Can I tell you a secret? I'm still not sure if that whole "let your battery discharge completely" thing is fact or fiction. Part of me wants to let my iPhone work its way down to that thin, red sliver of battery to ensure a long, healthy battery life—but the more practical part of me plugs it in to juice up each night before bed. Some days, it leaves me more prepared.
See this pic right here? That's a guy who's forgotten to charge his phone for the night, and is now stuck in a power outage with his only line of communication slowly slipping away into a diminishing red sliver.
OK, not really. But that's what I see.
Maybe I'm paranoid, but I like to prepare for the worst. And if that means charging my phone every night, so be it. I head into each day with a full battery on my iPhone and laptop, ready to take on any unexpected event with plenty of phone calls, web news and maybe a super-quick DVD marathon.
So last night, as the people of Atlanta calmly prepared for a massive snowfall panicked to buy milk and bread when the weatherman announced 4 inches of flurries were headed our way, I sat pretty knowing that I was ready if power cut out or I couldn't get home today.
What about you? Do you charge every night? Why or why not? Tell us in the comments!
(Images: Flickr member Johnny Vulkan licensed for use under Creative Commons, Flickr member MichaelKuhn_pics licensed for use under Creative Commons.)
The Roeders' Modern Life is Beautiful 
How To Keep Your Bathroom Clean In 5 Minutes A Day
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Harlequin Mexican Tile
Shopping for Ice Cream Makers: 5 Models We've Reviewed
How to Cook Moist & Tender Chicken Breasts Every Time
Comments (10)
Not sure where you're getting your info from, but no one is telling you to let your iPhone drain before charging it, at least no one from Apple is (though they do recommend going through one full charge cycle each month). Random people may tell you this, as some rechargeable batteries are like that, and many may not realize there are different types of batteries. But the iPhone battery is lithium based and will not develop a memory, however you can damage the battery by fully discharging it, or even worse if you let it sit with a dead battery. Lithium batteries work best when used frequently. Charge it often, whether it's dead or not. But don't do it out of convenience, do it to make battery last longer.
Batteries used to have this problem. They no longer do. About 10 years ago I had a laptop that had a utility as part of the BIOS that you could run to fully discharge the battery. It would turn the screen brightness all the way up, max out the fan speed and read from the hard drive like mad until the battery was dead and you could plug it in and charge it back up. There's a reason laptops no longer include this ability.
This battery thing is driving me crazy. If it is a Lithium based battery, do whatever the heck you want to it. My iPhone is plugged in for about 20 hours a day. This is how Lithium batteries are designed. They can't overcharge, they don't undercharge, you don't need to condition them.
You're thinking of the older NiCad batteries that you needed to drain all the way or they'd get a "memory" on them.
Read over this:
http://kipre.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/4-myth-and-facts-about-lithium-ion-polymer-batteries/
I expected more accurate info from a supposedly "techno-centric" blog. You should run articles like this by the nerdiest most know-it-all guy in the office first, and I guarantee he won't hesitate to point out these issues right off the bat.
Hello,i am from Lond and i have a UK iPhone4.
I use to charge every night and sometimes i use to fully discharging it once for week. That is so horrible.
I cracked up when I read this post as I live in Decatur, GA and our power was out Sunday morning before the storm hit. When the power came back on, I made sure that my cellphone was fully charged. I usually charge it every other day.
I charge my phone every night because I use it A TON. Even with iPhone 4 (better battery life than the 3g), I consistently get down to the red.
I charge every night, partly because my charging station is right next to my keys. If it weren't right there, I'd be forgetting either keys or phone each morning as I stumble around in a fog. As it is, if I don't put my coffee mug next to my keys, I tend to stumble out without it, cursing the dawn.
I charge for I am a nightowl in a morning bird world.
I also have one of those battery packs for my phone- so if I'm traveling or working a superlong shift, I put it in the battery case to double its life. I've almost never used it all up in the battery case.
Recharge every night both phone and laptop. Keeps me feeling safe. I live on one of the highest elevations in CT, we now have over 2 feet of snow and still coming down. I need to be sure my communication to the outside world is open..umm Okay, I need to make sure my laptop is running because I have nothing else to do.
One of my night rituals, syncing and charging overnight.