Apple settles with Canadian iPod owners after battery life lawsuit

Apple has agreed to compensate Canadian buyers of older iPods for their battery life being much shorter than advertised.

According to Apple’s commercials, the iPod’s battery would be good for eight hours of music, but in practice that turned out to be only three. In addition, capacity decreased rapidly over time. Two Canadian buyers, Bradley Waddell and Ines Lenzi, felt cheated and filed a lawsuit against Apple in 2005. According to Apple, how long a battery lasts depends on usage and it is also a well-known fact that the capacity of batteries decreases over time. The company denied that it had done anything wrong.

The lawsuit has since been discontinued, because Apple has entered into an agreement with the complainants settlement has hit. Anyone who purchased an iPod in Canada before June 24, 2004 can get a Canadian dollar credit of $45 at the Apple online store. The settlement is expected to be formally confirmed on June 20. Incidentally, the use of credit with Apple is subject to quite a few restrictions, as the conditions show:

A Store Credit may not be used on the Apple online education store or any Apple online specialty store, and may not be used to purchase gift cards, gift certificates, software downloads, iTunes content, refurbished products, any products which are not Applebranded, or any products redeemable for cash. More specifically, and without limiting the generality of the foregoing, a Store Credit cannot be used to purchase or obtain a refund on iTunes content, iTunes Store Cards, iTunes Store Gift Certificates, iTunes Song Codes or Allowances, or any products redeemable for iTunes content .