To sleep or not to sleep, to turn off or not... Update-2

AMAZON CUSTOMER SERVICE'S OFFICIAL ADVISORIES ON KINDLE BATTERY MAINTENANCE

This is a popular blog-article which is being highlighted for newcomers and Kindle-blog edition subscribers.  During my vacation I'll be including the more popular tips and guides. Kindle-blog edition subscribers will not have had these on their Kindles before and the subscription (99c per month) allows offline-review of the last 25 blog articles.

10/21/09 - This collection of battery maintenance advisories by Amazon Customer Service applies to the new International Kindle as well.  It was updated when the Kindle DX was released.  How to make best use of the battery, whether to turn the Kindle off or let it just "go to sleep"
-- these are two of the most commonly asked questions on the Amazon forums.

UPDATE 7/13/09 - Originally published 3/19/09 when I began the blog, and updated in June with an additional quote from Amazon customer service representatives.

  I'm updating and moving this article to a current spot because now that the 9.7" Kindle DX is apparently selling too well and interest in the 6" Kindle 2 is higher than before because of the price drop, many on Kindle forums are asking again:
    (1)  whether it's better to let the Kindles "sleep" or shut them off, and
    (2)  whether to charge them regularly or let the batteries drain as with older-type batteries.

The lithium ion/polymer battery for the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX isn't user-replaceable and would have to be sent back to Amazon for any needed replacement.  That replacement, if needed in the first year, would be covered by the 1-yr basic warranty.  This type of battery is expected to last over 2 years, used or not though.  Word was that if a replacement were needed in the 2nd year, the cost would be $59 to send it to Amazon and back.  {The DX battery is essentially the same as the one in the Kindle 2:   a 3.7V Lithium Polymer 1530mAh rating.}

UPDATED PARAGRAPH - 6/14/09:  (Original posting was  3/19/2009 11:01 PM)
Amazon Customer Service representatives posted an "Official Amazon.com Customer Service post" on February 26, 2009

" We learned from the first generation Kindle that changing the battery was rarely needed, so Kindle 2's battery is not user replaceable. The battery is covered under the initial one year warranty as well as the extended warranty offered on Amazon.com.  Once outside the one or two year warranty period you can get it replaced for a $59 fee (plus $8 shipping & handling).  If you encounter any kind of power or charging issues during the life of your Kindle 2, you can contact Kindle Support for assistance. "

 
Kindle owners of any model (basically same type of battery) have worried a bit: 'Should we turn it off when we're not using it?  Is it draining the battery when it's left 'On' in 'sleep' mode?  Should we drain our batteries the way we used to with the old nickel-cadmium ones?"  (No)  but ... will most owners have seen the Amazon Customer Service's ongoing advisories on the Amazon Kindle forums?

The advisories have been very enlightening.  Here are a few written statements of customer service policy and guidance at the Amazon boards that I collected:

1. CHARGING YOUR KINDLE BATTERY
  "With Kindle 2's battery you don't need to fully drain the battery before recharging, or wait until the battery is fully charged to start using it again. The Lithium-ion battery is optimized in such a way that incomplete charging won't affect the battery life.  For example, if you drain the battery halfway two days in a row while fully charging both times at night, this would only count as one charge cycle.  
Leaving Kindle in extreme temperatures, like in your car, will have the most negative impact on the overall life of your battery.

  Leaving wireless turned on or sustained use of the wireless functions will cause the battery to drain faster.  If you would like to turn the wireless off, select menu from the home screen.  Use the five-way controller to select "Wireless Off".  Also, downloading a large number of books at once will cause the device to index new content.  If you have recently transferred or downloaded a large number of books it is recommended that you leave the device turned on and connected to the charger overnight."

2. RECHARGING KINDLE 2's BATTERY
  "With Kindle 2's 25% longer battery life, you can read on a single charge for up to 4 days with wireless on.  Turn wireless off and read for up to 2 weeks.  If you use the wireless feature frequently, we do recommend keeping the battery at 25% at least.  There is no specific need to let the battery drain out before recharging it;  many owners do keep their devices plugged in each night, and this does not have any adverse effect on overall battery life."

3. LAST PAGE READ
  "You do not need to power down Kindle 2 between reading sessions, it is best to leave the device in sleep mode.
  Holding the switch at the top to power the device off is similar to pulling the power cord on your computer without shutting down the Operating System.  If you turn the device off while in the middle of the book, the device cannot save that location.  We save the location when the device goes into sleep mode or when you leave the book, so if you do need to power the device off then be sure to go to the Home screen first - this will save your last place in the book.

4. WIRELESS SIGNAL IN SLEEP MODE
  "Kindle's wireless signal uses low power while in sleep mode so that your subscriptions can download overnight.  If you are in a low coverage area, this could cause the device to use more battery power as it continually tries to maintain a signal.  Unless you are subscribed to periodicals that you want to receive overnight, we recommend turning wireless off  (Press the Menu button and select "Turn Wireless Off" of the menu options) before leaving the device in sleep mode. This will further conserve battery power."

=== END of some of the Customer Service thread topics at the forum ===

The Kindle 2 and Kindle DX are delivered with WIRELESS *On* as a default.  Without reading the manual first, many new owners never guess that wireless should be turned off nor how that would be done in the software menus.  Also, the battery takes a few charges before it reaches maximum power.

The older, nickel-cadmium batteries no longer in vogue used to require full draining, but the lithium ion/polymer based batteries are the opposite.  Forced drainings below 25% can actually weaken it and cause problems if battery power is needed while the Kindle is downloading material or when the unit is busily indexing additional Kindle contents after downloads or when we're using the wireless to browse the Kindle store or the Web.  And now with the Kindle DX's ability to read PDF's, those files will tend to be image-intensive and loading (opening) them will use the battery a bit more.  Amazon's statement was strong about trying to keep the battery power above 25% remaining, for best long-term results.


Current Kindle Models for reference, plus free-ebook search links.
NOTES on newer Kindles.

US: Updated Kindle Fire Basic  7" tablet - $159 Kindle Fire HD 7" 16/32GB - $199/$249 Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 16/32GB - $299/$369 Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 4G 32/64GB - $499/$599 Kindle NoTouch ("Kindle") - $69/$89 Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi - $119/$139 Kindle Paperwhite, 3G - $179/$199 Kindle Keybd 3G - $139/$159, Free but slow web Kindle DX - $379 $299, Free, slow web

UK: Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £69 Kindle Touch WiFi, UK - £109 Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149   Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi - £109 Kindle Paperwhite 3G, UK - £169 Kindle Fire 2, UK -  £129 Kindle Fire HD 7" 16/32GB, UK - £159/199

OTHER International Kindle NoTouch Basic - $89 Kindle Touch WiFi - $139 Kindle Keybd 3G - $189   Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB France Boutique Kindle Deutschland - Kindle Store Italia - Kindle Store Spain - Tienda Kindle

* Kindle Fire HD to be released October 25, 2012 in listed European areas above;
    Paperwhite to be released November 22, 2012 there.


  For daily free ebooks, check the following links:

Temporarily-free books - Non-classics USA: by:    Publication Date      Bestselling   High-ratings UK: PubDate   Popular The Kindle Daily Deal What is 3G? and "WiFi"?       Battery Care Highly-rated under $1,  Newest: $1-$2, $2-$3

Most Popular Free K-Books U.S. & Int'l (NOT UK):    Top 100 free UK-Only:    Top 100 free Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources. USEFUL for your Kindle Keyboard (U.S. only, currently):   99c Notepad 1.1,   99c Calculator,   99c Calendar,   99c Converter

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-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

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(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
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Working with the Kindle 2 and DX Web Browser

The experimental Basic Web browser on the Kindle 2 can be used from almost anywhere a cell phone works and at any time.

Expectations for it should be in line with what you'd expect from any mobile phone except for how much of a web page you can see on the screen (considerably more with the Kindle 2) and no color.  Mobile unit web browsing is best done on sites which make versions for mobile units' small screens.

 With a Kindle, you don't have to hunt for a WiFi hotspot and hope that it's free, because Wireless access is almost always available where there's Sprint cellphone coverage, but it's slower than WiFi, which is slower than your normal cabled Internet experience.

  Most of the steps below (but not the 5-way button portion) work on a Kindle 1 also, though the Kindle 1 is slower in response time and doesn't always finish rendering a page with larger photos.

The key is knowing how to choose between several settings offered by the Home page's Menu option for "Experimental" which gets you to "Basic Web" (which you just click on, as the other options are not available there, only described).
  The Kindle will ask you if you want Wireless 'On' if it's not on already and then you can OK that.

  You are then taken to the Kindle's Bookmarks page with a choice of websites for mobile unit access.  Press the Menu key there and choose Settings.
  These are all toggled options.

  The most used Settings to choose from when browsing would be:
    1. "Switch to Advanced Mode" (if you're in "Basic Mode)
          ("Desktop" mode on DX's)
          or "Switch to "Basic Mode" (if you're in Advanced Mode).
    2. "Enable Javascript"
    3. "Disable Images"

Choosing Modes:
. Basic mode, Disable Images - Fastest.  Use when you just want data quickly and don't want to wait for images to load.
. Basic mode, Enable Images - 2nd fastest.  Best with simpler websites and small photos.

  With Basic mode, article bodies will be in B&W rather than the harder to read gray shades that emulate color gradations.
  You'll need to remember that on pages with columns of links or ads, all of the first column's text will show up first, going down and you have to "Next Page" (or down-arrow) through them before getting to the center column for the article.

. Advanced Mode - Use this when you want to see the full width of a web page and all columns showing.
   The browser will then make the fonts TINY to fit it all in and will emulate colors, giving harder-to-read multi-gray shaded text and sometimes the background may be too dark.
  With some sites, it can be surprisingly readable though some will want a magnifying glass.
  With this mode you won't have to page through several Kindle 'pages' of a website's left column.
  The Kindle often chooses advanced mode, and when I want to read an article in the normal sized font, I'll switch to Basic and do the NextPage thing.

. Advanced Mode, Enable Javascript - the Kindle browser often switches to this when it knows javascript is needed to load the page at all.  This will be the slowest mode.
  Sometimes the javascript is needed just for an ad and you can do without it, and at those points I have sometimes tried "disabling" javascript to speed things up.  But most won't bother as it doesn't make that big a difference.  If javascript is needed but isn't enabled, the page never loads, so I tend to leave it alone.

Other web browser options:
. The browser Menu lets you "Enter URL" to go to a specific page you want.
. You can "Bookmark This Page" if you're on a webpage you want to return to without having to type the URL again.
. There's a (current-session) "History" page so you can jump to a webpage you want to revisit.
. You can "Go to Top" of the webpage.

Moving around the webpage
You can move around the page with the 5-way button, which will take you to areas for input, or links to click on for another web page or web-page area, and allow you to scroll down (instead of having to use 'NextPage' if you're on a long page.
  To get back to the previous "jump" (from a link) press the "Back" key.

. You can generally change the text size but not the line spacing on a web page.
. You can download some files offered, usually "TXT" files and unprotected MOBI, PRC ones.  The Kindle format is AZW, and you can download that and AZW1 files, though I've never seen these offered outside the Amazon store.

See an example of links on a Kindle webpage.   For other webpage examples for both the Kindle 1 and 2, see the screen comparison page that I made for these.

For more information and screen samples, see Section 6.1 "Using Basic Web" in the "Kindle 2 User's Guide, 2nd Edition" -- this is at Location 834,

Caution: Using wireless for browsing will drain the battery faster during a session than reading a Kindle document will.  It'll be a shorter time before you need to recharge.  Here are customer service advisories for how to keep the battery in good shape.

TIP: When sending an email from gmail.com or yahoo.com, you'll get an alert that a connection could not be established with the website's servers.  98% of the time, it's a false error alert.  The email goes through (but typing on this unit is arduous, at best, so I e-mail rarely), and the same thing occurs with posting a reply to a forum.  The reply does go through and is posted despite the alert.  Do log in before posting, though.

The Basic Web browser on the smaller Kindles is extremely handy for quick lookups when away from your home/office computers.  It isn't something you want to do at length, though I was surprised that Wired can come through so well, with good resolution on the photos on the Kindle 2.

FILE DOWNLOAD - BOOKMARKS
You can download a file of bookmarks I collected for mobile-optimized sites, which will load faster.

( If you find blog entries like this one helpful, please check the "Interesting" box so I can get an idea of the level of interest for how-to's for features not often used -- judging from what I read on the forums.  Thanks for taking the tme. )
  7/5/09 - I've eliminated the 'Interesting/Cool' Google widget because it caused the page to take too long to load, but on the Tips/Guides, it did give me good (easy to rate) indication of interest in those. Thanks to those who took the time let me know.

---

Check often:  Latest temporarily free non-classics or late-listed ones.
  Guide to finding Free or Low-Cost Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!