8 Tips to Improve Apple iPod’s Battery Performance (Life)

Apple iPod the world’s best digital audio player is liked and owned by many music lovers. In this post I am writing some tips that helped me get most out of my 30GB video iPod’s (5G) battery. Apple claims that 30GB 5G video iPods give about 12-14 hour of listening experience but in reality it is much lower as these tests are done in standard test conditions which are far different from real conditions, by using these tips you will able to get those claimed figures.

Pre-requisite:

iTunes 7.0 or later. Get the latest iTunes from here.Update the your iPod’s firmware to Version 1.2 Apple iPod ofcourse is needed.

Tips to get most out of your 30GB Apple video iPod (5G) battery
1. Always update your iPod software (firmware) to latest available
The latest firmware for 30GB iPod (5G) is version 1.2 which gives you better power management features which the latest 5.5G iPod come pre-loaded.

2. Use the Brightness Control Setting
Once you update to the latest firmware i.e Ver.1.2 then you should be able to access brightness control for you iPod’s screen, brightness control can be accessed by “iPod menu>Settings>Brightness”. The screen brightness is one of the main power draining factors, reduce the brightness of your screen when you are only listening to songs. I have set my screen brightness to the minimum possible level when I am listening to songs, that saves lot of battery power. When watching videos in a dark environment you can set the screen brightness to 50% that will boost your video playback to great extent. Given below are some photos which show screen brightness control.

Click on the images to enlarge

iPod screen brightness at max

iPod screen brightness at around 30% of max setting

3. Set the Backlight Timer to Minimum
Set the backlight timer to minimum as this will reduce the time that your iPod takes to switch of the backlight for the screen. The backlight timer setting can be accessed from “iPod’s menu>Settings>Backlight Timer”. I have set it to 2 seconds that means my iPod’s backlight will switch off after two seconds of inactivity. I usually set the backlight to OFF state when I am using the iPod in bright areas where there is enough light that makes iPod screen readable even with backlight switched OFF.

4. Use the Hold Switch
Always enable the hold switch which is provided in the top left corner of iPod which prevents the accidental switching ON of your backlight when buttons are pressed. Whenever you are not using iPod always enable the hold switch so that iPod does not wake up from its sleep if any of the buttons are pressed accidentally.

5. Avoid Frequent Change of Tracks
The iPod’s advanced cache mechanism always reads ahead the upcoming tracks and stores them in its memory so that it need not spin up the hard drive thus saving battery power, so if you keep on changing tracks frequently iPod’s hard drive will be spinning frequently there by reducing the battery life. Create playlists that can help you from this trouble.

6. Always put iPod to sleep when not using it.
Always put iPod to sleep mode when you are not planning to use it, this can be done by pressing the play/pause button continuously. Don’t forget to enable the hold switch.

7. Disable the Equalizer
If the equalizer of your iPod is ON then it forces the iPod’s processors to process the songs so that the desired sound effect is achieved there by decreasing the battery life. I personally don’t use this tip as I love the sound equalizer but I am giving this tip for those people who are contended with the default setting. The equalizer setting can be accessed by “iPod Menu>Settings>EQ”.

8. Use smaller size files for your tracks
iPod’s advanced caching mechanism works best when the track size is less than 9MB, so if you got a large track then try to compress it or split it into smaller chunks so as to make best use of iPod’s caching mechanism.
The Apple iPod uses lithium ion batteries to prolong your lithium ion battery’s life I highly recommend you to read this article written by Isidor Buchmann.

Some tips suggested by Isidor Buchmann for improving lithium ion battery’s life

Avoid frequent full discharges because this puts additional strain on the battery. Several partial discharges with frequent recharges are better for lithium-ion than one deep one. Recharging a partially charged lithium-ion does not cause harm because there is no memory. (In this respect, lithium-ion differs from nickel-based batteries.) Short battery life in a laptop is mainly cause by heat rather than charge / discharge patterns.Batteries with fuel gauge (laptops) should be calibrated by applying a deliberate full discharge once every 30 charges. Running the pack down in the equipment does this. If ignored, the fuel gauge will become increasingly less accurate and in some cases cut off the device prematurely.Keep the lithium-ion battery cool. Avoid a hot car. For prolonged storage, keep the battery at a 40% charge level.Consider removing the battery from a laptop when running on fixed power. (Some laptop manufacturers are concerned about dust and moisture accumulating inside the battery casing.)Avoid purchasing spare lithium-ion batteries for later use. Observe manufacturing dates. Do not buy old stock, even if sold at clearance prices.If you have a spare lithium-ion battery, use one to the fullest and keep the other cool by placing it in the refrigerator. Do not freeze the battery. For best results, store the battery at 40% state-of-charge. What measures do you take to improve your iPod’s battery life? If you feel that I have left out some tip then please feel free to let me know via comments.

From shivaranjan.com