Last night I tried to use my Amazon Kindle 2 for the first time in a week or so, but once I took it out of the case in which I keep it, I discovered a dreaded new screen with the bold title: Critical Battery.
None of the buttons worked and the screen said I needed to charge it for a few minutes before I could use it.
As the Kindle only comes with a US mains charger and I'm in the UK, I have been using my iPhone's mains-to-USB adapter to charge it beside the bed.
But because the iPhone requires regular charging, I charge that every night and have neglected the Kindle while I've been reading a few "dead tree" books.
So I tried putting the Kindle on charge for 15 minutes, but that made no difference.
Leaving it to charge overnight, I went back to reading the paperback version of Ernest Hemingway's remarkable A Farewell to Arms.
First thing this morning I discovered that the charging light had gone off sometime overnight (it's supposed to go from amber while charging to green when fully charged).
I did a few online searches and discovered various ways to kick it back to life, but none of them worked.
One of the recommendations was to plug it into an actual computer USB slot, and when I did this the USB drive mode came up straight away.
A few minutes later the screen flashed a few times, I gave it a few more minutes, unplugged it, then followed the instructions for a full reset: hold the power switch for 15 seconds and release, then immediately hold the Home switch for 15 seconds.
Presto fixo! I've since been reading up on why I got such appalling battery life while the Kindle was switched off.
(Manuals, pfft!) Sliding and releasing the power switch only puts the unit into Sleep mode, and it will still connect periodically via 3G to download any subscriptions, update page locations, bookmarks, etc.
To switch the device Off (as in for it not to consume any power), with the device still On you need to slide and hold the power switch until the screen goes blank.
Everything I have read indicates that this will maximise battery life while the device is not in use.
Unless you're one of those people who have daily newspaper subscriptions or have multiple devices that you sync between regularly, who needs to have it synchronising while you're asleep? It will do that anyway once you switch it back on next time, and will take all of about 15 seconds.
Another trick to maximise battery life while you're using the device is to disable the wireless (Menu > Turn Wireless Off).
You can always enable it periodically to do a sync.
This will give you a few weeks battery life when used with other battery-saving settings (small font to minimise page turning, not using the Kindle Store via the device, etc).
I very much like my Kindle 2 and, while it's not perfect, it is another step towards an interesting future for publishing.
None of the buttons worked and the screen said I needed to charge it for a few minutes before I could use it.
As the Kindle only comes with a US mains charger and I'm in the UK, I have been using my iPhone's mains-to-USB adapter to charge it beside the bed.
But because the iPhone requires regular charging, I charge that every night and have neglected the Kindle while I've been reading a few "dead tree" books.
So I tried putting the Kindle on charge for 15 minutes, but that made no difference.
Leaving it to charge overnight, I went back to reading the paperback version of Ernest Hemingway's remarkable A Farewell to Arms.
First thing this morning I discovered that the charging light had gone off sometime overnight (it's supposed to go from amber while charging to green when fully charged).
I did a few online searches and discovered various ways to kick it back to life, but none of them worked.
One of the recommendations was to plug it into an actual computer USB slot, and when I did this the USB drive mode came up straight away.
A few minutes later the screen flashed a few times, I gave it a few more minutes, unplugged it, then followed the instructions for a full reset: hold the power switch for 15 seconds and release, then immediately hold the Home switch for 15 seconds.
Presto fixo! I've since been reading up on why I got such appalling battery life while the Kindle was switched off.
(Manuals, pfft!) Sliding and releasing the power switch only puts the unit into Sleep mode, and it will still connect periodically via 3G to download any subscriptions, update page locations, bookmarks, etc.
To switch the device Off (as in for it not to consume any power), with the device still On you need to slide and hold the power switch until the screen goes blank.
Everything I have read indicates that this will maximise battery life while the device is not in use.
Unless you're one of those people who have daily newspaper subscriptions or have multiple devices that you sync between regularly, who needs to have it synchronising while you're asleep? It will do that anyway once you switch it back on next time, and will take all of about 15 seconds.
Another trick to maximise battery life while you're using the device is to disable the wireless (Menu > Turn Wireless Off).
You can always enable it periodically to do a sync.
This will give you a few weeks battery life when used with other battery-saving settings (small font to minimise page turning, not using the Kindle Store via the device, etc).
I very much like my Kindle 2 and, while it's not perfect, it is another step towards an interesting future for publishing.