Some good news for the iPhone's battery. Everyone, including us, originally reported that the iPhone battery loses life after 300-400 charges, needing to be replaced. People were mad. The mainstream media picked it up, getting all huffy. Turns out, that's bullshit. Apple's site clearly says that the battery life "is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity after 400 full charge and discharge cycles." Even if that statement is filled with hedging, it's clear that the battery should be very much alive after 400 cycles, and we were wrong. I'm sorry. The source of the error?

This factoid showed up on blogs like this one after Pogue's review went up, and spread from there. Here's Pogue's statement in the NY Times, which sources Apple, and is nowhere near as drastic as we'd originally interpreted:

Here's the official word, now:
That's from the right hand of the iPhone battery page on Apple's site, closer to the bottom.[Apple] [NYTimes]

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