How Accurate is the battery meter?

Because I'm kind of worried! I fully charged my iPod this morning, took it in my car, listened for 20 minutes...turned it "off" by holding play, switched the hold on, and put it in my pocket while I was at work. Then, listened for 20 min on the way home from work...Put it to sleep. ..Listened for a couple of hours more..and now, it says I have maybe 20% left. I thought I was supposed to have up to 12 hrs battery life? I don't use the backlight at all either.

Is there something wrong with my iPod, or am I paranoid?

my ipod is the same way, I don't know how they got 12 hours out of it.

I don't think the iPod battery status indicator is very accurate either. The status for the battery of my iPod was on 0% for about 20 minutes yesterday, so judging from that alone, it's not too precise, but it's a good representation most of the time.... I think.

to the guys with those problems try reclaibrating ur ipod battery /// drain it all the way and then rechaarge it all the way...

The battery status is the electronic equivilent of the weather forecast; Hope for the best but expect less.

I have recalibrated. Actually, twice already in the week I've had it.

At any rate, I'm not terribly sad that my battery isn't lasting for 12 hours, as I always have the car charger, and usually am around the house, but Apple could have told the truth and said, "For most people, this will last about 6-8 hours." It's like buying a sports car, and the company says "This thing will run a quarter mile in 14 seconds", yet 90% of people can only get it to run a quarter mile in 15 seconds.

Stupid Marketing.

He's a good informational section that Apple setup about how to better optimize the longevity of your iPod's battery.

http://www.apple.com/batteries/ipods.html

JSchultz said:

I have recalibrated. Actually, twice already in the week I've had it.

Click to expand...

If it's a new iPod it takes several discharge/charge cycles before the battery will work at full capacity. This seems to be true for all the recent models. In testing posted at www.ipodlounge.com the average was 5 cycles, but some were higher. On the other hand, if this is an older iPod the battery may be reaching the end of its life.

Nope, this is a brand spanking new iPod, with less than 4 cycles on it.

I did my own experiment today, as I've seen other members of this board do. That is, to put an album on repeat, and leave it...check up accordingly, and keep track of time. This morning I left the house at 8:30 AM, and It is now 4:30 PM, And my iPod says 20-25% juice left in it. Thats approximately 8 hours so far. I think it could probably make it another four.

So in learning this, Apple rates their playtime, based on continuous play in which the skip feature,backlight and other things is NEVER used. I frequently skip songs, and pause as well, so maybe that's cutting things down for me. Im mostly happy to know my iPod is ok.

PS, thanks for that info, Badger.