Battery Go!

If there's one thing that annoys me about my iPod, it's the inability to see how much battery life I have left. The visual meter is mediocre at best, and I'm a fan of hard numbers: I want a percentage-based power meter!

Battery Go! from CollegeKidApp is a simple app, and rightfully so, because the problem it sets out to solve is also simple. It displays the percentage of your power remaining, and translates it into time remaining different activities: listening to music, surfing the web, watching video, and, if you have an iPhone, talk time. It also features a movable slider, allowing you to see how much time you'd have left given different percentages of battery power—another tool for the curious to play around with.

Sounds great, right? A simple, informative battery meter...gee, Apple should have given us this in the first place!

Unfortunately, Battery Go! isn't what I'd call accurate. See, while the app does display the percentage of battery you have remaining, it uses Apple's technical device specifications to estimate the amount of time left for each activity. Those specifications are really only good for new devices (though at the very least Battery Go! does determine what device you're running). The batteries Apple uses all wear down (after a few hundred charges, the battery will retain only 80% or so of its maximum capacity), so if your battery doesn't hold a charge like it used to, Battery Go! simply won't be accurate. Also, iPhone users should note that the app doesn't differentiate between web browsing on WiFi and web browsing with EDGE or 3G.

Still, if you just want a way to see how much juice you've got left, Battery Go! isn't half bad. Just don't expect those estimates to be spot-on, and you won't be disappointed.