Magic Trackpad Battery Life

I'm adding this question to the group in spite of the several existing inquiries that have been submitted over the year or so since the TrackPad has been introduced by Apple because none of them have received a suitable response to the original question.

There appears to be a common theme and after my 3rd TrackPad (yes three), I have drawn the conclusion that this is a design and not a manufacturing defect causing these TrackPads to consume battery life very rapidly. In the past there was a firmware update that I thought would fix the issue but it never really did. I can't seem to find any other details on this from the Apple site and hope someone from Apple are reviewing this to provide further guidance.

Here's what I'm wondering:

1. Is there some way to help those of us who really enjoy using the TrackPad, to change some settings, or perhaps some CLI in Terminal to help reduce the rapid consumption of power by the TrackPad?
2. Is there an unadvertised firmware update that maybe we're missing?

Fortunately I had to move to rechargeable batteries because I just couldn't afford to keep regular batteries in the TrackPad. But that said, has anyone have recommendations for a great rechargeable battery that maybe holds a charge longer than others?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

Regards