Early model iPods and the battery
 

After buying a 20GB iPod last month and then reading that Apple company
has agreed to certain things for first generation iPod owners as they admit
the early batteries were somewhat defective or they sold the unit with
the idea the battery would last a year and would operate for over 5 hours
before it needed to be recharged.

I read on Kim Komando's Newsletter that a lawyer has set up a website with a
form you may download if you feel you need a new iPod battery or a new
iPod MP3 player. Apple is said to have agreed to paying for part of a new
battery and installation in an old iPod or giving a discount (10% off?) If you
want to buy a new unit. (Big deal.)

The website with the claim form is: http://www.girardgibbs.com/

I saw on the news lastnight something similar. I was under the impression though that they were going to entirely replace most Ipod's purchased before a certain date.

My iPod mini is supposed to get 18 hours of play, but I usually get around 8. I've never seen any battery operated electronic device live up to it's claim. Can you imagine if there were a cell phone that actually had the talk time it advertised?

I have a 1st generation 10 gig iPod. I bought it for over $400. I believe it's been about 3 years since I got it (or whenever the iPods first came out) and have used it extremely frequently every since then, and have zero problems what so ever especially when it comes to the battery. I guess my iPod was blessed or something, because I (knock on wood) have never had any of the battery problems that so many people complained about.

It's not like I "went easy" on my iPod either. I carried it in my pocket all the time, and listened to it pretty much every day. I do have a pretty heavy duty carrying case for it, but I wouldn't think that would make too huge of a differance. I've never had any complaints about my battery life either. I have a couple friends who have iPods Minis and current gen iPods, and I get the impression that mine still gets better battery life than even theirs!

You definitely got lucky! Contrary to that, I bought mine about 1.5 years ago before a semester abroad in London. The battery was already kooky before I got to London and was near useless by the end.

I have a mini and the battery is for shit, I can load it up hit play and turn on the protec button leaveing it my pocket and it will not make it through an 8 hour day at work by much. That's not turing volume up and down using the wheeel for anything just letting it run for 8 hours solid I am pretty sure the battery says I should get around 12 hours on a full charge.....

Oh well it still works and almost 8 is good enough.

I bought a third generation in August of 2003. Last week I got a bunch of papers from Apple telling me about the lawsuit and that I had the option of getting my battery replaced or recieving a free new iPod (at Apple's discretion). It also had the option of getting $50 store credit for it. This is good for me because I have barely used mine simply because the battery is almost useless. I am definatly going to take advantage of this.

3rd generation here. The battery never lasted longer than 6 hours. Now if I am lucky I'll have roughly 3.5 hours of playtime before it dies on me.
Best part is, it tends to die while charging. GG third gen iPods.

another thing I just thought of, when I charge with the FireWire/USB plug it seems like it takes days and never hits a full charge, but as soon as I plug into the wall it says fully charged.