Did a search, but no answer to my specific question. Maybe my search capability isn't good enough, but here goes: what type of usage is best for longevity of my iPad battery? Should I leave it plugged in until I need to go mobile, or should I simply use it off the grid and recharge when it runs out of oomph?

I did find something on the Apple web site saying that you need to run it completely down about once per month---but this is merely to keep the battery charge indicator calibrated.

Can anyone shed light on this issue?

Thanks.

I don't think it has been out long enough for anyone to make a definite determination about the best way to get the maximum life from the battery. Theoretically they are good for 1000 charge cycles, so even if you ran it down and fully charged it every day, that would be nearly 3 years and they haven't even been out a year yet!

These new batteries do not have a "memory" like the older ones, so there is no harm in keeping it topped off before it is completely discharged.

Thanks a lot C4! Great info. I will just do whatever seems convenient and let the chips fall where they will (or won't!).

Apple used to have detailed info on battery life on their website and in the iPad user guide.

I try to keep mine around 60 - 70% so that in the event of a power outage I have music and movies for the entire day until bedtime, and enough juice left over to power it as an alarm clock.

It lasts so long I find myself just waiting until its dead to charge...not because I need to but because 50% will last a whole day....20% is almost 3 hours.....I don't go running to a charger everytime it gets under 60% like my phone.

Also they seem to have considerately changed the battery warning to 10% as opposed to 20% which was a really distant warning!

One more question, if I may?

Should I completely power down my iPad each evening or simply put it to sleep by tapping the main power switch?

In other words, what is the power consumption in the sleep mode?

Thanks.

Well that depends...

Personally, I leave mine on all the time and just let it go to "sleep". But then again, I do not have it set to automatically check for email and other things that could drain the battery even if the screen is off.

I've had mine about 2 weeks now and let it go to sleep every night. I'm configured to connect to our Exchange server whenever in range of a configured WiFi connection. My battery lasts about 3 days before I have to charge it.

I left mine on over the weekend recently and was shocked to see the charge was at 100% when I went to use it on Monday morning!

I tend to turn mine off, mostly because one of my main apps (Pulse) crashes a couple of times a week and it seem like a refresh couldn't hurt. Many apps in the app store note that after installing you should power cycle the iPad to avoid instability, so I figure it can't hurt.

And Pulse (and other memory intensive apps) seem to be happier since I started doing it.