After nearly three years of almost daily use, my trusty old iPod was starting to give up the ghost. But thanks to a new install-it-yourself battery, it has a new lease on life – and it's even better than new.
Wired News tested a $40, high-capacity, 2,100 mAh (milliamp hour) replacement iPod battery from Newer Technology. It was easy to install and delivered 22 hours of continuous play – more than double the play time of the original battery. (The battery tested is for first- and second-generation iPods; Newer also sells one for third-generation iPods.)
Acquired in October 2001, and in almost daily use, my iPod was down to two or three hours of continuous play from a battery originally rated for eight to 10 hours.
Before breaking it open, I updated the iPod's firmware, choosing to wipe the drive while doing so. Oddly, this operation restored the battery to its former glory. After loading up a selection of songs and hitting "shuffle," the iPod played for 8.5 hours continuously, almost to the minute.
When asked about this on an earlier occasion, Apple Computer's iPod product manager, Danika Cleary, said she'd heard lots of reports, but she didn’t know why it worked.
Perhaps wiping the drive resets the battery's digital calibration. In addition, it appears the battery was inadvertently well-treated. Typically, my iPod was used for an hour in the morning going to work, where it was plugged in, and again in the afternoon returning home, where it was again plugged in – which just happens to be the perfect use cycle, according to Battery University.
Newer's battery upgrade kit includes two nylon tools for prying open the iPod's case. Popping it open is straightforward, and the battery is right on top. The hardest part of removing the old battery is peeling it off the super-sticky foam pads holding it in place.
(While changing the battery, I learned some interesting things about the old iPods' FireWire connection. See the Cult of Mac blog for details.)
After installing the new battery, the iPod was again set to shuffle through a random selection of songs. Started in the evening, the iPod played all through the night, all the next day and most of the following evening – a total of 22 hours. Again, almost to the minute.
Twenty-two hours is more than twice the estimated play time for the original battery, and nearly twice the run time of the latest iPods.
"The technology has really improved," said Larry O'Connor, CEO of Other World Computing, which owns the Newer Technology brand. "It's higher-capacity and more efficient. More power goes to the iPod. Less power is dissipated while it's drained."
O'Connor said he'd heard of the replacement batteries running up to 24 hours, though mileage varies, of course, depending on usage patterns and environmental factors like temperature.
O'Connor said the company has received only two reports of installation problems, despite sending out 3,000 to 4,000 replacement batteries. Customers who apparently failed to follow the simple instructions had trouble. "Sometimes people do things that completely defy logic," he said.
There are alternatives, of course, including Apple's $100 battery-replacement program. Firms like PDASmart and iPodResQ, among several others, replace batteries and repair FireWire ports and audio jacks.
Installation instructions are posted when you buy a battery from Laptops for Less or iPodminiBattery.com.
Replacing the battery yourself is the way to go. It's half the price of getting someone else to do it, and very easy to do.
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For more news about Apple Computer and the Mac community, visit Leander Kahney's Cult of Mac blog (RSS).
