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[Paul Ludington] With iPods continuing to sell faster than Apple can get them to the shelves, the happy owners are interested in getting the best performance for their music listening pleasure. A few simple techniques (many of which will apply to other music players as well) will allow you to maximize your battery performance while listening to the soundtrack of your life.

Keep it at room temperature
One of the most important ways to keep your iPod battery functioning is to keep it at a moderate temperature. Cold temperatures slow down the battery's chemical reactions causing the battery to appear to be drained long before it should be. When using you iPod in cold weather, try putting it inside your coat to keep it warmer than the outside air. Hot temperatures speed up the chemical reactions causing the battery to wear-out sooner than it should. Because of this you should not leave your iPod in a hot car in the summer and only use iPod covers that allow the heat that the iPod generates to dissipate.

Use the hold switch
The hold switch can protect your iPod from inevitable button bumps that will cause your iPod to turn its backlight on or to switch songs or volume. Any button presses require the iPod to respond to the associated command which will drain the battery faster. For all models of the iPod and iPod mini hard drive based players, the hold switch is located at the top near the headphone jack. The iPod shuffle does not have a hold switch but provides a similar function by pressing the play/pause button for 3 seconds.

Pause your iPod
One of the great things about high-capacity music players is their ability to keep pumping out tunes seemingly endlessly. However, if you never stop your player you will realize that the music does in fact stop when the battery dies. Fortunately the geniuses of the world long ago invented pause buttons and Apple has graciously included them on the iPod. When you are in situations in which you are forced to stop listening to your music, press the pause button (don't forget to turn off hold first).

Turn off EQ
While using the iPod's equalizer (EQ) can provide subtle listening enhancements to your music, it also provides not-so-subtle drains on your battery. The EQ forces your iPod's processor to "think" while it changes the frequencies of the music and the thinking processor uses the battery. If you need to get more battery life and can stand listening to the default frequency output of the music you are better off turning off the equalizer altogether. One thing to keep in mind - if you set the EQ on songs in iTunes, the iPod use the setting. To get around this set your EQ to flat on the iPod which will override the per song setting. The equalizer settings can be found on the iPod's "Settings > EQ" menu.

Set the backlight timer
The backlight, while extremely useful when you are searching for songs, causes big performance hits on the battery. Apple provides several settings for the backlight and using a short timer or turning the backlight off completely will use the least power. The backlight settings can be found on the iPod's "Settings > Backlight Timer" menu.

Use small files
The iPod uses sophisticated caching techniques to play songs while using the least amount of power. and the cache works optimally with files less than 9 MB in size. This means that battery life will be best with compressed files (usually MP3 or AAC) rather than full quality AIFF or WAV files. If you can't stand the audio quality of compressed files, consider breaking your large files into smaller chunks to improve the cache performance.

Put it to sleep
Just like you, iPod's use less energy while sleeping. Although the iPod goes to sleep on its own after a few minutes of inactivity, you can speed up the process by pressing the play/pause button until the iPod turns off. To wake your iPod back up from sleeping, press any button and it will turn back on.

Keep your iPod software up-to-date
Apple continues to make improvements to the firmware that runs the iPod. Over time this has led to better battery performance for all iPods including the original iPod. The iPod software updates are included in Mac OS X's Software Update utility and as downloads on the Apple web site for both Windows and OS X users.

Use playlists or limit skipping
Skipping between tracks requires the hard drive to kick in which uses the battery. The easiest way to avoid this is to create playlists of the songs that you would like to hear ahead of time so you aren't constantly searching for your music. You can create playlists easily using iTunes on both Windows and OS X which will be copied to your iPod during synchronization. And you may even enjoy your iPod more if you listen to only the music you want to hear.

[Paul Ludington] Although some people move west to avoid the severely cold winter (mentioning no-one in particular… JAKE!), we Iowans are bracing ourselves for more freezing rain and days of sub-zero (Fahrenheit) temperatures. The coming storm reminded me that now would be a good time to cover some of the basics of shooting digital photos and video in the cold. Whether you want to take pictures of your kids building a snowman or a movie of a friend performing tricks on a snowboard, you need to follow some basic rules when braving the outdoors in winter.

Let your camera adjust to the cold temperature before using it.
Although going into the cold from warmer temperatures is not as hard on equipment as the other way around, you still need to let your camera become acclimated. As with the lenses on eyeglasses, camera lenses can fog up with condensation when going from warm to cold, leaving you with smears that ruin your perfect photo of a snow-covered tree. No need to worry, however, as you have a couple of good options to prevent this from happening. If you plan ahead, put your camera in a cold garage or other protected area while it is still in its camera bag prior to going outside to shoot. This will allow the camera to slowly adjust to the cold temperature and the bag will prevent condensation from forming. If you need the camera to adjust more quickly to the environment, place it in a sealable plastic bag. The moisture will form on the plastic bag allowing your camera to stay dry. So what do you do if moisture forms on your lens anyway? Your best option is to wait for it to disappear. Wiping it may create smudges or scratch your lens.

Keep your battery warm and bring a spare.
One of the biggest obstacles to using a camera in cold weather is decreased battery performance. Cold hinders the chemical reaction that allows batteries to release energy, causing your previously full battery to appear dead. Fortunately, an easy way to be prepared for this challenge is to bring along spare batteries. While you are shooting with one battery in your camera, keep the spare in an inside pocket of your jacket, next to your body, to keep it warm. When the in-use battery seems to run out of power, swap batteries to go on shooting. Make sure you put the original battery in your jacket to warm it, as you will need to rotate the batteries in and out of use. If you have an audience of friends with you, this is your chance to amaze them with your body's magical ability to recharge batteries.

Make adjustments for bright snow.
Winter provides many inspiring artistic opportunities with landscapes covered by freshly fallen snow. Unfortunately, most digital still and digital video cameras do not deal well with large, bright areas of white. Many times the cameras auto-adjust to compensate for the white of the snow and end up leaving parts of your image underexposed and your fresh snow grey. Some manufacturers have anticipated this problem and include an option for snow and surf on their cameras. If you are lucky enough to have this feature, select it to allow your camera to make the necessary adjustments for you. For cameras without an automatic snow setting built-in, you can compensate for the bright white by manually tweaking the exposure on your camera. You will want the camera's exposure values to overexpose the image slightly in order to return the underexposed snow to a natural color. Glare can also be a problem in snowy scenes but can be overcome with the use of polarizing filters. If you don't have a polarizing filter handy but have a pair of polarizing sunglasses, try shooting through the sunglasses to achieve a glare-free photo.

Wear thin gloves and warm clothing.
Putting on warm clothing before going out into the cold seems pretty obvious but is important nonetheless. You should dress in layered clothing that will allow you to be comfortable for the duration of your shoot. Gloves are extremely important during cold weather shoots, as your hands will be touching metal camera parts. Remember when you were a kid and stuck your tongue on the metal flagpole? Your hands will easily stick to metal on the camera if they aren't protected. Thin gloves work the best for accessing small buttons while adjusting your camera settings.

Seal your camera before going back inside.
Going back inside from the cold presents a challenge to your camera as well. The warm humid air inside a house will cause condensation to form outside and possibly inside your camera. To prevent this from happening, use the plastic bag trick again by placing your camera in a sealed plastic bag before returning indoors. Your camera may still develop some condensation, so you will need to allow your camera to sit and dry out for a few hours before using it again.