i'm sure geeks post ipod battery tests on their geeky weblogs all the time, so here is my contribution. i've read a lot of horror stories about the deterioration of ipod batteries and apple's recent settlement with customers (most of this pertains to early generation ipods, i think). last night, on a whim, i decided to test my ipod (20gb click wheel) battery.

i didn't plan this out very well (or at all) - after letting it charge to full, i unplugged it from my powerbook at 9:30 pm, turned it on, and let it go. when i woke up this morning at 7:50 am, it was still going, and i've been monitoring it since i got out of the shower at about 8:15.

here are the details of the test:
the apple ear bud headphones were plugged in about 5 min after starting. the play mode was set to "shuffle songs" and the volume was about 65% for the duration of the trial. the led was activated 4 times and stayed on for 2 seconds each time.

here are the results:
the ipod finally ran out of juice at 10:20 am. thus, the battery lasted for 12 hrs and 50 min. the battery indicator displayed an "empty" battery for the last 75 min. the ipod played a total of 191 complete mp3s. (corresondingly, the average track duration was about 4.03 min.) the 192nd track, which was playing when the ipod finally quit, was the larry levan remix of central line's walking into sunshine. btw, this is a great remix and you should definitely listen to it if you haven't.

overall, i'm very happy with the results of this test, especially since i have generally ignored apple's suggestions for extending battery life. i am now at ease, knowing that my ipod battery is not a dud. (unfortunately, my powerbook battery is a different story entirely.)