Discussion of real world battery life and actions to take to improve battery performance.

As you know, batteries are ubiquitous and are long lasting these days, but power management is complex. Even Apple forums are filled with comments and questions about battery run times, life-span, etc. We all know that real world experience will vary from theoretical or laboratory data. At the end of this section there are some recommendations for getting the most out of your Apple and Cypher Labs batteries.

You should expect to get 8 to 12 hours of continuous play time, depending on many, many factors, such as model, OS version, temperature, altitude, age, type of file used, device settings, etc.

The combination of transport (Cypher Labs) and player (Apple) have an approximately matched battery life by design. Why?

• The AlgoRhythm Solo is Made for Apple iPad™, iPhone® and iPod®. We made the decision not to provide power to the Apple devices, primarily because the iPad™ contains such large batteries that even a small percentage power deficit will quickly drain our device.
• There is no charging between either device, except in the case of the iPod Nano®, where, as an exception, we do provide power.
• The USB line out does require more power to produce within the Apple device. USB host mode and USB output processing require more power since they use a different process to deliver USB audio vs. analog audio. This is true of the AlgoRhythm Solo as well. Processing the USB audio input requires a lot of current to decrypt and process for output to the on-board DAC, which itself requires more power.
• When attached to a desktop dock you would not notice the battery life issue, because those docks always provide power to the Apple device.

In summary, there is a balance between quality and battery life, among many other things, in the drive to unlock high resolution audio.

These are settings you can adjust to minimize power consumption:

• Always update to the latest OS version from Apple
• Turn off Wi-Fi
• Turn off 3G (Wi-Fi + 3G model)
• Use Airplane Mode (Wi-Fi + 3G model) in low- or no-coverage areas
• Minimize use of location services
• Turn off push notifications
• Fetch new data less frequently
• Turn off push mail
• Auto-check fewer email accounts
• Use Auto-brightness, or in iPod Classic models turn off back lighting
• Set EQ to Off
• Set cover-flow to Off
• Use the screen less frequently
• Manage the use of downloaded applications that prevent the screen from dimming
• Lock your Apple device when not in use
• Use Your Apple device regularly
• For proper reporting of the battery’s state of charge for both Apple and Cypher Labs devices, go through at least one charge cycle per month
• Apple Lossless files should be used for longest battery life, since they are the fastest to decompress
• Turn off the AlgoRhythm Solo when not in use


See www.apple.com/batteries for more information.