Page 1 of iPod battery life?

I recently got an iPod 40gb which claims up to 12 hours continuous play (which means no fast forwarding or rewinding boys and girls). It looked like I was getting a lot less than that on a full charge so did as Apple suggest on their website and tested it on a full charge and played an album continually. It looks like I got around 9.5 hours on continual play, which is nowhere near their 12 hours. Anyone else suffering a similar problem??

I get about 12-13 hours out of my 20Gb iPod.

But a few things to note:
- I was told to fully charge it & then fully drain it, a couple of times (it increases the battery life) Can`t remember if it says this in the manual or someone just told me, but it`s worth a try

- Also you won`t get the full 12 hours if say, you charge it & then leave it in a drawer for a couple of days (you have to use it right away)

- Having the backlight on or skipping tracks will further diminish the life.

- Even when the battery indicator says empty, it should play for an extra 10-30 mins out of it

Thanks.

I tried an album again last night on continuous play (after charging and draining it completely the previous night) and I got 10.5 hours. Might try it a couple of more times before phoning Apple.

Also, turn off any shuffle, EQ settings...since they also drain the battery more.

HTH
Miles

I`ve just read somewhere that if you don`t charge your battery for 24 hours for first use you have seriously depleted the battery life. The manual states that 3-4 hours is enough for the first charge.

I`ve just read somewhere that if you don`t charge your battery for 24 hours for first use you have seriously depleted the battery life

that shouldn`t matter, the old ni-cad batteries had a charge "memory" but newer ni-mh & li-on types don`t suffer from this.

It can have an effect to the battery life, and even with LiIon and NiMh I would recommend a minimum 18 to 24 hour initial charge, but not for the above reason!
It shouldn`t make a blind bit of difference to initial battery life, ie: 12 hour playback would still be 12 hour playback, but might give an extra couple of months out of the battery before it packs up for good.

And TBH, I don`t think a loss of an hour or so would be classed a fault, but I aint that knowledgable on Apple :(

Jimbo : oÞ

"Making Teenagers depressed is like shooting fish inna barrel"

I`ve got a 20GB I-pod, and I`ve also noticed the battery doesn`t last 12 hrs. I think Apple must test the battery life with optimal settings etc to get the 12 hrs. In every day `real` use, you`re never going to get that long. I recon from between 6 and 10 hrs depending on how you use it and how long you leave it between charging. Since I have never wanted to use it for anything like that long in one go, it`s never bothered me. Tell you what though it annoys me how easily they scratch up. I got a case from the States which has put a stop to any further scuffs, but I`ve not seen one in the UK. It seems to get scatched even when there is nothing else in your pocket! If you do see a case, buy it, because it will look second hand in no time if you don`t.

12 hours is based on a middle volume setting also - this affects the amount of power the unit consumes.

As for shuffle, the full size iPods have an efficient caching system, and tests have shown that leaving shuffle on has negligible impact on battery life. Basically, the player knows the order of the tracks if it`s left alone. It`s basically a pre-rearanged playlist, so it can read ahead for the next track as if it was a straight album playing.

try turning off your backlight timer. or at least putting it on a timer. I had mine always on; once i set it to turn off after 20 seconds; my battery life improved up to 3 hours! ;)
hope it helps.