5th Gen iPod To Triple Battery Life?

  Leave a comment      Email this to a friend TrustedReviews Newsletters

It’s Friday afternoon, a time for daydreaming and planning how to get away with doing very little this weekend (I am struck by the line from the cult film Office Space: "I did nothing. I did absolutely nothing, and it was everything I thought it could be”). Reluctantly, I can’t help you with the second of those two things – you’ll just have to figure that one out yourself – but I can give something to daydream about: a triple battery life 5G iPod.

Yup, that’s the potential for the upcoming fifth generation iPods after PortalPlayer (the company that provides Apple with its system chips) announced the PP5022. Who with what? I hear you ask. Well, the PP5022 is the next generation of the PP5020 (used in all current 4G iPods), and its major new benefit is in offering triple the battery life of its predecessor. Are you feeling me now? If Apple won’t let out the slightest squeak on its developments… go to the source.

Now, it doesn’t take a mathematical genius to work out that triple battery life would bring a typical 20GB iPod up to 36 hours of playback. Of course, what is more likely to happen is that Apple will take advantage of the PP5022 to integrate more power intensive features, not just boost playback time. We are talking colour screens here, wireless connectivity or even just making the battery smaller to cut down on overall product size. Either way, however, Apple suddenly has space to experiment.

Naturally, the notoriously secretive company has declined to comment on PortalPlayer’s announcement or indeed whether they will take up the offer to use the PP5020’s successor at all but rumours suggest an early version of the PP5022 was behind the huge jump in battery life seen in the recently revised iPod minis. Anyone with a 6GB mini, a screwdriver and more money than sense care to confirm this for us? Happy daydreaming!

Links:
PortalPlayer
Apple UK

Add your comment