[mladenkovacevic]

I just read somewhere that to condition the battery of a phone you should do the usual full discharge/charge cycle every once in a while but also try charging the device via a computer's USB port (the slow way) instead of using the wall plug adapter.

[cbsmith]

Yeah... you'll want to ignore some of that. http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_li...

There really isn't any memory in them. There is value to slow charging, but even more important is temperature and avoiding keeping them near full charge for an extended period of time.

[bri3d]

There isn't any "memory" in a lithium polymer battery's chemistry like was found in NiCd and early NiMh batteries, but on some devices, a full charge/discharge cycle functions to program a true digital memory in the battery management controller about the actual properties of the battery.

From the same source: http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/battery_calibrati...

[polshaw]

>There is value to slow charging

Only to a point. The provided charger tends to be well within this limit (no benefit to using USB).

[cbsmith]

Agreed. The real trick is to not keep the charge up at full.

[runjake]

It's generally a good idea to never take advice from someone who answers with "I just read somewhere..."

[Evbn]

Down voters please explain. He not reply so far is a link that substantiates the above advice. An Apple.com recommends a occasional full discharge, mainly to calibrate the percentage estimator.

[adestefan]

There was a link making the rounds late last week about the "best" amperage to charge lithium ion batteries. Someone made the false remark that using a computers USB port to "slow charge" is better because it means you're staying under this value. However, that's not what the article said nor are wall changers actually above the stated value.

The better takeaway from the article is to keep Li batteries cooler than ~95F to extended their life.

There is also no need to condition Li batteries. Apple used to have you do a calibration step for new batteries, but that was to reset the circuitry that was used to estimate the charge left in a battery. The old replaceable batteries had this built into the battery (the little button you pushed to get the row of green lights.) In new MacBooks this is all factory calibrated.