1. rkennedy01's Avatar
    I've noticed that when I put my PB into "standby" mode, the wifi sharing is still enabled, as is bluetooth.

    For example, I'm looking at my "suspended" playbook sitting next to my laptop. The screen is dark (courtesy of the power button), however, I can still browse its network share from my laptop.

    Likewise, if I'm listening to music via my bluetooth headphones, and I hit the power button (to put it into "standby" mode), the music keeps playing.

    Is this by design? And could this be the reason why some have complained about the PB not holding its charge when "suspended?" Essentially, the PB never really goes to "sleep" (unless, of course, you power it down completely).

    FYI, I had a Galaxy Tab 10.1 for a while, however, I never bothered testing whether it behaved similarly. But I don't think that it remained "awake" even while supposedly "suspended" via the power button.

    Note: I'm not saying this is a bad thing. Sometimes it's nice to be able to upload stuff to my PB without physically activating it (for example, when it's in another room). However, perhaps some sort of option to disable the behavior - and thus preserve more battery when in "standby" mode - would have been a good idea.

    Thoughts? Anecdotes?

    RCK
    01-23-12 05:26 AM
  2. anindoc's Avatar
    I've noticed that when I put my PB into "standby" mode, the wifi sharing is still enabled, as is bluetooth.

    For example, I'm looking at my "suspended" playbook sitting next to my laptop. The screen is dark (courtesy of the power button), however, I can still browse its network share from my laptop.

    Likewise, if I'm listening to music via my bluetooth headphones, and I hit the power button (to put it into "standby" mode), the music keeps playing.

    Is this by design? And could this be the reason why some have complained about the PB not holding its charge when "suspended?" Essentially, the PB never really goes to "sleep" (unless, of course, you power it down completely).

    FYI, I had a Galaxy Tab 10.1 for a while, however, I never bothered testing whether it behaved similarly. But I don't think that it remained "awake" even while supposedly "suspended" via the power button.

    Note: I'm not saying this is a bad thing. Sometimes it's nice to be able to upload stuff to my PB without physically activating it (for example, when it's in another room). However, perhaps some sort of option to disable the behavior - and thus preserve more battery when in "standby" mode - would have been a good idea.

    Thoughts? Anecdotes?

    RCK
    It is by design that the wifi and bluetooth remains on even when the PB is in standby mode. As you pointed out it does provide the option of accessing the PB over wifi to access it contents which is great.

    The way around, if you want to have the wifi and bluetooth off during standby, and thus also conserve a lot more battery power for subsequent use, is to put your PB in AIRPLANE mode just prior to standby.

    Airplane mode will shut off all active connections, yet keep your PB handy for a swipe activation.

    Last edited by anindoc; 01-23-12 at 05:41 AM.
    01-23-12 05:38 AM
  3. rkennedy01's Avatar
    Airplane mode. Good point! I'm going to try this over the next few days and see how much it improves standby "endurance" for my PB.

    However, it's also an extra step that's easy to forget and not at all intuitive for people like me who have been working with Windows-based ACPI suspend/resume for nearly two decades. Perhaps RIM should revise the power management options to include a combined airplane mode/suspend option for users who think in Redmondian terms.

    RCK
    collapsed likes this.
    01-23-12 05:49 AM
  4. peter9477's Avatar
    Actually this is by design, and in a properly working tablet works just fine, with no significant impact on battery life. In fact, the impact is almost not measurable.

    In Standby, the WiFi actually drops into a low power mode of some kind, and wakes up only when required. An app which chooses to can override the regular Standby behaviour and request that networking stay active, but very few do this.

    If all apps are inactive (as happens to most) in Standby, I believe the PlayBook will not initiate WiFi communications, but the hardware does support a Wake-on-LAN capability which lets it wake up to respond to requests, after which it should go back to sleep again.

    It's possible there are bugs which, on some units, prevents this from working properly. On the 8 different PlayBooks I've tested personally, and I believe on most units, this all works quite well, as designed, and Airplane mode is not necessary for saving power in Standby.

    I never turn my WiFi off at night, and generally my PlayBooks use only about 2-3% overnight. If yours doesn't share this behaviour, investigate whether you have something (like a Windows File Explorer window open) which is keeping the network connection active unnecessarily, and shut that down.
    01-23-12 07:45 AM
  5. rotorwrench's Avatar
    I agree with Peter. This morning at 8am, I was at 100%, turned on BT and wifi, put in standby. 3hrs later I'm at 99% and holding. I'm curious, if you want wifi and BT off, with two taps they're off.
    Wifi icon> off BT icon>off.
    01-23-12 12:32 PM
  6. emtunc's Avatar
    This is one of the best features of the PlayBook in my personal opinion. The ability to drag and drop movies to my PlayBook which is in my bag from last night without having to take it out and put it out of standby is just AWESOME!
    peter9477 likes this.
    01-23-12 01:25 PM
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