Ipod shuffle dying?

I have had my iPod shuffle for a good while now, and lately, it has been showing signs of its age. It all lies in with the battery, it takes about 5-10 mins to charge before the light turns green, and then it only lasts for about 2 hours until it dies. So is there anything i can do to increase its longevity, or is it past that point?

The battery is probably deteriorating, as all batteries do. I doubt there is much of anything you can do about it.

Ah, that's disappointing, what's normally the lifespan of these shuffles?

That depends VERY much on how often you drain it and charge it (aka "cycling"). The batteries used in most electronics have a definite "cycle life" before they begin deteriorating. I don't know about the shuffle's expected "cycle life" so I can't comment on how long it should last, but for comparison purposes my wife has one of the second-generation ones. She refills and recharges it about once a month.

We've had it since fall 2007, and it continues to work as expected.

EDIT: I should add that we also own a third-gen iPod that we got in 2004 that continues to work (on the rare occasion that we use it). The secret to keeping the battery life going as long as possible in these items SEEMS TO BE (as in, "this is my opinion only") to always let the battery run all the way down, and charge it all the way up.

Yea, that's what this one is as well, a 2nd gen. Ours was being used once a day for 2-3 hours, so it had its fair share of usage. I guess it's time to get another one

They're quite cheap on the refurb store ...