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by rahimnathwani 898 days ago
The device is running an Android app, rather than an OS and app optimized for an always-on device.

I wonder whether the power consumption is much lower than that of a regular tablet?
2 comments
edent 898 days ago
The device is an eReader. The majority of battery power on tablets goes to keeping the screen on and updating it 60 times per-second.

The eInk screen is low power to change, and requires zero power to stay on.

The device sleeps between screen refreshes, and the WiFi power use in minimal.

My nook art screen lasts over a week with refreshes over the day. I don't know of a tablet which has a screen-on time for that long.

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/09/turning-an-eink-screen-into...

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rahimnathwani 897 days ago
Awesome. I now see that the app's Play store listing explains this:

  When started, Electric Sign will download and display a user-specified web page, then go to sleep for a specified number of (minutes/hours/days). It will then wake up, re-download and refresh the web page, and go back to sleep again.
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FirmwareBurner 898 days ago
Come on, Isn't Android, the mobile OS, optimized for always on devices?
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rahimnathwani 898 days ago
I guess, but perhaps having an app in the foreground increases power usage? For example, if this app accesses the network a lot (not just when it's time to update the image) this would result in the wifi chipset being awake for longer.
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