I’m a heavy user of Apple products; more specifically the iPod nano and my lovely Powerbook, so I thought I’d try something new and throw some tips out there on how to maximize the battery life on your iPod.

1. Turn off Backlight — The most resource intensive mechanism in the iPod (except the shuffle for obvious reasons; and the hardrive in the 30GB and 60GB iPod is probably a different case) is the backlight so turning it off or even minimizing the amount of time it stays lit to two or five seconds can increase your iPod’s battery life. Head onto Settings > Backlight Timer > Off
2. Use Smart Playlists — Of course, every time you use the scroll-wheel to navigate or skip songs you’re using battery power and Smart Playlists exist for a reason, so use them! Instead of skipping songs often, utilize Playlists to create collections of songs you love and further extend your battery’s life. You could use Tangerine, which is currently in beta and free to create playlists for you. Paul Stamatiou wrote a review of Tangerine. And here are some guides as to how to construct Smart Playlists.
3. Adjust Volume Limit — The higher the volume, the more power the iPod uses and thus keeping it at a normal level will lengthen the battery life. Since the introduction of Volume Limit, you could set how loud the volume will go before it reaches its max. Now, I realize setting it at a ‘normal’ level could sometimes cripple you in certain circumstances like riding a loud bus. Play with it and see what works for you. Besides, it’ll help save your hearing! Head to Settings > Volume Limit > adjust accordingly

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