prolonging battery life as long as possible?

[excalibur313]

How should i care for my battery? I've been told that its both good and bad to keep it plugged in the whole time and I'm really confused. I just got a new one and I want to baby it as much as possible to keep the battery life as high as possible for as long as I can.
Thanks,
Stephen

[orbital~debris]

Stephen,

You might find the info on Apple's 'Batteries' pages useful - especially as the advice there relates directly to Apple products like PowerBooks & iPods.

Here's the link: http://www.apple.com/batteries/ and when you get there, the specific info for Notebook and iPod batteries is linked to from the top of the right hand column.

Hope this is useful!

[question fear]

one thing that page didn't answer for me: does the ipod (like my ibook) run off charger power if i had it hooked up, in say, a car? because i use it more often there and would invest in the car charger if it wouldn't hurt the battery.