Kindle Touch (no 3G) - Wi-Fi always turning on!

[Bibliophile]

Hello,

I recently upgraded my K2 for a Kindle Touch (no 3G) with ads.  So far, I'm really liking it, but I've noticed that the Wi-Fi keeps coming on when the device wants to show ads.  Earlier today, while organizing and rearranging my library, I had to turn off Wi-Fi at least five separate times!  Is this supposed to happen?  Is there a way to tell the Kindle Touch that I *really* want Wi-Fi off and want it to stay that way until I say otherwise?  My fear is that I'll miss noticing the Wi-Fi icon at the top of the device, and burn through a charge more rapidly than expected - leaving me without reading material.  I travel internationally a bit, and would hate to wind up on a long flight with a low charge...

Thanks,

Marc

[Kathy]

Mine has never done that. I just turned it on a second ago to check and it isn't on. The ads are also changing with it off so I guess they downloaded when I had on several days ago. 

[Betsy the Quilter]

Touching the little ad at the bottom of the home screen turns on the wireless to display the ad.  From the home screen, the ads do not display unless you touch the little ad.  So I'm guess that you are inadvertently touching the ad when you are holding the Touch.  The screen is very sensitive, you may not realize you are doing it.

If you are absolutely sure you are not touching it, then there's something wrong with your Kindle, as the ads should not come up when you are looking at the home screen.

I'd give it a few days and try to be really conscious of whether you're touching the little ad.  If you are sure you're not, it's probably time to call Kindle CS (Inside the United States: 1-866-321-8851, Outside the United States: 1-206-266-0927)

Betsy

[Bibliophile]

I just tried a sanity-check.  I went from having Wi-Fi turned off, clicked the ad at the bottom of the main screen, and Wi-Fi automatically turned itself on.  I wonder if, in the rearranging process, I got ahead of the device and clicked where an ad was going to appear...  I'm going to contact Amazon Kindle support and find out if this is intended behavior (either purposely or accidentally click on an ad, Wi-Fi automatically comes on).

[Ann in Arlington]

I just tried a sanity-check.  I went from having Wi-Fi turned off, clicked the ad at the bottom of the main screen, and Wi-Fi automatically turned itself on.  I wonder if, in the rearranging process, I got ahead of the device and clicked where an ad was going to appear...  I'm going to contact Amazon Kindle support and find out if this is intended behavior (either purposely or accidentally click on an ad, Wi-Fi automatically comes on).

Yes, as Betsy posted at just about the same time, this is designed behavior.   So you'll have to train yourself not to touch that section of the screen when you're on the home page. 

You might want to consider a cover which will help with that. 

OTOH, the WiFi really doesn't cause much extra in the way of battery drain. . . .definitely faster than not having it on, but, for example, if it's got a fairly full charge, it's not going to drain in a couple of hours while it's in sleep mode and you come back to find it basically dead.

[Kathy]

I learned something new about my Touch today. I guess you really can teach an old dog new tricks.

[mooshie78]

Wifi doesn't use much battery life anyway.  I haven't looked up the stats for the touch, but on the K3 battery life is estimated 4 weeks with wifi off, and 3 weeks with wifi on for the Wifi Only model (3G model is estimated to get 10 day with the wireless on).

So personally, I leave mine on all the time so it's always syncing my furthest read page as I do a lot of reading on my iPad 2 and iPhone 4s so I need the constant page syncing and prefer not to hassle with turning wifi off and on.  Charging one week sooner isn't a big deal.  I still only charge around once a month as I don't use my K3 everyday and usually only for 30-60 minutes on days it does get used.

[Bibliophile]

I appreciate all the feedback.  First thing I learned is that what I observed is default behavior for the Kindle Touch - if Wi-Fi is turned off and you click on the ad (either accidentally or on purpose), Wi-Fi will automatically activate.  Next, I learned that I've been inadvertently coming in contact with the lower part of my screen, as witnessed by my wife yesterday evening.  Seems that the screen is fairly sensitive, and even the slightest brush was taken as a command to activate ads - so I need to be more careful.

Now that my library has finally been fully indexed by the KT, I'll run a test to see how much longer my battery lasts with and without Wi-Fi turned on.  If what Mooshie78 says is correct (and I hope it is), I was worried about something insignificant.

Thanks again for the good advice - now it's time to find some sort of cover...