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Thursday August 10, 2006
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 One of the pitfalls of owning a Mac notebook, whether it's a Powerbook or the new Macbooks, is the uncertainty of battery life. Typical battery life for a Powerbook and Macbook Pro is around 2-3 hours of constant use. You get a little more juice with the Macbook and previous iBooks. Mac OS X includes a battery gauge that tells you how much battery is left. What it doesn't tell you is the current capacity of the battery and the depreciation of it over time.
Coconutbattery 2.5 is a pretty cool Mac app that tells you the current capacity of the your battery, in relation to what it was originally. In time, you can predetermine a faulty or an aging battery. You can also get information about battery loadcycles, or how often did you fully load the battery; the current charger and whether you attached the right one; and information about the age of your Mac. Pretty useful tool, and most important: It's free! You can even add it as a Dashboard Widget. Thanks VersionTracker
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August 11, 2006 3:08 AM
When I downloaded it, all I got was the program with no widget. I must be doing something right. 43 months, 215 load cycles and still 99% of original capacity, having lost only 30mAh. That's consistent with battery life, a little over three hours. So >:-P to all the people who claim it's terrible to keep a laptop plugged in all the time when not in use.
August 11, 2006 10:06 AM
It's on the developer's website: http://www.coconut-flavour.com/coconutbattery/index.html I'm not doing too well on a 17 month old PBG4: 52% of original capacity. I guess it's because I use the battery daily on the train. enjoy!