I just ordered an iBook and hope to be receiveing it next week (we'll see if FedEx can get the act together). I bought a laptop when I went to college 7 years ago. My girlfriend bought one when she went to school 5 years ago. We both had the same problem, the battery developed "memory problems." They ended up not holding a charge and effectively lost their protability. I was wondering if they have gotten batteries figured out in the intervening years since I have owned one, or am I going to have to watch how much and how long it is plugged in? This one needs to be protable and able to go hours without an outlet. Thanks...
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iBook battery
- Thread starter misterman8
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Sweet. Thanks, I just thought of that problem today, and wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to be stuck scrounging for outlets again.
Apple does recommend "conditioning" the battery -- running it through a full discharge / recharge cycle -- once monthly (link), but as said above, the memory effect is greatly reduced / absent in modern notebook batteries (not an Apple specific thing, but by virtue of the physics of Li-Ion batteries). Do bear in mind, though, that a Li-Ion battery will probably be good for about 300-350 charge cycles.... it still doesn't have an infinite life. 
joecool85 said:
Don't make it seem like li-ion batteries will never stop holding a charge. At some point even the latest batteries will run out of juice.
It's best to follow battery conditioning procedures, and just hope to get as many charge cycles out of the thing as possible.
There was a very interesting article in Popular Science a few months ago about how little battery technology has progressed when compared to computing technology. If I remember right, batteries have doubled in capacity over the past 15 or so years whilst computers have improved exponentially. It can even be said that batteries are one of the chief limiting factors for portable electronics development.