Apple iPod Update Increases Battery Life

hhoor writes "Apple has released iPod Software 1.2.6. According to Apple, 'After updating the iPod, customers can expect at least 10 days of standby battery life on a full charge.' So maybe now it's really time to buy one."

FP!

[gqgreg]

Sounds good to me! I wish there was some feedback here before I update my iPod, to see if Apple messes something up on my system.

hmmm......

[megajini]

More battery life for me means more energy for the unused 2nd processor. I'm eagerly awaiting what this chip is good for.... *since I payed for it* So now my iPod is full charged and I'm stopping time, we'll see...

Out of stock

[Zo0ok]

Time to buy one? I have tried buying one since the beginning of January. Out of stock... new upcoming models not yet relesased...

That is for the 5Gb PC iPod (for a friend of mine), of course I have had my own Mac iPod for more than a year now.

Re:Annoying Lock-ups

[Oculus Habent]

Really. I've had my iPod well over a year now and the battery is still working fine.

As for unreplaceable, the casing can be opened and the battery can be disconnected from the iPod. Of course, finding one could be tough. Perhaps Apple will offer in-store replacement of the battery. That still wouldn't help me when mine finally does die.

Clock and firmware

[elliotj]

After updating my firmware the last time (from 1.1 to 1.2) I noticed a significant reduction in standby time. I did some research and found that the inclusion of a clock was the culprit: the iPod was never designed to keep time using a small power trickle in the same way that say, a digital watch, or your PC, is able to keep time without requiring a massive battery. The solution was to revert to v. 1.1 of the firmware and I got my standby life back.

Does anyone know if the new firmware removes the clock feature? Personally I have no real desire to upgrade: I don't need any more functions from the device - I only need it to play tunes and that's it.

My pet iPod-peeves:

[Erik K. Veland]

- Occasionally shuts down when shoving the remote-control into the jack. I have to smoothly press it it.
- Said remote-controls connection is finnicky. I have to press it into place a bit too often if I have it in my pocket.
- The clock is some archaic system with letters instead of the standard 24-hour clock used in most parts of the world.

None of these are deal-breakers though. I just love my 20 GB iPod. Bring on AAC already Apple!

What happened to the missing versions

[MrMickS]

I keep my iPod up to date but it's running 1.2.1 what happened to the missing versions? I know that there was a 1.2.2 to stop deafening the French but what about the others?

Re:Clock and firmware

[JArneaud]

I just updated my 5GB to 1.2.6 and the only strange thing that I noticed was that the clock was frozen at 12:00:00 1Jan 2002. If you manually adjust the date and time it starts running normally. I haven't found a way to turn it off again, short of running an iPod restore.

Could this be a power-saving feature? Disabling the clock until the user actually decides to start using it? (I know I never do, so it wouldn't be a big loss and the extra run time would be great)

mechanical scrollwheel

[Doctor Jekyl]

* Increased playback time on scroll-wheel iPods
* Longer stand-by time for all iPods

Since battery life has improved for the mechanical scroll wheel iPods, as well as for all around standby time for all iPods, does that mean iPods with the mechanical scroll wheel now have better battery life than the new ones? Or were they behind before and now they are caught up?

In any case, I like the mechanical scroll wheel better. It feels more precise to me. Except that it gets craps stuck under it on the sides. :-(

About Software Update

[megajini]

There are good reasons not doing so:

• SoftwareUpdate updates existing Software not Hardware
• Updating every Mac was done by Apple once (at least my machines loaded it), and I think it was waste of time and bandwith for most people...
• Doing kind of "auto-detection" isn't very original either, as I often connect my iPod to various Macs/PCs just to transfer data (WOW - Floppy with 20Gb and FAST) - thus ALL of them would have to download iPod Updates forever

Beautiful would be an automatic Internet Check performed through iTunes whenever an iPod is connect and an internet link is active. Then only required data should be loaded, because I don't nead French and so on... (native German speaker)

Re:Out of stock

[amarkham]

If the 5GB is discontinued, then perhaps that means that a 40GB version is imminent. I'm hoping that this coinincides with the announcement of the music service that has been talked about recently.

Would also love an FM receiver, but maybe that's asking too much...

Anybody have any G2 on the above?

Re:Holy Crap

[clarkcox3]

Most of that 51 MB is the iPod Software Updater application itself (i.e. it goes on your Mac's HD, and not on the iPod). Also, remember that the iPod's firmware is itself 32 MB.

Now just give us other formats

[Anonymous Coward]

PLEASE- OGG, AAC (mpeg-2 & mpeg-4), mp3pro and MPC support.

iTunes LAME plug-in (and those presets), Accerator (for mp4/aac experimenting) and Audion (mp3pro for spoken word/audio books) all help, but iPods restrictions keep me from fully taking the sound to the next level.

Please Apple live up to the openness you're stating with OS X. Have your music device be as agnostic with sound as your OS is with fonts, etc.

Re:Clock and firmware

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't need any more functions? Really? Want any bugs fixed?

How about creating and editing playlists or at least minimally being able to queue up the next N song(s)? Ever try to be a dj for some friends or pass your pod around the car and let others pick tracks? I find myself watching the remaining time constantly and having to get the timing just right when switching tracks so as not to cut the current track short or allow the logical next track in the list to start playing before you click to play your chosen track.

How about that delay between tracks? Surely it's possible to make an album played on the pod sound just like the original album...

Or what about showing the "All Songs" list for an Artist in alphabetical order (it could be an option, but I consider the current behavior a bug). I have 230 Zappa tracks on my pod right now and finding a particular one in the list is quite difficult. Note that I need to do this to listen to Zappa (or King Crimson, etc) on random, usually by album. Even worse is trying to find a song in the "All Songs" list for a Genre.

Surely there are many improvements in the software that could/should be made.

Anyone want ogg support?

Why does the iPod have no off switch?

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

Every other gadget I own has an off switch. But the iPod doesn't have one. The problem isn't firmware. It runs the battery flat because it has no off switch. This was the first thing I noticed when I took my iPod out of its box. How could Apple have missed this? Don't they have a QA department? Don't they teach electrical engineers about on/off switches these days? Maybe it would upset the sleek design of the device. But an off switch would really have made all the difference. Even 10 days is kinda annoying. For example if I go on vacation it'd be nice to have the iPod for the flights and not have to worry about it running down in the intervening week.

Re:Why does the iPod have no off switch?

[Del Vach]

I can't speak to standby time, but I believe it does a fairly good job of power management. When it's running, the drive only spins up as often as it needs to refresh the 32 Meg cache. And when you pause it, it powers itself off after... three minutes? So at that point it's only expending however much energy is necessary to:

• Power the LCD
  
• Save the RAM state
  
• Maintain the clock
  

I tend to skip lots of songs, so I get less playtime because I'm forcing the HD to keep spinning up. But I also have a first version 5Gig and my battery life is barely over an hour at this point. Figures I got a Dr. Bott auto charger last week! When I first got it, I was able to get a solid 10+ hours. I'll have to see how much this update improves things.

Buyer Beware

[DaracMarjal]

Yeah I'll probably get modded down for this, and no-one will see it, but here [jon-redfox.com] is a lone voice of dissent warning you about the perils of buying an iPod and about just how stupid they can be at Apple Customer Support.