standby
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How to use StandBy mode on your lock screen in iOS 17
Apple’s new StandBy mode that accompanied iOS 17 lets you use your phone’s lock screen in a number of unique ways. Here’s how to do just that.
Xbox Series X's game resume feature even works after a reboot
Microsoft has been gradually dropping nuggets of information about its next generation Xbox. The first Xbox Series X games will be cross-gen, the console with have a 12 teraflop GPU and -- possibly -- it will rely on one HDMI port instead of two. Now, Microsoft's Larry Hryb has revealed a feature: quick game resume following a reboot.
Pebble update gives smartwatches standby and 'Quiet Time' modes
Following the arrival of the pricey Time Steel, Pebble is updating its line of smartwatches with some handy new features. First, a new Quiet Time mode makes sure you're not disturbed during an important meeting or dinner date. The feature can be toggled on manually, set for a specific time every day, keep the wearable quiet during events in your calendar or used to only allow calls through. Next, a standby mode automatically switches off Bluetooth when the watch is stationary for 30 minutes or more. Pebble says this addition will use 50 percent less power, and when the wearable senses movement, it turns Bluetooth back on. The stand-by mode is currently a beta feature, but with the new firmware update, you're free to take it for a spin. There's also support for French, German and Spanish for Pebble's watches, too.
Linux 3.6 kernel released with 'hybrid sleep' capability, Google's TCP Fast Open extension
The last couple of Linux kernel updates have been a bit of a circus, with Android merging in the 3.3 ring and graphics integration on a (noisy) 3.4 center stage. Version 3.6 of the open source kernel has less flashy, more serene features this time, with hybrid standby, a revised file system and other esoteric networking and architectural features befalling the penguin. That sleep mode, which caches the RAM contents to a disk to prevent data loss, has been available for a while now on Windows and Mac machines and will be especially handy on Linux laptops. The so-called Btrfs file system has also been updated (though is still in a developmental mode) and Google's experimental TCP Fast Open extension has been added, along with additional network drivers, more virtualisation options and additional processor support. Sleepwalk to the source for the complete changelog.
Officers' Quarters: When raiders hold your guild hostage
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available now from No Starch Press. In these lean times, guilds need to put up with quite a bit in order to keep a viable raiding roster. Sometimes officers will overlook repeated absences and put aside some of their policies because benching a player means canceling a raid. This situation tends to spiral, as players figure out that they can flaunt the rules without consequence. Sometimes it even reaches the point that players make demands. I've heard of many such situations, but none as ridiculous as this one. Hi, I raid lead a progression 10 man team, raiding nine hours a week since Cataclysm has been released. So far we are doing quite well for progression, but due to two weeks last month where we had one dps team member quit the game without notice we were left trying to find PuGs. We got so many whispers and in game mail complaining about PuGing that we recruited two dps, a pair of friends. One has become the guild's best dps. Since one of them had only seen the first few bosses, we asked one of our dps if he could sit out for two weeks as a favor to us to let her get some gear and experience. Where we started having problems was when we asked her to sit, with 24 hour notice, out Heroic Halfus and Cho'gall in the second week so the other player could get a chance at his Tier shoulders and chest upgrade since he was the only one who could use them if they dropped. Her friend was not happy that she was sitting out and argued she could use the loot from those two bosses, too.
Officers' Quarters: Wait-listing is the hardest part
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available now from No Starch Press. As interest in WoW declines and guilds finds themselves once again facing six months or more of raiding the same content, player retention is going to become a huge issue for officers. For raiding guilds, the hardest players to retain are those on the fringes of your team, the extra three to five people who are most often asked to sit out and be "waitlisted" or put on "standby." These terms are really just euphemisms for the same thing: sitting on the bench. This week, one officer asks how to keep these players from moving on to other guilds. Hi Scott, I'm an officer in a well established 25 man guild. Throughout the 2+ years we've been raiding, we've always had issues with recruiting beyond that 25th player. Whenever we pick someone up, it always seems that someone else drops out, and we're back to relying on every last player in our raid to show up, or else we're running with a man down or scrambling to get a new recruit or a casual guild member in. There have been several times where we did have 29 or 30 people online for raid nights, usually after another guild has collapsed and we pick up a few extra recruits at the same time. However, it always seems to never last.
iPad class action lawsuit heats up
I guess when you're the big guy in town, everybody paints a target on your back. First, Apple and AT&T were sued for the data plan change on the iPad, and now another class action lawsuit about the iPad is underway in California, claiming that the tablet overheats way too quickly when held or placed in warm sunlight. The lawsuit alleges that the iPad "does not live up to the reasonable consumer's expectations created by Apple," and that it "turns off, sometimes after just a few minutes of use," when used in bright sunlight. The suit, filed in Oakland, seeks "unspecified damages," and as far as I can tell, it's still in the earliest preliminary stages. All of Apple's devices tend to overheat to a certain extent when used to their full potential, and anyone who's left an iPhone or an iPod in a hot car knows that there's a limit on what these things can take. But at the same time, even when I've had my iPhone overheat on me, it usually just takes a few minutes of sleep or standby to bring it back to normal -- hardly an inconvenience worth suing over. We'll have to wait and see what happens with this one.
Officers' Quarters: The standby experience
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership."You're on standby tonight." No one wants to hear these words when a raid is forming. It's aggravating, frustrating, and downright depressing sometimes. This week's e-mail comes from a player who's had it with being on standby. I will talk about what she can do to help herself, why raid leaders do this to you, and how the standby system can work better for everyone involved. Hey Scott! I've been reading your column for a few months now and I particularly enjoy it. However, I thought I'd never find myself writing to it. I'm in a bit of a conundrum. You see, my guild of which I was a member of for quite a few months and enjoyed hanging out with and raiding with broke up. Those of us who were still around joined a good raiding guild on the server. I've seen the leaders and the officers in action and I'm impressed. The guild is fairly large and compared to my last guild, foreign. My previous guild was very friendly and explained things to me. I'm fairly new to this game and especially raiding (I raided Karazhan only a few times as compared to some people's many, many, many times.), but I pick up on things quickly and try to be as useful and helpful as I can. At the moment, there are more than 25 people signed up to raid and the leaders pick who gets to go and who sits on standby. They also use a DKP system, which I am fine with. My problem is with the standby system.
Integrated circuits with no standby power could be in use by year's end
There's certainly no shortage of companies working to make electronics of all sorts more energy efficient, but NEC and Rohm Co now say that they're on the verge of a breakthrough that could change things in a big way, and we could possibly see it in "practical use" by the end of this year. As Tech-On! reports, both companies are hard at work on integrated circuits that consume no power at all when they're in standby mode, and turn themselves on only when power is needed. That's apparently possible by making the entire chip nonvolatile, as opposed to many current chips that only use nonvolatile merged memory. According to NEC, that'll let them "cut dissipation for digital consumer electronics in the standby mode to just a few percent of what it is now," and at no expense of convenience. While NEC isn't making any promises for the near future just yet, Rohm says that it'll begin shipping its first custom ICs in the second half of this year, and that the first products using them could start showing up by the end of 2009.
Eizo's FlexScan EV2023W / EV2303W LCD monitors turn off when humans are away
Not that we haven't seen LCD monitors get less demanding when it comes to energy, but we've yet to see a company take eco-friendliness this far. Professional LCD maker Eizo has just announced a new pair of panels (the 20-inch FlexScan EV2023W-H and the 23-inch EV2303W-T) that boast a "human presence sensor." As the phrase implies, these displays are designed to shift to power saving mode when it realizes that its master has vacated the area, and when they return, it automatically flips back on in order to keep from being bashed by one of many USB-connected peripherals. Unfortunately, it seems the human detection timer can't be changed from 40 seconds, and no, there are no current plans to implement a robot presence sensor once the Apocalypse is realized.[Via FarEastGizmos]
Sky software update brings along automatic standby feature
In an effort to lower subscriber energy bills as well as throw Mother Earth a bone, Sky is reportedly rolling out a software update to its set-top-boxes that will enable an automatic standby feature. In short, the update will force boxes that go unused for four hours during the day into standby, and that grace period gets cut in half (to two hours, for the mathematically challenged) at night. The update will supposedly hit all nine million or so Sky boxes by July, and the company estimates that the move will reduce its carbon footprint by around 90,000 tonnes each year. A little standby goes a long way, huh?[Thanks, Martin]
Sony's BRAVIA VE5 series brings zero-watt standy, HCFL backlighting
During the run-up to CES, we heard through the grapevine that eco-friendly and well-connected HDTVs were going to be all the rage in early January, and so far, those premonitions are spot on. Sony's new BRAVIA VE5 line sucks down around 40% less power than many of the company's other LCD HDTV models, and there are two main developments to thank. First, the 52-inch KDL-52VE5, the 46-inch KDL-46VE5 and the 40-inch KDL-40VE5 all tout a zero-watt standby switch, which -- when flipped on -- cuts power usage to "nearly zero watts." Additionally, this Energy Star 3.0-compliant trifecta is the first from Sony to sport the micro-tubular Hot Cathode Fluorescent Lamp (HFCL), and as if that wasn't enough, there's even a motion sensor that can turn the set off if no action is sensed and a ambient light sensor for good measure. All greenness aside, each of the three also boasts Motionflow 120Hz technology, a USB port for loading up digital media files, the BRAVIA Engine 2, BRAVIA Sync, four HDMI inputs and 24- True Cinema. Check 'em this summer for currently undisclosed prices; full release is after the break.
Spanish entrepreneurs aim to kill standby power drain, get gold star from Mother Earth
The amount of power consumed from appliances and such left in standby mode is certainly up for debate, but what's not is the fact that they'd all be better off, um, off. That's according to Spanish inventors who have developed a technology to automatically detect when gadgets fall into standby mode and then shut 'em off completely; the best (read: differentiating) part, however, is that devices won't have to go through their boot-up sequence again after rising from the grave. Of course, this technology is worthless with devices such as security systems and DVRs, which obviously require at least some power at all times in order to effectively answer the call of duty. Still, the elaborately named Good for You, Good for the Planet is hoping to get its tech into power strips and individual gizmos soon, with one hotel chain in Spain already testing a prototype. Here's hoping these thoughtful entrepreneurs aren't squeezed to death by all of the collective hugging from trees that's surely going down.[Via WalletPop, image courtesy of GavinBell]
I-Coloured Mobile's ZJ268 offers 666 days of wicked standby
Ugh, what have we started? After showing you that Chinese cellphone with a reported 1-year standby, Solomobi returns with yet another dubious discovery from China. How does 666 days of standby tickle your noxious, soul eating fancy? This dual-SIM, GSM900 / DCS1800 candybar with 3.0-inch display is said to achieve that milestone with the help of a 32,800mAh "super battery." Yours now for $128 and the blood of one fetal goat. We've got the phone on order and will get back to you in 616 665 666 two years with the results... right. Picture of the 87 x 51 x 10-mm / 0.12-kg lithium battery and the devil's own credit card after the break.[Via Mobile Bulgaria, thanks Georgi]
Chinese LionKing800 cellphone claims 1-year standby
We have no way to confirm the claim, nevertheless the LionKing800 boasts a remarkable 365 days standby or 3-5 days talk. The source of that power is a 16,800mAh lithium battery -- that's about 10x the juice of a standard cellphone battery. Take that Philips! As to the rest of the specs, the GSM900 / DCS1800 dual-SIM phone costs $145 and packs a 3.5-inch, 320 x 240 pixel display, 256MB of microSD memory, Bluetooth 2.0, and a pair of rear and front-facing cameras into a 120 x 65 x 20-mm, N95ish shell. Picture of the battery after the break. [Via Mobile Bulgaria, thanks Georgi]
Ask WoW Insider: How do I get off standby?
Welcome to today's edition of Ask WoW Insider, in which we publish your questions for dissection by the peanut gallery -- now with extra snark and commentary by one of our writers. This week, reader CS writes:A number of months ago the old guild I had been in for nearly 2 years broke up due to varies reasons so I found a new raiding guild.They are decent raiders, not the top raiding guild but a strong one still and our raid leader is good but I find myself on standby alot still.If the reason is because of my lack of experience with high end raiding or something else ok but how can I fix the problem if they wont tell me that there is a problem?It's because when you sign up for a raid, you're forgetting to give the raid leader a little baksheesh, Seriously, the only solution is to attack the problem head-on and talk to raid leader. I was all set to talk out my butt offer some kind advice, but I remembered this question sounded familiar so I'll be lazy and point you to this write up in our raiding column, Ready Check. Marcie has answered the question better than I could.How about you, oh others left on standby -- how have you gotten off the kids table?Got questions? Don't wait! Send them to us at ask AT wowinsider DOT com and your query could be up in lights here next week.
Wii Warm Up: USB me
Aside from charging a Wiimote dock or utilization the limited keyboard support, you might not think the USB ports on the back of that sexy Wii of yours are useful in regards to much else. In this day and age, lots of things can charge or run on USB. Heck, we know we charge our cell phone on USB more often than whipping out the AC adapter and plugging it into an outlet. Considering that, we wanted to know how you're making use of the Wii's USB ports. If you leave your console in standby, you can charge this or that through your Wii. So, how do you make use of the USB ports?
Nintendo UK rep responds to rumors of WiiConnect24 damaging consoles
It only took a couple of days before Nintendo was ready to respond to reports of WiiConnect24 damaging consoles. The response, which comes from a nameless UK source, states "we've had no reports in the UK of anything like this happening." Yes, but what about gamers in the other territories that are reporting issues?Now, you guys know we're incredibly paranoid about our Wii, treating it as the beautiful piece of technology it is. But, surely many of you have been using the service with no problems whatsoever? Maybe some of you have developed problems? For us, we're just going to play it safe because, really, the service hasn't done that much for us, anyway.
Is WiiConnect24 damaging your system?
Apparently, many a gamer are stating that leaving their Wii console connected to Nintendo's WiiConnect24 service is damaging the system. Now, we aren't ones to say "we told you so," but ... we told you so. Perhaps our Wii is still very much alive and kicking because of our paranoia? Or maybe these folks just had bad consoles to begin with? Whatever it is, the ones reporting these issues of damaged pixels showing up on their TV (due to overheated GPUs) all have one thing in common: leaving the console in Standby mode.Are any of you having issues?[Via VG Chartz]
First batch of Toshiba G900s plagued with issues?
As smartphones become ever more complex and powerful, simple math dictates that the incidence of severe software issues is going to go up. Sad as it is, that's to be expected, and we can't really recall the last time we extensively used a smartphone -- regardless of brand or platform -- that didn't exhibit some bugs. That being said, when a phone won't frickin' come out of standby, you'd think they'd be able to catch that before shipping. Many owners of Toshiba's ultra-powerful G900 Windows Mobile 6 Professional handset seem to be reporting a hodgepodge of problems that are necessitating returns, chief among them being that once the phone goes to sleep, it doesn't want to wake up until a reset is performed. Toshiba's apparently promising a fix in the next few weeks, but for folks trying to make this beauty their primary mobile, that's little consolation for the moment.[Thanks, Gudmundur]
