Shocking iPod mini battery life... What am I doing wrong?

1. Gary - 29 April 2005

   New 4GB iPod mini 2nd generation - claimed 18 hour battery life.

   Took it away with me on Monday morning after having charged it fully (second charge from new). Listened an hour on Monday evening, 1 hour Tuesday morning, 1 hour Tuesday evening, same on Wednesday, By Thursday it had only the smallest smidgen of battery left, I had it on shuffle play from the start, it had played through 67 tracks.

   This is so far away from 18 hours. When not being played it was off and locked. Is this because it's new or could it be faulty? With no charger it's practically useless if you're more than 2 or 3 days away from a computer.

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2. Nigel Eastmond - 29 April 2005

   backlight. Did you turn the backlight off? Did you lock the clickwheel so you didn't jolt it in your pocket/bag?

   Nige.

   Nigel C Eastmond
   nigel.eastmond@kidneys.ntlworld.com
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3. Gary - 29 April 2005

   On Fri, 29 Apr 2005 19:20:01 +0100, Nigel Eastmond wrote (in a previous article):

   backlight. Did you turn the backlight off? Did you lock the clickwheel so you didn't jolt it in your pocket/bag?

   Nige.

   Never used the backlight, at all. I don't know what locking the clickwheel means other than I slid the switch so it was red - in any event when not playing it was in my room, not being carried around. I didn't use EQ either which I assume takes more juice.

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4. Peter Lee - 29 April 2005

   I think it's shuffle - Try playing all the tracks in sequence and see how long you get.

   Peter

   This address is never read; use
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5. Gary - 29 April 2005

   On Fri, 29 Apr 2005 22:23:47 +0100, Peter Lee wrote (in a previous article):

   I think it's shuffle - Try playing all the tracks in sequence and see how long you get.

   iPod lounge has this to say : " Our second-generation iPod mini ran continuously for 26 hours and 20 minutes on randomized playback without the use of equalizers and with only mild use of the backlit screen "

   But mine was on its second charge. The 1st generation minis required a few charges before the battery settled down. I think I'll give it a week or so of charge/use cycles and see what happens.

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6. Ryan Callaghan - 30 April 2005

   Shuffle eats batteries. Also note that the battery indicator isn't calibrated properly until you've drained the battery totally, and recharged it, mine's been near the bottom yet still given several hours of play, with backlight on.
   There is some drain when it's not playing, but it's negligible.

   Ryan Callaghan
   Email: callagrm<at>aston<dot>ac<dot>uk ICQ: 20957015

7. Richard Tobin - 30 April 2005

   What bitrate are your tracks recorded at? I've heard that very high rates require more disk accesses and stop the disk from being idle long enough to spin down.

   -- Richard

8. Gary - 30 April 2005

   160Kbps AAC encoded most of them. Some are MP3 @ 128Kbps , lots are 128Kbps AAC from iTMS,

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9. zoara - 9 May 2005

   Sorry, this is an 8-day old thread but... why do you think shuffle eats batteries? Flicking between tracks does, but once the iPod generates the shuffled list it will pre-cache the songs in exactly the same way as in-order play...

   -zoara-

   My lozenge is a full earthy herbal lozenge incorporating a miscellanea of weeds known for advancing sexual longing and performance, causing an increase in sexual craving, a betterment in your volume and execution, besides as increased energy and joy during sexual activeness.

10. Gary - 9 May 2005

    On Mon, 9 May 2005 18:19:34 +0100, zoara wrote (in a previous article):

    Sorry, this is an 8-day old thread but... why do you think shuffle eats batteries? Flicking between tracks does, but once the iPod generates the shuffled list it will pre-cache the songs in exactly the same way as in-order play...

    -zoara-

    I don't think it does, my problem was the until you've fully charged it from out of the box (which it tells you to) and then fully flattened it and then charged it again (which it doesn't mention) then the battery meter is not accurate.

    Since my original post, I regularly get 10-15 play hours per week out of it which isn't bad. A couple of things I don't like though:

    1) When in shuffle mode, if it's in standby for a while it forgets about the shuffle and the 'now playing' option disappears from the menu and you have to re-shuffle, thus potentially hearing some tracks again and

    2) If my Mac sleeps with the iPod connected to the FireWire, the iPod will stay at the 'Do Not Disconnect' message with the ominous warning symbol for good. There is no choice but to disconnect. Never seems to hurt it though.

    Would it help with (2) if it was in a dock instead of just being connected to the FireWire cable?

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11. zoara - 9 May 2005

    Yeah. That 'do not disconnect' thing is unreliable IME.

    Would it help with (2) if it was in a dock instead of just being connected to the FireWire cable?

    Nope. The dock is (effectively) just a passthrough connector that makes it easier to plug in/uplug the iPod (drop it in or pull it out, rather than fiddle with cables). It does little else really - there's a line out, and TV out on the Photo dock - though I think it's worthwhile just for the convenience.

    -zoara-

    [1] Or at least, it sleeps more deeply.

    My lozenge is a full earthy herbal lozenge incorporating a miscellanea of weeds known for advancing sexual longing and performance, causing an increase in sexual craving, a betterment in your volume and execution, besides as increased energy and joy during sexual activeness.

12. Ian_ - 15 May 2005

    Gary wrote on 1/5/2005 9:51 am:

    160Kbps AAC encoded most of them. Some are MP3 @ 128Kbps , lots are 128Kbps AAC from iTMS,

    Have you tried this?
    iTunes options;
    Convert higher bitrate songs to 128 kbps for this iPod. (This leaves the originals alone).

    HTH, &B-) Ian
    No Spam, (false address) Please reply to newsgroup!

13. Gary - 16 May 2005

    I have looked for such an option but it isn't there! At least not on the iPod option on iTunes 4.8 on Panther (10.3.9). Should I be looking somewhere else for this?

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14. mrscript@gmail.com - 17 May 2005

    somewhere else

    for this?

    --
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