Jackass of the Week: MSNBC’s Bob Sullivan

Monday, 9 July 2007

Bob Sullivan has a scary report about iPhone batteries on his “Red Tape Chronicles” weblog at MSNBC:

The iPhone battery will only survive about 300-400 recharges, the company says.

Yikes, that’s awful. Let’s double-check and see what Apple actually says on their iPhone battery information page:

A properly maintained iPhone battery is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity after 400 full charge and discharge cycles. You may choose to replace your battery when it no longer holds sufficient charge to meet your needs.

So Apple says that after 400 cycles, the battery should hold about 80 percent of its original capacity. But Sullivan reports that it’ll be completely dead after “300-400 recharges”. Double jackass points for not even linking to Apple’s web site.

It’s not like this is a trivial little detail — the idea that iPhone batteries will die after 300 charges is the entire crux of his 1100-word report. Note that his comment thread is chock full of remarks from readers who completely believe this.