My Boox Palma is one of the vital simply lovable items of tech I’ve ever used—an e-ink reader with a phone-like type issue that is not locked down to at least one particular retailer’s ecosystem. It has helped me learn extra and waste time on social media much less, however as a lot as I admire it, it may also be bizarre and finicky. For instance, why is it so difficult to make use of it to take heed to audiobooks?
Like most individuals, earlier than I received the Palma, my cellphone was my major driver for audiobooks, music, and podcasts—it was all the time with me and the apps made it tremendous handy. However I would discover myself pausing my ebook each time a notification pinged in my headphones, so I made a decision to shift that “content material” over to my e-reader as nicely. Then I hit a snag: Each time I closed the protecting cowl that got here with the machine, it will fall asleep—shutting off the display and the entrance mild, disconnecting my Bluetooth headphones, and pausing the audio.
Whereas the Palma seems like a cellphone and runs on Android, it would not all the time act like a cellphone. And whereas my iPhone by no means gave me any issues enjoying audio with the display off, doing the identical on the Palma (or some other Boox machine) requires some tinkering.
Three settings to alter
Whereas it will be good if the Palma may play audio with the display off proper out of the field—as has been the case for each cellphone I’ve used since I received my first smartphone in 2010—you may want to alter a number of settings to make it occur.
Preserve your audio apps energetic within the background
Credit score: Screenshot by Joel Cunningham
The very first thing you may have to do is modify your settings to permit apps that play audio to proceed working within the background. Within the curiosity of preserving battery life, the Palma OS turns this setting off for each app you obtain from the Google Play retailer, however you possibly can repair that in one among two methods.
First, you possibly can lengthy press the icon of any app on the house display. This may deliver up a menu with a number of completely different choices. Faucet Optimize. From the following pop-up menu, choose the Others tab, then be certain the slider subsequent to Keep energetic within the background is turned to On.
“Unfreeze” your audio apps
Credit score: Screenshot by Joel Cunningham
Subsequent, you may have to cease the Palma’s OS from “freezing” audio-playing apps working within the background. You can also make this transformation globally, or on a per-app foundation. Freezing apps improves battery life, so preserve that in thoughts as you make your choice.
To unfreeze a single app, open Settings and scroll all the way down to Apps and Notifications. Faucet Freeze Settings, discover your audio-playing apps within the checklist of put in packages, and switch the slider to Off.
To unfreeze all of your apps, from this similar menu, flip the Don’t freeze apps working within the background (corresponding to audio/enter technique) slider to On.
You may as well cease the Palma from routinely freezing newly downloaded apps by turning the slider subsequent to Robotically allow freezing after putting in an app to Off.
Preserve your headphones related
Credit score: Screenshot by Joel Cunningham
The very last thing you may have to do is preserve the Palma from turning off Bluetooth and disconnecting your headphones after the machine goes to sleep. To try this, open Settings and scroll to Energy. On the following display, faucet Bluetooth Standing After Sleep and choose Keep Linked from the pop-up menu.
(I would additionally recommend turning on At all times flip Bluetooth on when the machine begins up from this menu, so you will not need to manually flip Bluetooth on each time you need to join your headphones—although, once more, that may have an effect on your total battery life.
Now that that is taken care of, listed below are different settings you must think about altering on any Boox machine.
