I know my battery life is really sucking on my 3G iPod. I get JUST enough juice to commute home and back to work (a grand total of 1 hour of use) before having to plug it in for enough charge to repeat the cycle again. On the weekend, if I just leave it "off" without charging it, it will be completely dead on Monday morning (which makes D'Arcy grumpy on the bus on the way to campus).
I didn't realize that this was officially categorized as "battery failure" - I thought it was acceptable degradation of the battery life over time. Apparently it's a bit more than that. If I were American, it looks like the recent iPod Battery Settlement would have me covered, and I'd either get a new battery or a deep discount on a replacement.
From the iPod battery settlement notice:
"Battery Failure" means that the capacity of an iPod's battery to hold an electrical charge has dropped to four hours or less of continuous audio playback, with earbuds attached, with respect to the Third Generation iPod, or five hours or less of continuous audio playback, with earbuds attached, with respect to the First Generation iPod and the Second Generation iPod.
As it stands, I'm trying to figure out how to upgrade the battery on my own. I believe I have three options:
- Apple's battery replacement program: $127CDN + $10CDN Shipping
- Newer Tech 3G battery replacement (850 mAh): $25.99US + $16US Shipping
- FastMac Online - Battery, Internal: 3rd Gen, 780 mAh, TruePower: $29.29US + shipping
I just sank $35 into some headphones to replace the iPod's earbuds (which were OK, but sound quality wasn't all that great), so I'm not sure I want to sink another chunk of change to keep the iPod ship shape.
Any tips or ideas? I do really love my iPod. No plans to ditch or retire it - I just want to make it last without having to sink a small fortune into it.
Update: Paul just let me know that CostCo is carrying iPod batteries! $19US for my model, for the 850 mAH model. Going to have to pick one of these up the next time I'm in the States, or nag the local CostCo into carrying these suckers...