Ipod question

[retsacelet]

Should you always keep the battery charged or is it better to let it run down and then re-charge? I've heard both ways.

[Stencil]

Let's assume the iPod has a Lithium Ion (or Lithium Polymer) battery, like most high-end portable electronics devices these days. In that case, it shouldn't suffer from the dreaded 'memory effect' that plagued earlier NiCd (and, to a lesser extent, NiMH) batteries. The 'memory effect' consisted of a battery 'forgetting' about part of its capacity after being recharged when partially full. (I hope that's not too convoluted...)

However:

Lithium Ion batteries have a limited number of charge cycles before they die -- typically no more than a few hundred.

Conclusion:

Without necessarily waiting for the iPod's battery to be completely empty, you're probably best off avoiding charging it too often.

Hope this helps.

D°

[Tdot]

I've heard the same thing that Stencil said.

No decrease in capacity from "memory".

Limited # of charges in the batteries life (1,000 - 10,000 - 100,000?). So if you charge from empty, or half, it still counts as one charge.

I use mine until it's empty then recharge. I also keep an auto charger in the car in case it runs out while I'm driving.

This applies to cell phone batteries too.

[Bill]

I read either in the doc that came with my new iPod or on the Apple site about this. They were very clear. Yes, there are a limited number of cycles. Fully discharging your iPod and recharging it is one cycle. But so is discharging it half way and recharging it, then discharging it 1/4 way and recharging, and then discharging it 1/4 way and recharging it. In this second case, it adds up to one full discharge and one full recharge, therefore one cycle according to Apple. So feel free to top it off as often as you like.

Here's an edit to show what Apple says at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=62018#6:

Question: What is a "charge cycle"?

Answer: Lithium-ion batteries can be charged a finite number of times, as defined by charge cycle. A charge cycle means using all of the battery's power, but that doesn't necessarily mean a single charge. For instance, you could listen to your iPod for a few hours one day, using half its power, and then recharge it fully. If you did the same thing the next day, it would count as one charge cycle, not two, so you may take several days to complete a cycle. Each time you complete a charge cycle, it diminishes battery capacity slightly, but you can put your iPod's battery through many charge cycles before it will only hold 80 percent of its original battery capacity.

[Tdot]

Originally Posted by Bill

I read either in the doc that came with my new iPod or on the Apple site about this.

Yep, Bill's correct, here's the link to Apple's battery info, which is different from when I bought my iPod 2-3 years ago. New technology is fun.

http://www.apple.com/batteries/

[Essex Boy]

Battery life on my iPod Mini is disgraceful. I went to work this morning on the subway, probably used it for an hour, maybe an hour and a half yesterday without charging - 2 and a half hrs - turned it on when I came out of work this evening and it was dead. Absolutely crap.

[Stencil]

I'm a big Mac fan (I'm about to buy my 5th Powerbook -- my 7th Mac in 20 years) but I'm continually amazed at how disingenuous Apple's technical writing can be. They say that you can recharge the battery "many" times, but fail to commit to just how many "many" might be. Welcome to Steve's Reality Distortion Field.

Despite what Apple may say, my knowledge of Li-Ion batteries tells me that even partial recharges chip away at the battery's useful life of only a few hundred cycles at best.

On a related topic, today's macintouch.com reports on the class action suit related to previous generation iPods:

The above-captioned proceeding ("Litigation") is pending before the Superior Court of California for San Mateo County ("Court"). In the Litigation, Plaintiffs Lisa Chin, Andrew Westley, Courtney Craft, Joseph Smiley, Brenda Keegan, Sylvia Kieta, Sam Wagya, and Steve Yamin ("Representative Plaintiffs") claim that the Apple iPod Digital Music Player ("iPod") did not have the battery life represented and/or that the battery's capacity to take and hold a charge substantially diminished over time. Defendant Apple Computer, Inc. ("Apple") has denied the Representative Plaintiffs' allegations and asserted various affirmative defenses in the Litigation.
The Court has conditionally ruled that the Litigation may be maintained on behalf of the following Class: All persons or entities residing in the United States who purchased or obtained a First, Second, or Third Generation iPod on or before May 31, 2004. [...]

You can read more legalese here:

http://www.appleipodsettlement.com/

Cheers,

D°

[Bill]

I am a big Mac fan, too, but I'm not too thrilled with my iPod mini. I got it only because I got a really good price on it through school. The battery life is not good, and there are a few things I really don't like about it:

1. The light is so bright, that if I go to sleep listening to the iPod and then turn it on in the middle of the night to listen some more, I not only blind myself, but I wake my wife up. I've actually used it as a flashlight.

2. It doesn't handle audio book files well at all. If I drag a folder full of correctly ordered mp3 book files into the iPod, it totally loses the order, and I have to reorder all the files by hand.

3. I can't delete files easily. I thought by creating a folder called, say, "My MP3 book" and then putting all the book files in it, I could then delete all the files once I was through listening. It turns out it doesn't. It just makes the files invisible in that folder, but they're still on the iPod (as I found out when the iPod mysteriously filled up over time). So I had to find a foreign language software script that I added to iTunes to properly delete my files, because Apple didn't provide that function.

4. All the buttons are so touchy, that I have to use the Hold switch all the time. On other mp3 players, I never had that problem.

5. I can't just take a folder of files and drag it into the iPod. I have to open iTunes, and then create and name a folder first. (Why, Apple, why won't it just take the folder's name?)

I'm actually hoping the battery dies on mine so I can buy something else.

[retsacelet]

Thanks for the great info guys!

[Billy Claire]

All devices that use these batteries are in the same boat- it's just that iPods are the most visible... but cells and PDA's will have the same problems.

I have had the same iPod since they first came out- it was a 5GB when I got it but I put in a new hard drive a few months ago so it's now a 15GB. I've also replaced the battery once. Once...

The replacement batteries (from Other World Computing) last longer but since I use my iPod 99% of the time in the car, it's always attached to the charger.

I have had few problems with my iPod... it's great.