[Hunter5117]

I have a new MBP still sealed in box and want to make this one (my 4th so far) the "best one ever" so I am researching all of the various niggling questions I have had over time.

Regarding battery charging, with my past MBP's I have just charged them to 100% when needing charge, and used/discharged them when not convenient to have on charger. I have run the calibration routine occasionally but not monthly or anything like that. I don't use the MBP as a primary computer so total charge cycles usually stays pretty low and it rarely sits plugged into the charger for days/weeks on end like some, usually stored in my laptop bag for quick getaway and gets used mostly on weekends.

On the Thinkpads that I use for work, they have a charging control program that lets you set the upper and lower thresholds for charging and most TP enthusiast recommend something like discharge to 30-40% before starting to charge and don't let charge past 85-90% (unless traveling when keeping at higher charge level is preferred to have max capacity available).

Quick Google and search of MacNN, Apple support forums etc turned up empty for anything similar to this for Mac, nor of any similar control program for Macs.

Anyone want to weigh in on this?

[frdmfghtr]

I'd say...just use it as you have in the past and you will be fine. I find that worrying about such things isn't worth the effort.

[Hunter5117]

Not necessarily worrying, but if there is a nice app out there to help manage that aspect better, then why not use it?

[frdmfghtr]

Fair enough--I couldn't find anything using Google. The closest I came, and programs I've used in the past are XBattery and iBatt2. Neither of these have been updated in quite some time--iBatt2 crashes on Snow Leopard, and XBattery doesn't display battery capacity under Snow Leopard. They both let you monitor the battery conditions (voltage, current and charge state) but don't allow control of the internal charging circuitry.

[Hunter5117]

I use Coconut Battery for keeping track of battery condition, cycles, etc but it does not manage charging either. Doesn't seem to be a Mac analogue to the TP program. Guess I will just keep managing it myself. It would be nice to have something that would automatically stop or not permit charging once the battery reached 85-95% even though the power adapter was still plugged in.

[Simon]

No such app available or required. The firmware was tailored to optimize battery performance. Best to let it do its job.

Coconut Battery and other such apps aren't really necessary. All the information regarding charge levels, voltage, cycle count, etc. is already made available by OS X.

Either
Sys Profiler > Hardware > Power > Battery Information
or in the shell

Code:
ioreg -l | grep -i LegacyBatteryInfo