iPod Battery

I've been meaning to post some stuff about my new iPod - what I like, what I find annoying, etc - but I haven't quite gotten my thoughts together yet. But some battery-related issues have just really annoyed me, so I thought I'd vent :-)

The iPod mini (and apparently the new iPods as well) don't come with a mains adapter - you have to either buy one, or charge from the usb cable. Leaving aside the fact that they told me only to charge when the battery is flat, which isn't going to happen if it charges every time you plug it in to your PC, charging via usb isn't as convenient as it is with other devices.

You cannot charge the iPod when your PC is off or suspended, which really sucks.
You cannot listen to music while your iPod is connected to your PC, even if it's only charging.
It takes about 4 hours to do a full charge.

Since I don't like to leave my laptop on charge overnight, and leaving it on without charging all night would drain it's battery, it means that I can't charge my iPod overnight. Which, since it takes 4 hours to charge, means that it's most convenient to charge it at work. Which means that for a whole morning at work, I can't listen to music. (And it means that I have to take the usb cable with me).

So does it mean that it's worth the R300-odd for a mains charger? Hmm, probably not :-)

Other annoying things are that you cannot tell, while it's charging, how far it's charged. It might have just started, it might be at 99% - you can't tell. And at a quick glance it's not even easy to tell when it's finished charging, since the only change is that the little charging icon in the top right corner stops animating; the big "Do not disconnect" icon just keeps flashing.

Also, I know that they say the battery indicator is approximate - but wow, it's really approximate. It drops rapidly at first, then sits for a while, then drops again. It gives you a vague idea of battery remaining, but only very vague.