Lacking energy
… and for once I’m not talking about the virus [mine, or that Covid thingy].
I’m talking about batteries which seem to be joining the long list of hardware items that have set out to annoy me.
Last night I went to bed. There’s nothing unusual in that and I have been doing it for most of my life. Having found myself a comfy[ish] spot on the mattress and after kicking Penny onto the other bed I settled down to read myself to sleep. I find a good read last thing focuses the mind on something bland and I can forget my cares and worries before dozing off.
I retrieved my Kindle from under Penny and there was that dreaded symbol – a blank screen with a cartoon of a battery on it. Fuck! The battery was dead. What was even more annoying was that I had charged it only a couple of days ago.
When a Kindle runs out of power it is dead. Unlike a phone or a laptop you can’t just plug it in and start reading. You have to wait until it has a bit of charge in it first and then you can start reading while the rest of the battery fills up. So I had to search around in the darkness for a lead and then plug it in. But the lead was shortish so I had to lie on my other side on a lumpy part of the mattress while it reached that minimum charge.
I have been reading on and off for almost all the last seventy years. I have read tens of thousands of books and never once in all those years did a book run out of power. I could leave a book open for weeks and it always retained its charge. I can’t say the same for a fucking Kindle.
Don’t get me wrong. I like the Kindle, once I got used to it. It does have some irritating habits like opening a book several chapters away from where I left it off, and flicking pages when I accidentally touch the screen but it has two vast advantages over the old papyrus books: it [usually] remembers where I finished reading and also there is the availability of a vast store of books without leaving my bed. There is no sense of panic when I turn the last page and realise I have nothing left to read as I can just download another book.
There is one unusual feature of a Kindle. It has no screws. There is no way of dismantling it or accessing the battery. It is one solid sealed unit with one button and one USB port. This is very frustrating for someone who like to take new purchases asunder and a bit worrying if the battery does fail. I suppose it just means a new Kindle which is a nice marketing ploy?
This morning I went to check my phone for messages. The battery was flat! Herself has been giving out to me that I never check my phone for messages [which is true] so I have taken to actually checking first thing. Most people use their phones for phone calls [surprising?], browsing the Interwebs, taking selfies or texting their mates. My phone is generally used for a different purpose on a very regular basis – as a torch. This is by far the handiest feature but I suppose it does suck the battery a bit?
My Kindle is now charged and my phone is charging.
There were no messages.
We come back because………you have a sense of humour and don’t mind the odd swear word. There are other points of course. We like your forthright approach. You speak or write your mind. Very refreshing in this time of wokery.
There is a lot of talk about this “wokery” thing. What the hell is it? It’s a word that baffles me somewhat. Is it something to do with Snowflakes and Millennials?
I rarely use the flashlight on my phone and ebooks are on my I Pad. Normally I don’t look twice at anything “Apple” but it is a hand me down from my daughter. (Would that make it a hand me up?).
At any rate, the battery is charged every evening as I prefer working puzzles and such on the tablet to anything on tv.
You should move to Linux. There’s a scary number of games, puzzles and the like and all free. Not that I’ve installed any [*cough*].
Yes, batteries are a permanent nuisance. I have an old Kindle, no backlight, switches to turn pages and it runs about 3 weeks between charges even with daily use. My original one eventually broke, the switches wore out, but I snagged another old one from a friend. It’s wonderful, it works when you need it! Every other rechargable item I own is a pain, I have piles of stuff, old phones, two cordless drills, garden tools, Android tablets, Fitbit etc. All of it in perfect condition because I look after stuff, but all are useless because the batteries no longer hold charge and are either impossible or stupidly expensive to replace. And they want me to have a battery car – good luck with that!
I bought a cordless hedge-trimmer. It worked fine for a while but the battery is useless. I now have a mains driven one. In fact all my tools are mains driven. I just don’t trust batteries. And as for a battery car……..!
It is possible to pry open the case and change the batteries, but given the cost pf the batteries, the difficulty in prying open the case verses the price of new kindle, it usually make more sense to buy a new one. All of your previous books will still ne available.
it is bit of the razor and razor blades market. They sell the Kindle at at a low price knowing most people will spend far more on book than they did on the kindle.
They’re right! Mind you, it’s a lot cheaper than hard books and I used to buy quite a few of them.
“There is one unusual feature of a Kindle. It has no screws. There is no way of dismantling it or accessing the battery.”
Many of these apparently ‘sealed’ things are held together by hidden clips along a seam. Be encouraged that if it was able to be put together, there ought to be a way to take it apart! You might find your model somewhere in this results page.
https://www.ifixit.com/Search?query=Kindle
Brilliant! Yup. Found mine [it’s the Kindle Paperwhite]. So yes – it does have a cleverly concealed crack around the edge. I’m always a bit nervous of devices that clip together and am afraid of breaking them when opening. I’ll keep that experiment for emergencies.
I recommend switching off WiFi (flight mode) and only switching it on when needing it for downloads. Your kindle battery will last weeks then.
Naturally I didn’t think of that! The battery had been lasting a good while [several days] and suddenly it’s draining a lot faster. It’s now in flight mode so we’ll see how that works. Thanks for the reminder.
You’re welcome!