huh... (tech)

[cellio]

1. Google+ won't load on my Android tablet using the default browser. (Also fails in Firefox.) I don't know how to tell them...

2. (What I was actually going to say there:) Apparently the keyboard for my ASUS tablet drains battery way faster than the tablet itself. Not what I expected! If any leeching is happening I thought the keyboard would draw from the tablet, and if there's no leeching, I expected the keyboard to be the less-demanding device. Now I wonder what's really going on. (The two weigh about the same, and I assume battery is a significant part of the weight.)

Comments

[alienor.livejournal.com]

Which tablet do you have? N and I have the TF700 (we share one keyboard but each have a tablet). The keyboard greatly extends the battery life of the tablet (I'm not sure the number of hours, but tablet + keyboard can run for a week before needing to be charged, but tablet only is a day or two, depending on use).

I'm wondering if you have a defective device.

[cellio]

I have the Infinity. The tablet seems to do well on power use; the keyboard itself drained (or rather, its indicator got low; I didn't run it completely out) much faster than I expected this weekend. We were out of town for a family visit and I had longer-than-usual sessions with the keyboard; at one point the tablet was down to about 80% but the keyboard was reporting 25%. Since I'd charged them together I was surprised. I'll be paying more attention now; since I don't always use the keyboard it isn't as easy to notice casually.

I guess I could have a defective keyboard. Or maybe it was a fluke. More observation is called for.

Thanks for the data points!

[hlinspjalda.livejournal.com]

I have a similar problem with G+ inside a browser on the tablet. (I use Opera.) Even though I'm signed into Google it doesn't recognize the fact, and it's enormously slow and clunky.

I use the G+ app instead, and that works fairly well. However, I don't know that the app is susceptible to any kind of presentational tweakage, so that might not be even remotely useful for your needs.

[cellio]

Oh that's true; I could install the G+ app on my tablet. I use it on my phone (G+ in a phone-sized browser is a losing proposition) and it's ok. Not great (truncates posts too early and the font's kinda small), but legible. I should check it out on a tablet.

I was just startled that Google's site wasn't working in Google's browser on Google's OS. :-)

[cayeux.livejournal.com]

I have a TF301, and I noticed that the battery drained *differently* after the last Android update. I couldn't tell if it's more or less as a total package, but it seemed like the keyboard drained way faster than the tab, whereas before they drained more evenly.

There was a new ASUS firmware update that came out around the first of the month. There's varying reports of it improving/degrading performance and improving/degrading battery life -- maybe that has something to do with it. I only installed that update this evening, so I can't confirm one way or another.

[cellio]

Oh, that might explain it! I mean, I thought I would have noticed this pattern before now (the tablet is almost a year old), but I use it erratically enough (both "at all" and with/without the keyboard) that I figured I'd just been being dim or something. I got a firmware upgrade about a week ago, and then noticed this behavior while on a family visit with a lot of downtime over the weekend.