"Advertising Age, which is where Cramer said he got the idea of recommending Energizer, recently reported in an article titled "Energizer Aiming to Be Big Player in iPod Economy" that the new battery could add up to 46 hours of playtime between iPod charges.

Moreover, the article states that Energizer is coming out with a new charger that could bring dead iPod batteries back to life. This is a big deal, because Apple's (AAPL - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating) iPod battery tends to die after two years of use, Cramer said. "

Whether you like him or not...is this quote correct about the iPOD and battery?

These pretzels are making me thirsty!

Who is this Cramer and why should we care? Are you talking about the guy from Seinfeld? He spells his name with a K, I believe. Is he getting into consumer electronics now?

Like any other consumer rechargeable battery, the iPod's depletes after about two years, yes. The death clock on any battery starts ticking the moment of manufacture. I don't know anything about this Energizer battery you're talking about since there is no link.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/2007 07:47PM by SteveO.

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Like any other consumer rechargeable battery, the iPod's depletes after about two years, yes. The death clock on any battery starts ticking the moment of manufacture..[/quote

I bought several batteries for my cellphone and they were DOA just aged not used. Got a new phone with a readily available cheap battery. No more $30 mistakes.

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Da Good Life

Oh, lord are you living in a cave? and can't you answer a simple question without sacrcasm? ...do iPOD batteries go out after 2 yrs hence the need for something like this new battery charger.

I can't say for sure that it's true of every iPod, but the ones that I've had open used lithium batteries.

Lithium cells don't come back.

It's possible to resuscitate some Nicad batteries with a good spark, but it's not something most people would want to try in their homes.

[www.makezine.com]

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samintx
Oh, lord are you living in a cave?

\

The Lord is living in a cave?

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I am not Ryan Seacrest, and I do not approve this message.

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samintx
Oh, lord are you living in a cave? and can't you answer a simple question without sacrcasm? ...do iPOD batteries go out after 2 yrs hence the need for something like this new battery charger.

Yes, the batteries ability to fully charge diminishes over time. This affects all batteries though, not just iPods. But the iPod batteries do not just die automatically once they hit their 2nd birthday.

As for the need for a charger that can bring the batteries back to life, it seems like a gimmick to me. I think Cramer is grasping on this one. He doesn't really "get" tech. Just last year he was banging the tables on AMD, and begging people to sell Intel. This was right before the C2D chips shipped. Any loon could see AMDs run about about to end, but not Cramer. We know where the respective stocks are today. Granted Intel hasn't skyrocketed, but man, if you bought AMD last year and still have it you are hurting.

NiCads would die do to internal gassing. This is often referred to as the "memory effect", a misnomer.

There have been high current pulsing chargers that resuscitate nicads back to life. I made one when I was a kid, from a Popular Electronics article. It worked really well. And it was *much* more user friendly than the technique MacMagus referred to.

I believe all iPods use some form of Lithium-Ion battery, and that may be the Lithium polymer battery.

Depending on care and use the usual outside life expectancy is about two years. The perceived life expectancy can be shorter if it sat on the shelf a long time before being placed into service.

Since the iPod battery is not user friendly, it would be a big deal if one could get 46hrs between charges and dead batteries could be revived.

And iPods wouldn't be the only devices to benefit from such a charger.

---

I am that Masked Man.

All you can do, is all you can do.

There’s trouble — it's time to play the sound of my people.

Your boos mean nothing to me, I've seen what you cheer for.

Insisting on your rights without acknowledging your responsibilities isn’t freedom, it’s adolescence.

I've been to the edge of the map, and there be monsters.

We are a government of laws, not men.

Everybody counts or nobody counts.

When a good man is hurt,
all who would be called good
must suffer with him.

You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

There is no safety for honest men except
by believing all possible evil of evil men.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

You make me pull, I'll put you down.

I *love* SIGs. It's Glocks I hate.

Well, I just ordered a replacement battery....just in case.

[www.goldduo.com]

As MacMagus says, service life for Lithium rechargable batteries is limited. Both LiIion and LiPolymer (used in the iPods) batteries have a life of 2-3 years with from 500 to 1,000 charge cycles in normal use. Shelf life is about the same. After that the batteries will keep less and less of a charge, with the maximum starting to decrease after a few hundred charge cycles. There is no rejuvenation process.

NiCd batteries can be rejuvenated, the process of rejuvenation charging can cause small nickel "whiskers" that form to be either burned off or reabsorbed into the nickel substrate. Similar processes happen in NiMH batteries, but to a smaller extent than in NiCd.

Now careful use can extend life in LiIon batteries, but not greatly. As examples, I have two batteries for my clamshell iBook that are 4 and 6 years old. But neither gives me more than 2 hours of run time, originally I got over 5. And one looks to be going soon as it loses charge faster now when not in use.

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> Moreover, the article states that Energizer is coming out with a new charger that could
> bring dead iPod batteries back to life.

I found the story.
[www.thestreet.com]

Following the link to the Advertising Age article, anyone can see that it says no such thing.

The Advertising age blurb refers to the "Energi to Go" external battery pack that comes with disposable Lithium-Ion batteries and can be used to supplement depleted iPod batteries (or cell phone batteries, or whatever). This seems to be the quote that some idiot at thestreet.com misinterpreted:

"Energizer's senior product manager, expects many people will use it to power iPods whose internal batteries have stopped working, conceivably extending their life for years."

In other words, he hopes that people will turn to buying his power-adapter and his expensive and environmentally hazardous disposable batteries instead of purchasing replacement internal rechargeable batteries for old iPods.

What Cramer has missed is that more or less every consumer electronics store, drug store and supermarket in the country already sells similar devices. It's an already packed niche market and they are entering late.

If that's the whole basis for predicting a rise in the stock price then it ain't gonna rise very far.

The stock peaked on June 28th at just over 100 and has been hovering around that price since then. Cramer predicted that the stock would rise on July 10th... after which it dropped about a point.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/2007 09:34PM by MacMagus.

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MacMagus
>The stock peaked on June 28th at just over 100 and has been hovering around that price since then. Cramer predicted that the stock would rise on July 10th... after which it dropped about a point.

With quality investment advice like that, I'd love to hear his take on the market for pumpkin futures. Bet he thinks they'll peak right around... November 10th.

Quote
samintx
Oh, lord are you living in a cave? and can't you answer a simple question without sacrcasm? ...do iPOD batteries go out after 2 yrs hence the need for something like this new battery charger.

I did answer your question:

Quote
SteveO

Like any other consumer rechargeable battery, the iPod's depletes after about two years, yes. The death clock on any battery starts ticking the moment of manufacture. I don't know anything about this Energizer battery you're talking about since there is no link.