wez_sti

your right, but thats for music, think it drops to something like 4hrs for a slide show, so can expect battery life to that at best, though probaly less..

angrynorth

5 hours for slideshows with music to be precise. The current iPods are built for music and slideshows and their battery life reflects that. I'd be over the moon if Apple decided to enable video playback on the current pods, but they won't.

But if Apple do release an all new video iPod then it will be built to cope with video demands meaning a longer battery life.

messiah

My battery probably doesn't last as long as it should as I always have it set to shuffle between the 1200+ tracks I have on it, and I keep skipping forward too.

wez_sti

wouldnt be suprised if they did, more a software issue than hardware i imagine.

they could prob release a more effiecent battery in the not too distant future too

messiah

I was under the impresion that when Apple dropped the 30gb model, they also upgraded the battery for the 60gb & "new" 20gb. Although I think I read that in a PC magazine!

AFAIK it's the screens backlight that has a big effect on battery life - something you'll need all the time during video playback.

aren't Apple also planning on making music video's available through iTunes?

messiah

I have a Q on battery life.

Does anyone know how degrafmentation affects battery life? I'd imagine my iPods HDD is quite fragmented as I have a habit of updating tracks then going back to add the artwork etc...

wez_sti

i'm guessing it would 'effect' it, needing to move to diferent parts of the disc all the time, no idea how much though!

angrynorth

Software and hardware. Realtime decoding of 30fps video is hard work. Not likely on a non specific device.


Likely on new devices.

The battery for all of the normal iPods is 15 hours now. I once read in a PC magazine that Apple had stopped making iPods altogether so I would take what you read in them with a pinch of salt. Go with what is on the Apple site.

Obviously the backlight affects battery but its not always on (unless specified) so it doesn't have that big an impact.

Apple already makes music videos available for download through iTunes and they have been doing so for quite some time now. It doesn't mean that the current iPods are capable of playback though, just that you can view them in iTunes.

The iPod HD defraggles itself on the fly (like OSX) so I wouldn't be to concerned about it.

To improve your battery life, encode your tracks in AAC which is less processor dependant.

wez_sti

just spent hours converting all my track to MP3 from AAC! only apple's software tends to recognise it, makes burning cd's a bit tricky!

angrynorth

iTunes can burn CD's and uses AAC as its default playback format. So if you are getting an iPod you will be using iTunes anyway.

messiah

Tracks already in AAC -encoded to 192kbs. I also read on apple's site that the preamp and graphic equaliser settings (sorry, forgot the proper name!) take up a but of processing power. I found the default to be too quiet and too flat, so all my tracks are set to "R&B" and the preamp set to 40% - how much this drops battery life by I have no idea, but would be interesting to find out.

If the iPod defrag's itself on the fly, is there any point in giving it the occasional "wipe clean"?

TopBanana

Double lossy compression.. hmmm...

angrynorth

I restore my iPod once a year, not gaining much by doing it though. I mainly do it to make sure that the free space is erased properly if I take a chunk of tracks or data off.

To be honest I am not 100% sure of how much extra battery the Preamp/EQ would use, I would imagine its not much though as its not spinning the disk to do it - which is where the battery hits come from.

OllyK

Bah humbug, iPod Nano, that was so last week