PM	#57
DKazzed Enthusiast Posts: 28 Karma: 4210 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Mission, BC Device: Kobo Porcelain	Can we go back to the old firmware until the new one comes out? I miss my cover art when powered off. I liked showing the world what I was reading when I wasn't reading.

07-05-2010, 04:41 PM	#60
Tom Bombadil Member Posts: 17 Karma: 154 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Melbourne, Australia Device: EeePC, nook 3G, kobo1, DSi, DS Lite, Sony PRS-350.	I for one like the auto off, however others who apparently used to 'drive-by' reading raised a perfectly fine point. So why not just make something like: Settings -> General -> Auto off after sleep -> 15 min, 1hr, 3hr, 12hr, Never It shouldn't be that hard.

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