Battery Life Update

[scotty1024]

Hmm, they have those hand crank generators for cell phones and iPods....

Of course they look enough like a hand crank bomb detonator you might not get it on a plane.

[vranghel]

Originally Posted by scotty1024

Hmm, they have those hand crank generators for cell phones and iPods....

Of course they look enough like a hand crank bomb detonator you might not get it on a plane.

You can be treated like a terrorist, and prevented from flying, even if you have the wrong BOOK

[tribble]

Originally Posted by vranghel

You can be treated like a terrorist, and prevented from flying, even if you have the wrong BOOK

Damn, this story is soooo nuts, it makes you wonder if some people even think for a splitsecond in their entire life.

[NatCh]

Things were extremely nuts there for several months right after 9/11 -- remember them confiscating eyelash curlers from the stewardesses? Probably because the confiscators had no idea what they were, is my guess -- I mean, what did they think they were going to do with the the things, for cryin' out loud? Pinch someone into submission? Give the pilots a forcible makeover?

[scstraus]

I was pretty much ready to buy one now that it has mobipocket and rss, but this killed it. What's the point with only 5-10 hours of battery life. That's horrible. There are laptops/tablet pc's in that range. The whole point is to be measured in pageflips, not hours. Now I can see if your taking notes or browsing web, but just for reading? That kills the whole purpose of this device. Unfortunate.

[narve]

Originally Posted by scstraus

I was pretty much ready to buy one now that it has mobipocket and rss, but this killed it. What's the point with only 5-10 hours of battery life. That's horrible. There are laptops/tablet pc's in that range. The whole point is to be measured in pageflips, not hours. Now I can see if your taking notes or browsing web, but just for reading? That kills the whole purpose of this device. Unfortunate.

I must disagree, and I think you are slightly misinformed.

For reading the iLiad is excellent (I haven't bought a paper book since I got mine). Reading time is somewhere between 10 and 15 hours, and if you read more than that in a row you need a break anyway This was with the powersaving PDF patch (which is easy to install), for mobipocket files the milage might vary slightly but should still be more than 10 hours. And I expect the powersaving stuff to be added to mobipocket, either by Tao/iRex or by the community.

In fact notetaking is a bigger problem -- for all-day meetings you have to charge it during lunch. Not a big issue, but still annoying, especially if you forget it

I am as annoyed as anyone with the false advertising, but I still love this gadget

[scstraus]

If a device advertises it's battery life in pageturns, then that's what you should get. That's one of the most important points about epaper is that it can display the page without power. It should be a given in an e-ink device. This is one thing I loved about the first palm pilots, that I could carry them for a month and not recharge them.

Already in my laptop bag I have a treo, a PSP, a laptop (which already gets 6 hours of battery life and has real full apps). Why should I pay what is almost the price of a laptop for something that offers nothing above a laptop except a reflective display? I'm carrying the laptop anyway, this really doesn't add much if it needs all the care and maintainence of a laptop. I have enough things to charge that at least provide me with new functionality.

I was hoping for something I could pull out on the flight and stick back in my laptop bag and worry about charging once a month. If I have to maintain it like a laptop (which I'm already carrying), I'll just use the damn laptop. It's already there.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by scstraus

Why should I pay what is almost the price of a laptop for something that offers nothing above a laptop except a reflective display? I'm carrying the laptop anyway, this really doesn't add much if it needs all the care and maintainence of a laptop. I have enough things to charge that at least provide me with new functionality.

Well, if that's the way you feel about it, then I think the answer is that you shouldn't The whole point here is to get folks a solution that works for them. If you already have one, and genuinely don't see an advantage to changing it, then don't change it.

Originally Posted by scstraus

I was hoping for something I could pull out on the flight and stick back in my laptop bag and worry about charging once a month. If I have to maintain it like a laptop (which I'm already carrying), I'll just use the damn laptop. It's already there.

I know you're talking about the iLiad, but let me point out that the Sony Reader does a good deal of what you're looking for. The display is smaller than the iLiad, and you do have to charge it closer to every 3 weeks, rather than 4, but still. I also don't know where you're located, so I don't know how easily accessible the Reader might be for you, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

[vranghel]

Originally Posted by scstraus

Already in my laptop bag I have a treo, a PSP, a laptop (which already gets 6 hours of battery life and has real full apps). Why should I pay what is almost the price of a laptop for something that offers nothing above a laptop except a reflective display?

High end technology comes at a high price
Not only is nobody trying to coerce you into buying one, but also with the help of this forum you get to know all the bad points aswell. The facts are laid out for you, you only need to make the decision.

[TomBolini]

Originally Posted by pdam

Not answering your question ... but over the past 2 weeks I have been in a workshop where I have been constantly reading and annotating documents and using scribble to take notes. The battery from fully charged in the morning 8:30AM has been dead at about 5-6PM, generally with the device switched off for an hour over lunch ... so I've been averaging 7 - 8.5 hrs real world use when using scribble a lot ... it's about 2-3 hrs short for my needs currently (a full working day without having to think about it)

Exactly the same is happening to me, with really intensive scribbling.

[DeGodefroi]

OK, I have my Iliad about 3 weeks now. Great device but battery cannot hold longer then approx 5 hours.
I see some mentions on battery upgrade. How does that work then? Obviously my new iliad still has the old battery.
What is the procedure?

[Drops]

Check the "Business Case" section on the Irex website, the flybook descriptions says "The display can run during long hours of flight over several days on a single charge"

[Ghambit]

This is my first post... great forum you have here btw

Anyways, IMHO the REAL problem with with portable-media devices these days is simply POWER supply. Until we solve this issue, we will never truly get what we want. To me, e-ink was simply a bandaid that created a niche market where one ultimately wont be needed once the underlying issues are resolved. (underlying issue being the power problem)

Now... this being said. There IS a relatively simple thing you can do to increase your usage time: Make your OWN power supply! The ones included in most every device we use these days are substandard, antiquated, and in many ways too "safe" for their own good. Making your own after-market custom power supply grossly enhances the usefulness of small electronics.

For now, Lithium-polymer is the best per-dollar option we have at this time, until more exotic forms like fuel-cell, microfusion, room temp. superconductivity, etc. are realized.

Let's use the Iliad as an example. If I'm not mistaken it uses a standard 3.7Volt lithium-Ion system. If you were to simply replace that with one layer of 3.7V lipolys along the case you could increase the capacitance to about 12000MaH. That's probably 10-times what they give you stock.

This simple addition would cost probably about $100 MAX not including the charger (which runs about $30). It would only add about 6oz. to the weight (maybe even less w/cell protection removed) and 3mm of thickness to the case (again, maybe even less).

Assuming you get 10 hours on 1200maH, obviously 12000mAh gets you 100hours of non-stop use. This is a conservative figure seeing as how these cells recharge somewhat on their own. With e-ink being more "on-demand" power-wise, it's likely 100 hours of use is a very conservative figure.

Let's go further and assume you're enterprising enough to add a small solar-cell to your Iliad's case. Even at minimum a $10 1x2inch 3V 20mA solar cell could keep your Iliad fully charged assuming you use it 4 hours out of every day and it's always in a light-source. Go bigger and obviously things get better.

Anyways, if I had enough dough to purchase an Iliad... this is precisely what I'd do. You could remove the backing and simply add a spacer or 3mm gasket around the edges and install your homemade lipoly battery back neatly inside, obviously with longer screws. My charger would simply be integrated into my A/C powersupply and the solar cell(s) w/voltage regulators would go in the unused "deadspace" on the lower part of the front panel.

If this doesnt appeal to you it's easy enough to simply build a small "power-block" in a similar manner and just plug it into your eReader as an external DC source... just like we do with laptops today. Personally, I'd rather just mod the case the measly extra 3mm.

anyone with me on this?? Heck, apply this same thought to the new Asus "Eee" or that uBid tablet PC and you've got a 15hr computer assuming 5000mAh buys you 5 hrs.

[nekokami]

It's an interesting idea... but even buying my iLiad at half-price, I paid enough for it that I'm not willing to go first in trying an untested mod. If you get hold of a device and can test your idea to see how much battery life you get, do let us know. You might be able to run a brisk trade in aftermarket modifications, for those willing to void their warranties.

[scstraus]

Originally Posted by NatCh

I know you're talking about the iLiad, but let me point out that the Sony Reader does a good deal of what you're looking for. The display is smaller than the iLiad, and you do have to charge it closer to every 3 weeks, rather than 4, but still. I also don't know where you're located, so I don't know how easily accessible the Reader might be for you, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

The sony reader was close, but in order to justify it, it really has to replace my magazines and my notepad that I take notes on. That's why I was so interested in the iliad in the first place is that it would free up the space in the laptop bag to justify carrying it around. That's why I'm more than a little bummed about it's battery life.

Anyhow, I'm awfully glad there's forums like these to make sure I have the information I need to not shell out $600 on something that doesn't do what I expect it does. Thank you all.

Now back to waiting for someone to answer my call for the perfect e-paper device.