iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual, Fourth Edition

Charging the Battery

Many a cloud of gadget euphoria dies instantly when the new owner realizes that the device must sit in a battery charger and juice up before any fun can happen.

Out of the box, the iPod may have enough juice to turn itself on and get you hooked on spinning the wheel. But you’ll still need to charge the iPod before you use it for the first time.

Figure 1-2. The iPod’s data and power jack, usually called the dock connector port, has lived on the bottom of the player since 2003. Here, from top to bottom, the iPod Nano, a video iPod, and an iPod Photo; note that the Nano also has its headphone port on the bottom of the player. All three iPods have the Hold switch on top.

Charging via USB 2.0 or FireWire Cable

You can charge your iPod over a FireWire or USB 2.0 connection, but new iPods don’t even come with FireWire cables anymore, so USB 2.0 is the only way to get a charge unless you have an old FireWire cable from a previous Pod. If your Mac or PC has powered FireWire or USB 2.0 jacks, you can charge up the iPod just by plugging it into your computer. (For FireWire, “powered” usually means the fatter 6-pin FireWire connector, not the little 4-pin connectors found on many Windows machines. For USB 2.0, you need a powered jack like those on the back of the computer, or on a powered USB hub—not, for example, the unpowered jack at the end of a keyboard.) The battery charges as long as the computer is on and not in Sleep mode.

It takes about 4 hours to fully charge your iPod. Note, however, that it gets about 80 percent charged after 2 hours (Nanos only take about 90 minutes to get the 80 percent power rush). If you just can’t wait to unplug it and go racing out to show your friends, you can begin to use it after a couple of hours.

During the charging process, you may see either the Do Not Disconnect message (if the iPod is also sucking down music from your computer), the “OK to Disconnect” message (if it’s done with that), or the main menu for a few minutes before the charging battery graphic takes over. The iPod will also warn you not to disconnect it if you’ve set it up to work as an external hard drive, but we’ll get to that business in Chapter 9.

Using an AC Adapter

You can also charge the battery by plugging the iPod’s cable into the boxy white AC power adapter that you can get for $30 from the Apple Store (http://store.apple.com) or shops that sell iPod gear (see Figure 1-3). Apple used to include this AC adapter with the iPod but has dispensed with all but the bare hardware minimum to get the iPod up and playing.

Figure 1-3. The cable that comes with the iPod plugs into the end of the now-optional AC power adapter. Flip out the electrical prongs tucked into the adapter’s end, and plug it into a regular wall socket. Run the cable between the AC adapter and iPod dock connector port (or charging dock, if you have one).Inset: The iPod makes it graphically clear that you’re charging its battery—just in case you were wondering.

You can find the AC adapter in two flavors: One that fits the USB 2.0 end of the iPod cable and one that fits the older FireWire cables. Even though you have to pay extra for it now, having an AC adapter handy has a definite advantage in that you can juice up your iPod without having to connect it to your computer.

Note

Even when fully charged, the battery in an “off” iPod drains slowly after 14 to 28 days. If, for some inconceivable reason, you haven’t used your iPod in a month or more, you should recharge it, even if you left it fully charged the last time you used it.

WORKAROUND WORKSHOPProngs Across the World

The iPod’s AC power adapter can handle electrical currents between 100 volts and 240 volts at frequencies of 50 and 60 hertz. Put another way, it works not only with the voltage in North America, but also in many parts of Europe and Asia.

Although the iPod adapter automatically converts the voltage of global outlets, it doesn’t convert the prongs of the world’s various outlets: round prongs, flat ones, prongs in pairs, prongs in threes, and so on.

The Apple Store sells a World Traveler Adapter Kit for the iPod: six plugs that snap onto the end of the iPod’s AC adapter to adapt its prongs for electrical outlets in the United Kingdom, continental Europe, Japan, China, Korea, Australia, Hong Kong, and other parts of North America. The World Traveler Adapter Kit costs about $40 at Apple’s Web site and stores.

Checking the Battery’s Charge

The battery icon on the iPod’s screen shows the approximate amount of gas left in the tank. When the iPod is connected to the computer, the battery icon in the top-right corner displays a charging animation, complete with tiny lightning bolt.

Battery Life

The iPod uses a rechargeable lithium ion battery. Battery life depends on which version of the iPod you have and how you use it. On the newest iPods that play video, Apple states that the 30-gigabyte model gets up to 14 hours of music playback between charges, or 3 hours of photo-and-music slideshows, or 2 hours of full-on video play.

POWER USERS’ CLINICMaximizing Your Battery’s Potential

Battery life varies. Someone inclined to settle into a long playlist and let the iPod go without interruption will enjoy more time between electricity refills than an iPodder who constantly jumps around to different songs and fiddles with controls.

Apple has several recommendations, both environmental and behavioral, for getting the most out of the battery. For example, as better power management is a perpetual goal, the company recommends always having the latest version of the iPod software installed.

While the iPod can operate without incident in temperatures between 50 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit, the iPod (like most people) works best at room temperature—around 68° F. An iPod left out in a cold car all night, for example, needs to warm up to room temperature before you play it; otherwise, it may have trouble waking up from sleep mode. It also may present the low battery icon onscreen. (If this happens to you, wait until the iPod warms up, then plug it into its power adapter and reset it by pressing the Menu and Select buttons on all click wheel iPods—or Menu and Play/Pause buttons on older iPods—until the Apple logo appears.)

Using the Hold switch (Section 1.2.1) can make sure that a sleeping iPod doesn’t get turned on, and therefore run its battery down, by an accidental bump or nudge while in a purse or pocket. Pausing the iPod when you’re not listening to it is a good way to save power, especially if you tend to get distracted and forget that the player is set to repeat songs and playlists over and over.

Jumping around the iPod’s music library with the Previous and Next buttons can also burn down the battery sooner rather than later. Like a laptop, the full-size iPod stores its data on a tiny hard drive, and hard drives can be power hogs. To save power, the iPod lets its hard drive stop spinning as often as possible—by playing upcoming music from a built-in memory chip. Pushing the iPod’s buttons to change songs forces the iPod to start its hard drive spinning again, which requires energy.

The iPod’s memory cache works best with song files that are smaller than 9 MB. That’s plenty for songs in the MP3 or AAC formats (Chapter 4). But if you’re listening to AIFF tracks you copied straight from the CD without compression (you know who you are), the larger file sizes may overload the cache, and your battery won’t last as long.

That backlight, while illuminating, is also a power drain. Use the light sparingly for better battery life.

What about the iPod’s charge when you’re not using it? Turns out that it quietly sips juice even when it’s turned off. In 14 days (or much sooner), the battery will empty itself completely. In short, treat the iPod as you would a pet snake: Give it a big meal every few days.

The bigger 60-gigabyte model is rated for up to 20 hours of music-spinning, or 4 hours of slideshows, or 3 hours of movies. The wee iPod Nano gets up to 14 hours of music between charges, or 4 hours of photo slideshows scored to your favorite music tracks.

But you can expect shorter life in the real world (see the box on Section 1.2.4 for more details). If your iPod is conking out too soon, contact Apple Support by phone or Web. Originally, Apple made the iPod without a replaceable battery, at least until it faced a spate of power cells with early deaths (and owner complaints). Apple now offers a $59 battery replacement program and a special AppleCare warranty just for iPods.

Note

If you don’t mind voiding your iPod’s warranty—or if it’s already expired—and you’re up for a little manual labor, you can pry the case open and replace the battery yourself (Section 12.3.6.3).