Battery concerns / conservation question
 

I'm giving the N810 I'm having a chance and am trying out some things with it and so far I must say I'm as in love with this device as one can be without breaking some state-laws..

One thing that I would want to get some input on is the battery life/consumption I'm experiencing.

Ex: Last night I had the battery at about 90% when I went to sleep.
Seven hour later, when I woke up, it was at 5% and when using it for 10-15 mins I get a battery/charge warning and the device shut down 10 secs later.

What I had running: Gmail notifier (set to check every 30 mins), Weather forecast applet, RSS reader applet, Mauku was running (icon shown in the left hand side), Skype was also running (icon in left side), I had an active WiFi connection but no BlueTooth - I also noticed that the GPS icon was showing in the top and seemed active.

So, reading some threads here on the forums it seems like this might all be explained by the apps I had running (or am I wrong?).

I really like having things like gmail notifier, mauku, rss reader, weather reader active - but do I have to close them all every time I go to sleep/don't intend to use the tablet for some time?

Is there a mode that "disables them" but keeps them on my tablet and hence preserves my battery (but allows for the alarm clock to still work)?

I guess the question is,
a) Does my apps listed above fully explain the battery drain, and
b) how do you guys 'turn the device off' in the evening and/or when you don't intend to use it for a couple of hours?

Re: Battery concerns / conservation question
 

I leave mine running when I'm not doing anything. However, I don't leave apps running without it at least plugged in. Especially anything that uses hardware such as the GPS or leaves the screen on. The NITS are designed to run for up to 10 days on standby with the screen off, so if you're running short on power, it's likely from the wifi, since you had gmail notifier and all those other web apps on, which would have at the very least ate your battery from being on.

My suggestion is that if you're gonna have all those on, you need to set them to either only run when the wifi is on, or set the wifi to auto timeout after 5-10 minutes. When I'm traveling, the wifi is on for as little time as possible. If an app needs the internet for something, then tough beens. It has to wait until I connect again.

On a side note, as for the stuff in your sig about "want to get" for the case, get the HP Jornada case from Overstock. It's just $5 and it fits the nit like a glove.

Re: Battery concerns / conservation question
 

Oh, is there a way to setup all applets (RSS, Weather, etc) to only be active if there is a WiFi connection?

I'll look at setting the WiFi to time-out after 10 mins as well if that is such a battery drain.

Re: Battery concerns / conservation question
 

I don't understand this part of your question. Closing an application does not remove it from the tablet. You simply need to start the program again the next time you want to use it.

I leave Gmail notifier and WiFi running continously, but exit other application when I am not actively using them. I always connect the table to AC power at night to be assured the battery is fully charged the next morning.

Re: Battery concerns / conservation question
 

GPS can drain batteries quite quickly in my experience. Also, applets that are constantly active (for example if the reader constantly scrolls of fetches content). Note about rss - appLICATION or appLET ? Skype is also a hog, but to a lesser extent.

I just enable offline (a.k.a. flight) mode. That usually is enough for the usual suspects to refrain from causing trouble and in my case I loose less than 10% of battery through the night.

Likely, yes. It's a good idea to install a CPU load applet at least while you're 'new' to the device to get a feel what uses battery and what doesn't.

Re: Battery concerns / conservation question
 

The quality of your WLAN access point heavily influences the N810 battery drain. For example, I noticed that my new Zyxel ADSL+WLAN box caused the N810 to drain its battery in a matter of hours. The tablet was warm to touch the whole time. On the other hand, an old WRT54GS v1.1 allows the N810 to remain in standby for days, even with IM presence set to "online" for most of the time.

Re: Battery concerns / conservation question
 

My comment was on Lord's statement "you need to set them to either only run when the wifi is on, or set the wifi to auto timeout after 5-10 minutes."

The way I understand it is that applications can be run in two ways on the tablet;
a) As an applet that runs on your homescreen (example: RSS reader), and
b) As an application that can be 'minimized' to the left side of the screen as an icon, showing that it's still active (example: Mauku).

I understand that closing an application doesn't remove it from the tablet - my question was if there was a way to make applets/applications dependent on a wifi connection for them to start running.

Re: Battery concerns / conservation question
 

I use the Applet that continously scrolls.
If that is an issue..how does people use that, or similar applets then? Do you go to the menu and de-activate the applet on your home page every time you go to bed? :)


Thanks, I'm going to try the 'flight mode' tonight and see how much it drains over night.

Re: Battery concerns / conservation question
 

Lucky for me we got the WRT54G :)

Re: Battery concerns / conservation question
 

Can't you just turn the internet tablet off at night? I always turn my tablet off and put it on the charger every night.