User profile for user: X2THEBOX
X2THEBOX Author
User level: Level 1
35 points

Show iPod Battery Percentage

When you want to look at the battery life on a laptop, you have various options. Among the best are the ability to view just an icon of your battery, the time left until your battery is out, and then finally, the PERCENTAGE CHARGE that your battery has left.
Basically, I want to have this feature on my video iPod. Is there a way to do it? Some little hack/piece of software? Because really, if you could look in the upper right corner of your iPod's display and see the percentage of battery life you have left instead of some vague green or red battery, it would be so much better.

Hope someone out there knows of something.
Thanks
-Nate

MacBookPro. Intel Core Duo. 2.0 Ghz. 1GB RAM. Mac OS X 10.4.10, Mac OS X (10.4.6), Video iPod, and I have a mouse for my computer.

Posted on Sep 21, 2007 2:56 PM

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3 replies
User profile for user: PT
PT
User level: Level 7
20,894 points

Sep 21, 2007 3:12 PM in response to X2THEBOX

Keep in mind that the iPod battery indicator is an estimate at best and sometimes can be off when the iPod has been topped off a lot without a big discharge (indicater gets out of calibration). So Apple likely doesn't want anything that gives an actual number because people will expect the number to be exactly right, which is not possible, so you get a vague bar instead.
I am not aware of any hacks to do what you want.
Patrick
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User profile for user: AquaStreak
AquaStreak
User level: Level 2
265 points

Sep 21, 2007 5:08 PM in response to X2THEBOX

Your best bet would be to run iPodLinux or Rockbox (assuming you have a compatible player) as they have a battery meter number; although, it isn't a percentage, but a number that goes to about 600 or so (I'm not sure of the exact number).

You could also run Diagnostics on an iPod (reset the iPod, and on click wheel models, hold << and center immediately after the Apple logo appears, until you see a backwards Apple). If you know what you're doing in here, you can also find a charge level, but like iPodLinux or Rockbox, its not a percent, but a number with a max of several hundreds. However, this isn't practical as you'd need to reboot your iPod just to see this and you can't play music while doing this.

Just my thoughts.
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Show iPod Battery Percentage

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