My T-Mobile Dash Windows Mobile 6 Smartphone has a pretty decent battery. Up until recently it would generally have a 50 to 60% charge after being on for 12 hours or so (I turn it off at nights). My phone usage (voice and data) is pretty consistent on a day to day basis. Recently, however, it has been dipping down to the 30% range. One of my first clues was that the charge would be under 90% by the time I reached my office in the morning. So, what had changed on my phone in the past month or so? Gmail IMAP. I started using it on my phone when it became available at the end of October. Gmail’s IMAP4 server is incredibly slow. You can see how slow it is on a desktop mail client if you use other IMAP4 services. The web hosting service for MobileViews.com, for example, provides IMAP4 mail service too. It works pretty quickly with Thunderbird in terms of updating the mail list and opening mail to read. Google’s IMAP4, in contrast, is glacial. It takes forever to update a list or open a single piece of email. So, I changed WiMo’s messaging settings from checking Gmail once an hour to once every four hours. I manually had messaging check gmail about once or twice in between. So, mail was checked about once every 2 hours instead of once an hour: A 50% reduction for that event. My battery life improved a bit after that. It moved up to between 40 an 45%. I changed Gmail’s messaging setting so it only auto-checks the Gmail IMAP4 server once a day. Over the past couple of days, my battery charge at the end of day has been between 55 and 65%. Much better. I should probably set WiMo messaging to check Gmail several times a day again and confirm that this is what caused the battery drain I saw.
Day: November 19, 2007
-
Amazon’s Kindle ebook Reader: Does it Hit or Miss the Mark?
The Amazon Kindle ebook looks like a great device for reading digital books. However, at $399 (US) it has a pretty high price point. My original opinion was that this relatively high price point would kill it as a product. Then, I started reading Kindle’s product description and read this:
Whispernet utilizes Amazon’s optimized technology plus Sprint’s national high-speed (EVDO) data network to enable you to wirelessly search, discover, download, and read content on the go.
Unlike WiFi, you don’t have to find a hotspot. Amazon pays for Kindle’s wireless connectivity so you will never see a monthly wireless bill for shopping the Kindle Store. There is no wireless setup—you are ready to shop, purchase and read right out of the box.
If I understand this correctly, Kindle has built-in EVDO service from Sprint PCS and does not require payment for this service. This is flat out amazing. It also has some kind of email facility since the description also mentions the ability to Email your Word documents and pictures (.JPG, .GIF, .BMP, .PNG) to Kindle for easy on-the-go viewing. This has a cost associated with it though. In fact, even reading the custom blog RSS feeds has a recurring cost. But, I guess that is the way Amazon reimburses Sprint for the EVDO bandwidth.
While it is not a PDA, the Kindle and the other cool non-PDA (the iPod touch) is definitely going to make life very difficult for the Windows Mobile crowd. While carrying multiple devices is not desirable for most people and the Kindle’s $399 is a bit too high for mass consumption, I can see how people might carry an iPod touch (or iPhone), a Kindle, and a dumb but reliable basic function phone (voice and SMS).Then again, I thought the original iPod was way too expensive when it first came out too.