Sucking the life out of my iTouch

[cyclistca]

I read that I should completely drain the battery the first few times. Well I'm going on a trip in about a week so I want to condition the battery before I go. The problem is that I don't have a lot of time to use it right now. I've turned on WiFi. Is there anything else I can do eat up the battery?

 

[pm]

WThe battery in a Touch is a lithium polymer battery - which uses uses a polymer electrolyte but is otherwise similar to a lithium ion battery in terms of characteristics. It's been my experience with electric vehicles that you never want to drain a lithium ion or lithium polymer battery if you can help it - the only reason to do so is to reset the electric gauge that these batteries use... but this has nothing to do with the battery and only helps get a more accurate reading.

From wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_ion

Guidelines for prolonging Li-ion battery life

Unlike Ni-Cd batteries, lithium-ion batteries should be charged early and often. However, if they are not used for a long time, they should be brought to a charge level of around 40%?60%. Lithium-ion batteries should not be frequently fully discharged and recharged ("deep-cycled") like Ni-Cd batteries

I would recommend not doing anything to your new Touch - but if you are concerned about the battery life on the trip, I would recommend buying an extra battery pack from a grocery store or home improvement store's battery rack. Something like this:
http://www.energizer.com/produ...d-battery-charger.aspx

They are cheap, easy to find (my local Safeway and Home Depot have them) and will double your battery life.

 

[boomhower]

pm sounds like he has a pretty good handle on the battery tech but if you want to drain it crank the screen brightness to the max and loop a movie.