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iPod touch Getting the best charge from an iPod touch....

E

Exploding Bears

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 18, 2007
18
0
Something I noticed: Whenever I turn off my ipod touch (fully), and turn it back on in short periods of time, the battery drains significantly. (For example: I listen to a CD, then turn it off, 1 hour later I turn it back on and so forth..)

Surely it doesn't take that much energy to turn the device on?

Ne ways, I was wondering, when you have your iPod touch on hold mode (when the screen is completely off)...is it still running? Obviously it is when you are playing music, but what happens when a CD is over, and you leave it on hold? Does it still run the battery? Does it ever just shut off completely due to inactivity? (Like the old iPods)

Lastly..whats the best way to get the most out of your battery life? It says it's supposed to have a 22 hour battery life for music playback, and that's all I use it for. So far it seems like this is untrue (at least I haven't been able to get 20+ hours of battery). I'm guessing the interface and all the pictures (the albums etc)...drain battery life as well with the back light.

Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated.
 
Turn the brightness down and wi-fi off.

Am unsure about your hold/turn off question.

Tho, like most batteries, I assume it is always good to completely drain them before charging.
 
Apologies if you knew this, but you have to make sure you *hold* the off button until you get the 'Slide to power off' message. Otherwise you're just switching the display off but the device is still powered on.

Does that help at all??
 
twynne said:
Apologies if you knew this, but you have to make sure you *hold* the off button until you get the 'Slide to power off' message. Otherwise you're just switching the display off but the device is still powered on.

Does that help at all??
Click to expand...

I knew that already! :)

Thanks for the suggestion though. Really my main issue, it seems to me turning the device on and off seems to drain the battery. Or at least, it shows the icon of the batter drained when it really isn't. I was just wondering if it would be better to leave ur ipod on hold for an hour (if you plan on listening to it within the next hour or so) vs just turning it off.
 
I would think switching it off (as opposed to hold) is surely better for battery life. In 'hold' mode the screen is just off... music still plays and wifi is still on (if switched on). As far as I can make out from the manual, off is off. :)
 
twynne said:
I would think switching it off (as opposed to hold) is surely better for battery life. In 'hold' mode the screen is just off... music still plays and wifi is still on (if switched on). As far as I can make out from the manual, off is off. :)
Click to expand...

Good point. I was just saying if you weren't playing any music at all, and you left it on hold. Was just wondering if it zapped energy.

I think it would be safe to assume that shutting it off fully would save batter, but then again (like i said)...i was listening to album, then shut off the iPod, one hour later i turned it back on and noticed the battery life had dropped. It seems to me, turning it on and off in a short period of time runs the batter down.

Figures, since it takes a few to turn on.
 
Here's my experience with mobile device batteries. When you turn the device off, it uses no battery power when completely idle. However, when you turn it on, it takes a fairly large amount of power to boot the OS. Unless you're not going to be using it for a matter of like 8+ hours, I would think that putting it to sleep is better since it hardly uses the battery while sleeping and doesn't require much to turn back on. In conclusion, don't close the OS and turn it off unless you won't be using it for a long period of time. Otherwise, just put it to sleep.
 
akonradi said:
Here's my experience with mobile device batteries. When you turn the device off, it uses no battery power when completely idle. However, when you turn it on, it takes a fairly large amount of power to boot the OS. Unless you're not going to be using it for a matter of like 8+ hours, I would think that putting it to sleep is better since it hardly uses the battery while sleeping and doesn't require much to turn back on. In conclusion, don't close the OS and turn it off unless you won't be using it for a long period of time. Otherwise, just put it to sleep.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I was thinking! Thanks for that. I'm going to test out this method tomorrow. I'll report if it boosts battery life.
 
--Wolf-- said:
Turn the brightness down and wi-fi off.

Am unsure about your hold/turn off question.

Tho, like most batteries, I assume it is always good to completely drain them before charging.
Click to expand...

FYI the new lithium and polymer batteries do not benefit from being drained, actually they benefit from being topped up regularly.

The older style rechargeable batteries, being the nickle cadmium would develop a "memory" which would limit the amount of charge they would hold and to correct this you would completely discharge the battery.

However with the new battery technologys it is better to keep them topped up. if you drain them completely before charging them you will actually reduce the useful life of the battery. i might add that car batteries ( regular lead acid - not deep cycle) are the same way.
 
Same thing happened to me today - turned it off at work with about a half-charge, then powered up when I left and got a "battery almost empty" warning. It then rose enough for me to use for another hour, but I got another warning towards the end of that.

I guess I was close to 5 hrs of video since last recharge, but it seemed quite abrupt. Will keep an eye on it.
 
Okay this is trippy. I just left my iPod touch on hold (by accident) for 1 and half days. I go to turn it on, and it instantly comes on (didn't have to wait for the OS to boot up)...and the battery was still full.

I would of thought that leaving it on Hold for long periods of time would be bad, because well, the OS has to be running the whole time.
 
Exploding Bears said:
Okay this is trippy. I just left my iPod touch on hold (by accident) for 1 and half days. I go to turn it on, and it instantly comes on (didn't have to wait for the OS to boot up)...and the battery was still full.

I would of thought that leaving it on Hold for long periods of time would be bad, because well, the OS has to be running the whole time.
Click to expand...

Just because the OS is "running" doesn't mean that there is activity going on. It's not a hard drive so there's nothing spinning inside. I would think that if you're not listening to music, and you don't have the screen on, it would hold a charge pretty well. That's my thought anyway.
 
so with the iPod touch to get the best battery life...

basically we should just keep tipping off the charge rather than letting the battery get low? and if this is the case then when should we charge it before it gets too low? half way? or lower?

anyone?

thanks.
 
Hold never seems to use any battery. The device is basically shut down except it's monitoring the buttons for a wakeup... I reckon unless you were going to put the touch in storage for a week there's no need to power off - especially since the power off cycle seems to use more power!
 
hatcher146 said:
so with the iPod touch to get the best battery life...

basically we should just keep tipping off the charge rather than letting the battery get low? and if this is the case then when should we charge it before it gets too low? half way? or lower?
Click to expand...

Stick it in the dock when you're finished with it.. it'll charge itself. No need to worry about the amount of battery really unless you're using it for a long time with no access to a power source. It's designed to be used that way.
 
TonyHoyle said:
Stick it in the dock when you're finished with it.. it'll charge itself. No need to worry about the amount of battery really unless you're using it for a long time with no access to a power source. It's designed to be used that way.
Click to expand...

thanks.

speaking of the dock, are you referring to the white and plastic things the touch came with? i dont understand how to set that thing up. haha. i must be slow. can you explain?
 
Yeah the ipod touch doesn't seem to ship with a dock (at least not in the UK, maybe the US ones do). You can pick up a universal dock at the apple store relatively cheaply.

In the absence of a dock you can just plug the cable in every time.. it's more hassle but does the same job.
 
TonyHoyle said:
Yeah the ipod touch doesn't seem to ship with a dock (at least not in the UK, maybe the US ones do). You can pick up a universal dock at the apple store relatively cheaply.

In the absence of a dock you can just plug the cable in every time.. it's more hassle but does the same job.
Click to expand...

oh. well then what are the white and clear plastic things the touch came with?
 
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