Ipod Applications | Take iPod battery into your own hands

The $165 million in bonuses dished out to AIG executives in March was a national-scale raw deal. Today, I return to a more palatable, personal-scale raw deal: the exorbitant price ($49 and up!) that Apple wants for replacing an iPod battery.

Apple has made replacing the battery either challenging, risky or impossible for most iPod owners. Return it, Apple says, and it’ll replace it with someone else’s returned iPod, newly freshened up and impregnated with a fresh battery. Apple charges anywhere from $49 for a Shuffle to $79 for a Touch.

For my old-time (first-generation) Nano, a measly 2 gigabytes and itself long since replaced by a Touch, investing $59 for a $2.85 battery didn’t make sense. So I bought a $2.85 (plus shipping) lithium-ion battery from Amazon.com and did it myself.

Apple didn’t make it easy. I had to pry open the Nano with two plastic tools that came with the battery and, when that failed, summon additional armament – the tip of a paring knife – to access the motherboard.

Then I needed a soldering iron to remove the old battery leads from the motherboard before securing the new battery.

Lost you at the soldering iron? Here’s the easy way out: Snip the other end of the three lead wires, close to the original battery, leaving the soldered ends in place. Strip some covering off the wires, then twist them together with the corresponding leads of the new battery. Wrap each in electrician’s tape, and the iPod’s reborn.

OK, let’s just say it can be done. Newer iPods are much more difficult (thank you, Mother Apple). For the Touch, don’t even think DIY. It’ll cost $79 if returned to Apple, but there are plenty of less-expensive options. Two: Juice Your iPod (ipodjuice.com) will do it for $32, RapidRepair (rapidrepair.com) for $50.

Better to think now about prolonging your iPod battery’s life before determining whether you can stomach a transplant. Here are some tips, most of them Apple-approved:

1. Use it or lose it. Do not leave an iPod dormant for months. That was my mistake with the Nano. Run the battery down, although not necessarily out, once a month to keep the little lithium ion happy.

2. Keep iTunes software up to date. If there’s new software, you’ll find it via iTunes when connecting the iPod to a computer with Internet access.

3. Use small audio files. The bigger ones (WAV, AIFF or Apple Lossless) sound much better when played through your home audio system, but they’re tough on the iPod’s battery-driven hard drive. The smaller audio files (MP3 or AAC) are less taxing on both the hard drive and the battery.

All songs purchased from the iTunes Store are smaller files. If you’re loading CDs onto your computer, set the file size in iTunes by going to Edit/Preferences/Import Settings. Hint: You can keep the larger, better-sounding files on your computer for your home audio system while creating MP3 versions for iPod use.

4. Switch the iPod into Hold mode. If you carry around an iPod in a pocket or purse, you could accidentally activate it and drain the battery.

5. Check the settings. If you don’t need something, turn it off. Backlighting while listening to music? Don’t need it. Deactivate the equalizer by setting it to “flat.” Turn off Sound Check.

7. Create iTunes playlists instead of using the iPod’s “shuffle” mode.

8. Don’t overuse the “next” and “previous” functions.

9. For the Touch, reduce the brightness setting. Turn off auto-brightness and “ask to join networks.” Turn off Wi-Fi when not in use, too. Use the sleep-wake button instead of on-off if you’ll return to the Touch soon. (Turning on the Touch uses more power than simply waking it.) Under “fetch new data,” which automatically imports e-mail, turn off “push” and set “fetch” to manual. Turn “fetch” mail to the manual setting.

10. Keep the iPod, and its battery, at room temperature when possible. Extreme cold, below freezing, will make the iPod sluggish. Extreme heat, above 95 degrees, could damage the battery.

Want to watch a double feature during a cross-country flight but fear your iPod won’t have enough juice? Try an external battery pack/charger. The Kensington Battery Pack and Charger for iPod (about $45) promises 21 hours of video and up to 100 hours of music.

With proper care, an iPod battery should last about 400 charges. Enjoy it while it lasts.

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