Stanza 1.9.1 Problem Report

Mon, 08/17/2009 - 10:47 — Michael Roegner

I've had 1.9.1 for a couple of weeks now, and while the changes (especially the control to extend the time before the dictionary launches) are quite helpful, there are two outstanding issues that I wanted to report.

First, the ability to turn pages by swiping horizontally across the screen appears to have been disabled. I have no idea whether this was intentional, but it has definitely had a negative impact. I read with the iPod in my left hand, and in order to avoid having to reach across the screen to turn the pages by tapping the right side, I set both the left and right touch zones to take a "Page Forward" action. Going backward was covered by a simple finger swipe, which is now inoperable. We've long requested the ability to set the tap zones to top-middle-bottom to address the issue of having to obscure the screen while turning pages (with no success), and now the only workaround we've found has been disabled. Please, help us out here.

Second, since upgrading to 1.9.1, I'm finding that charge life on the iPod Touch seems substantially reduced. I know that this is a difficult item to
measure accurately, so I took the opportunity to test this on two units, side by side. Both were running the latest release of the iPod Touch operating system, and one was running 1.8 of Stanza while the other was running 1.9 of Stanza. The two units had identical libraries loaded as well. The only significant difference between the two units was that one is an 8GB unit (the one still on 1.8), and the other is a 16GB model (running 1.9.1).

What I found was that the unit running 1.9.1 was getting approx. 1/3 less operating time out of a charge than the one on version 1.8 of Stanza. When I upgraded the unit running 1.8 to 1.9.1, suddenly they were lasting almost exactly the same duration - about 1/3 less than on 1.8. I really don't have any way to test this beyond what I've already detailed, but it is something that you probably want to look into. I suspect that some kind of processor-intensive activity has been introduced into 1.9.1 that would account for the change, but I can only speculate.

Stanza Support

Sat, 10/17/2009 - 07:52 — Pete

I concur

I thought this was the case also but ends up it was something else...

Sun, 08/23/2009 - 13:52 — astroman

Michael, your battery test

Michael, your battery test was spot on! As someone who teaches experimental research design for a living, you certainly fulfilled much of what is needed for the scientific method! Good work!

Now, unless some settings were changed in the upgrade (which is possible, as Push Notifications was added and is by default on; plus, there could be greater power consumption in getting wifi signals--I know my IPT does much better under 3.0), Stanza would be implicated on the battery consumption.

If you have recorded the times from your battery comparison, you could now eliminate all OS 3 options that might be responsible (turn wifi off, notifications off, etc.) and try the test again. That would provide another data point.

1/3 less time is HUGE!

I also know what you mean about the page tapping, swiping issue. I miss the jog dial that I had on my SONY Clie... made one-hand ebook reading & page turning a dream! I would like exactly what you're proposing-- a way to tap with the thumb on my left hand to advance pages and the option of a swipe to go back (not needed as often, but helpful to have). Fortunately I have long fingers which lets me wrap around and tap the right side to advance pages.

Tue, 08/18/2009 - 10:35 — support

Changing pages with a

Changing pages with a horizontal swipe is definitely still possible in Stanza 1.9.1. Have you tried this with multiple different books, and is it not working for any of them? Also, if you change the page transition mode in the settings for the app, does that change anything?

Regarding the battery life, we haven't heard any other reports of a change in the battery life. Is it possible you have other different settings on your new device (such as 3G enabled, push notifications, etc)?

Tue, 08/18/2009 - 22:58 — Michael Roegner

Reply to "changing pages with..."

Hi -
You're correct - it is most definitely possible to change pages with a swipe under 1.9.1. Unfortunately, it appears to only be possible to change the page in the "forward" direction at the moment. Perhaps it is because I have both tap zones set for "Next Page", but this is clearly a change in behavior from 1.8 and before. The behavior has been the same on every book I've tried. Try it for yourself - set both left and right tap zone actions to "Next Page" then try to go backwards with a swipe.

OK, it has been a few minutes since I wrote the previous paragraph, and here's what I've discovered. The "horizontal swipe" doesn't seem to be working at all, regardless of the direction of the swipe. What is happening is that the swipe is being interpreted as a tap. The action taken in response to the swipe is that of the tap zone in which the swipe terminates. Try it yourself. Set the left tap zone up as "Previous Page", then try swiping both directions in the left tap zone. You'll get the previous page regardless of the direction of the swipe. If your swipe gets a bit elongated and terminates in the center or right tap zone, you'll get the same response as if you were doing a deliberate tap in whatever zone the swipe ends in. I've verified this on two different iPod Touch 2G devices, each one running the most recent version of the operating system and Stanza 1.9.1, and on several different books. The behavior is consistent in every test case I've tried.

As for the battery life issue, don't worry about it. I'm aware that battery consumption is a highly subjective area, and difficult to diagnose. For what it is worth, these are iPod Touch devices, not iPhones. I don't believe that items such as those you've suggested (3G enabled, push notifications, etc.) would be relevant for the Touch. I noticed a difference, set up an ad-hoc test with what I had available, and those were the results I saw. I just brought it to your attention as something you might want to bounce off the developers. The Swipe issue is clearly a much more critical issue in the short term.

Michael