iPod Nano questions; Battery and Storage?

[kingdummkopf]

so i've had to exchange my ipod nano, and i got a new one today.

regarding battery charge, when I got my nano i synced up my music, occasionally unplugging it to check the album artwork had been added to songs properly, but i didn't leave it to charge fully, until i plugged it into a main adapter - non apple - does that matter? it's still on charge now, but the battery icon still is showing the 'lightning bolt' on the battery icon after about 2hrs charge. when will it be charged, after how long?

secondly, i've used about 12 or 13gb's of storage on my nano, but only have about 1700 songs on it. how come? i thought 16gb was like.. 3000 songs?

.. and what's the best way to back up a music collection? i have an external hdd, but heard they can wear out... though i never use it apart from when using it to back up stuff.

 

[dotducky]

Sometimes, the charger really does matter. I have a 3rd party cable for the car that refuses to trickle charge with the Apple brand wall adapter.

For capacity, my 16gb nano was only able to hold the same amount as yours. I assume that means that you have iTunes match or have purchased all your music from iTunes. Back in the day, where every song was a 3mb mp3, sure, you'd be able to fit about 3000 songs on it, but now everything is a 9mb m4a.

Charging time should be around 3 hours. Apple's page has most of the relevant info about capacities.

As for backing up, I use my Time Capsule. If you also have iTunes Match, that gives you cloud storage, plus you can save it to your main hard drive. Three places is sufficient in my book.

 

[kingdummkopf]

so do i need to buy a proper apple mains adapter then? would the third party one ruin the battery of the nano, or is the voltage controlled by circuitry within the ipod?

just seems weird that it's not getting the 'plug' in the battery indicator yet.

yeah, i have a mix of old mp3's, new mp3's and m4a's, they're probably all various sizes.

huh. so I unplugged it and plugged it back in, and the plug symbol appeared to say it charged. it i leave it on over night - just in case - is that okay for the battery?

 

[dotducky]

There's nothing really wrong with using just the USB cable for charging, right? I mean, the only reason I use the wall adapter occasionally is because it came with my iPhone and I am not near a computer at the time.

As for your charging "problems", what you should do is run your iPod till it dies. Then charge until full. The first thing you should do with all electronics is to charge it up all the way. Apple also recommends running your battery from full to dead at least once a month. Bear that in mind.

 

[kingdummkopf]

There's nothing really wrong with using just the USB cable for charging, right?

well, i'm going on holiday tomorrow so can't really take my macbook away with me just to charge my ipod, hence me wanting to use my adapter. i left it over night and it seems to have fully charged. the charging is controlled by inner circuitry, right? only i'm going away in europe and don't know if the wattage will be different there than it is here. i'll be using a plug adapter, then the ipod mains adapter to then charge the ipod. it's all controlled through the ipod, isn't it?