[P1] Battery life for 1yr old iBook

[Tim Gilman]

>Brett Forrester at 11/25/02 (maybe):
>Interestingly, none of my responders thus far have indicated any sort 
>of expected battery life over the long haul--from original receipt of 
>machine to "time to change the battery for the smoke detector" sort 
>of deadline, which was what prompted my original question.

I just recently (two weeks ago) got myself an iBook/800/12.1".  Before
that, I had a Pismo/500 for almost three years.  Besides the case the
machines are very similar, IMHO.  My Pismo still gets 3.5 hours on a
full charge (original battery) -- with airport enabled, occassional disk
access, and the screen dimmed to 1/4 to 1/3 brightness.  That after more
than 2.5 years of continuous use.  The new iBook gets more than 4.5
hours in a similar configuration (hey, tangents make it fun, right?),
but who knows how it'll be in a year.

Over on the low-end-mac's G3 powerbook list (I'm no longer active
there), people reported similar battery lives..  either 3+ hours, or
less than 45 minutes.  It's very likely that some batteries are just
crap.  It's too hard to tell what the statistics are, but you're not
alone in seeing crappy battery performance after a year.  

=- Tim
tgilman at eudaemon.net