iPod Nano 4gb: Battery Life

[first500]

I am just about to purchase a new player, and have opted for a Nano, as I have used Rockbox before on a (now broken) Ondio, and loved it.  The manuals for Nano Rockbox say that battery life is reduced from original Apple running, but will get better as the interface develops.

Can someone tell me what stage the battery life is up to now?  Is it yet as good(?) as or better than native iPod Nano?

[Llorean]

http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/IpodRuntime

[ryran]

Is it yet as good(?) than native iPod Nano?

In short, no. Not at all.

[first500]

Is development of Rockbox for the Nano really ongoing, and will battery life be a priority, or do you think it is now "as good as it gets"?

[Llorean]

There isn't particular focus on the battery. It's not a priority *now* because there are many other areas for work to take place, and battery improvemens will in many cases come with better knowledge of the hardware, but this is far from as good as it will get, most likely

[first500]

Thanks, Laurean, thats quite encouraging.  I think I will take the plunge.

A beginner's question, really - how often do you think it would be useful to update the Nano with the latest daily build? Weekly, monthly?

I am happy with the features I have read about that are already implemented, but would like to notice the steady improvement that looks like is taking place, amd of course to take advantage of any improvements to battery life that these may have as a side-effect.

[Llorean]

Sometimes there aren't *noticeable* features for weeks, as lots of minor changes happen, or bug fixes, or other things, and sometimes new features go in daily, so it's really hard to say how often it would be good to upgrade.

Your best bet is to just upgrade "when you feel like it" and hope something new has showed up.

[ryran]

orrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
You could start checking the CVS changes on a daily basis so you'll start to understand more and more and thennnnnn you'll actually be able to decide when to upgrade.

But seriously though: If once you get going, you find yourself satisfied (not missing any features or battling any buggies), just update every month or so.