I’ve noticed that no matter how much I charge my iPod Mini, it will only last 10 minutes on the way to work in the morning on cold days. It’s not a dead battery issue, it’s the cold weather as confirmed here:

Keep it at room temperature

One of the most important ways to keep your iPod battery functioning is to keep it at a moderate temperature. Cold temperatures slow down the battery’s chemical reactions causing the battery to appear to be drained long before it should be. When using you iPod in cold weather, try putting it inside your coat to keep it warmer than the outside air. Hot temperatures speed up the chemical reactions causing the battery to wear-out sooner than it should. Because of this you should not leave your iPod in a hot car in the summer and only use iPod covers that allow the heat that the iPod generates to dissipate.

That crazy chemistry. I should have paid attention in 10th grade.

Speaking of iPods, I came across another Nano. I had to return the previous one because it was scratched so bad. I discovered about invisibleSHIELD which allegedly does a good job protecting it. More word on it once I receive the product.

My iPod track history is as follows:

1) 2nd Gen 10GB: Battery died after a year which I replaced, then the HDD died. Sold it on eBay for $120 to someone who needed parts.

2) 3rd Gen 10GB: Same as above but it’s sitting around in a box somewhere.

3) 4GB Silver Mini: Old faithful. Had it 1 1/2 years and still works as advertised minus the battery issue I mentoned above.

4) 1GB Shuffle: Bought for my fiancée. Sits in a drawer somewhere at my house.

5) 4GB Nano: Again, bought for my fiancée. Survived an attempted mugging. Became scratched so bad (from normal use, not the mugging) that I returned it. The Nanos are made of really cheap materials.

6) 60GB Video: Actually belongs to my employer. Has a bad mar down the right side of the screen from general use. It appears the Video iPods use the same shoddy materials as the Nanos.

7) 2GB Nano: Going to let my fiancée use it, after I apply invisibleSHIELD.

Wow, seven iPods in three years. In contrast I’ve only owned four pairs of shoes in that period of time.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 20th, 2005 at 11:13 am and is filed under Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.