[FoxInSocks]

I searched bit couldn't find details on this so wanted to get feedback from all those with the Planet. How long does it take for your tablet to charge? My battery was drained and I charged it for 4.5 hours and it was only half-charged (51%). Is this within normal parameters? I already exchanged this once due to screen problems and wonder if this one needs to go back, too? Thanks for the help!

[nvrpayretail]

FoxInSocks, on 25 June 2011 - 04:13 PM, said:

I searched bit couldn't find details on this so wanted to get feedback from all those with the Planet. How long does it take for your tablet to charge? My battery was drained and I charged it for 4.5 hours and it was only half-charged (51%). Is this within normal parameters? I already exchanged this once due to screen problems and wonder if this one needs to go back, too? Thanks for the help!

Mine seems to take forever to charge. I haven't timed it, but it's definitely much slower to charge than my WPDN.

[greenlaptops]

FoxInSocks, on 25 June 2011 - 04:13 PM, said:

I searched bit couldn't find details on this so wanted to get feedback from all those with the Planet. How long does it take for your tablet to charge? My battery was drained and I charged it for 4.5 hours and it was only half-charged (51%). Is this within normal parameters? I already exchanged this once due to screen problems and wonder if this one needs to go back, too? Thanks for the help!

Mine requires overnight charging as well. I am going to try after today's updated FW if any thing changes.

[iyccyi]

Yeah, I was pretty frustrated with the charging time till I realized that the charge time indicator can't be trusted. I also got the ~51% charged after charging for four hours, but if you unplug the device and plug it back in, it will give you a vastly different number. However, I believe that it might be that the Planet needs to "learn" the charging time of its battery (that was the case with HTC Kaiser when android was first being ported over). I would let it charge overnight a few times and see if it will become more accurate.

[FoxInSocks]

Thank you, all, for the responses. I will also call Pandigital and see what they have to say, but I did notice yesterday that when I unplugged the tablet it suddenly jumped to 100%. Since I love this thing so, I dont want to find the battery is dead within a year. :-)

[revrend2008]

I don't know if I got an odd one or not, but mine charges very fast, it takes just under 2 hours for a full charge from about 15-20%.

[fewt]

I've been playing around with it most of the day today, and interestingly a little while ago it jumped from 16% to 29% which tells me that it probably needs to be cycled (100% charge / 100% drain 3 times). I'll do that over the next few days and then see how battery life holds up afterwards.

This post has been edited by fewt: 26 June 2011 - 06:57 PM

[mav1978]

fewt, on 26 June 2011 - 06:46 PM, said:

I've been playing around with it most of the day today, and interestingly a little while ago it jumped from 16% to 29% which tells me that it probably needs to be cycled (100% charge / 100% drain 3 times). I'll do that over the next few days and then see how battery life holds up afterwards.

Any update on the battery life? I returned my WPDN to Kohl's and got the Planet. So far I like it but I can not get a full charge on it and it seems to drain quicker than my WPDN.

[FoxInSocks]

I wrote to Pandigital tech support and was told to call for assistance with this question. Unfortunately, I have not been patient enough to wait more than 15 minutes, so I still don't have an answer. The charge time on my stock tablet still seems long especially given how relatively short the battery life is. Between that and the fact that mine lately is very slow (more than 4 seconds sometimes) to respond when I tap the applications button, sometimes only showing a grey screen, I'm tempted to try and exchange it if I can. I do love it, mostly. :-) I will certainly update here when I get thru to tech support.

[nvrpayretail]

FoxInSocks: I doubt that changing it would do any good. PD really messed up by only putting 256M in this thing. If you check you'll probably find that memory is very low when it slows down. Frequently killing non-essential tasks and not having too many apps running concurrently improves performance significantly. As others have suggested, try using one of the auto kill apps to minimize the load on your PDP. You might also want to add something like the Advanced Task Killer widget on your home screen so that you can run it on demand to free up memory.

[redwizard6]

I've been using Task Killer Pro from the MArket and it seems to be working well so far.

[FoxInSocks]

Thank you for the tips, redwizard6 and nvrpayretail. I'll try the task killer to help with the sluggish nature. Still haven't gotten thru to Pandigital support with my question.

[Spz0]

If you remove all the bloatware from the system, it will naturally run 100% faster without the need for autokiller apps. Android 2.2 OS has an amazing memory management system, and shouldnt need any autokillers, provided the system is free of bloatware.

Some examples of bloatware found on the PDP are:
Planet MyBooks Widget (EverywhereMyBooks-release-Planet-201106021833.apk)
Planet InTouch (EverywareInTouch-release-Planet-201106021833.apk)
Facebook (Facebook.apk)
Google Car (CarHomeGoogle.apk CarHomeLauncher.apk)
Twitter (Twitter.apk)
FW Update (Update.apk)
SlideME App Market (2704SAM41_pandigital22_signed110427.apk)

These are mostly active in RAM even if they have not been launched, and take up a considerable amount of RAM.

Im also going to be working on a battery calibration utility. I have updated my framework and replaced my battery notification with an actual % readout, and I've been noticing the battery readout is not accurate at all.
I'll keep you all posted.

This post has been edited by Spz0: 09 July 2011 - 10:12 AM

[FoxInSocks]

Spz0, on 09 July 2011 - 10:09 AM, said:

If you remove all the bloatware from the system, it will naturally run 100% faster without the need for autokiller apps. Android 2.2 OS has an amazing memory management system, and shouldnt need any autokillers, provided the system is free of bloatware.

Some examples of bloatware found on the PDP are:
Planet MyBooks Widget (EverywhereMyBooks-release-Planet-201106021833.apk)
Planet InTouch (EverywareInTouch-release-Planet-201106021833.apk)
Facebook (Facebook.apk)
Google Car (CarHomeGoogle.apk CarHomeLauncher.apk)
Twitter (Twitter.apk)
FW Update (Update.apk)
SlideME App Market (2704SAM41_pandigital22_signed110427.apk)

These are mostly active in RAM even if they have not been launched, and take up a considerable amount of RAM.

Spz0,
Is it a simple matter of going into the Applications menu under Settings and shutting down the applications that appear in the Running Services list? Or is it necessary to literally remove the applications you've listed? Sorry for the newbie-ish question, I am new to Android, let alone tablets, so I appreciate the help and support 'round here! :-)

[Spz0]

Its a matter of removing them from /system/app/

I believe you can freeze them with titanium backup (*the pro version) as well, but if you arent using your PDP for an Ereader, you might as well delete them (the Mybooks and intouch apps, that is). Even still, Im sure there are way better apps out there for reading PDF's that take up less RAM.
As for the rest (twitter, FB, , google Car, etc...) You're better off downloading them from the Market if you use them, to ensure the latest versions.
As for SlideME app, you definitely do not need it if you have google market installed.
The fw update app? Well, if you dont mind manually installing firmware updates, then delete this one as well -- it just sits in RAM and idles.

And as always:
Remember to back them up first before deleting them.

There is something else you can do to speed up the UI, and that is installing a different Launcher. I recommend ADW-EX Launcher. It has the best of speed and shiny effects out of all the launchers on the market. If you really want to streamline the UI, you can download Zeam Launcher -- thats made by my fellow cats @ xda-developers, and is a real trimmed down launcher that runs super fast.

On my OpenZio ROM (my custom ROM for my smartphone), I worked with GoJimi to port a version of VTL Launcher for the Zio. Im trying to get a version lined up for the PDP, as his stock tablet version causes FC's.

I'll keep u all informed.

Cheers.