How to maximize battery lifetime with Lithium-ion batteries?

Hi all,
There are severay discussions about the battery lifetime.
Toshiba says on http://support.toshiba-tro.de/kb0/FAQ35007L0020R01.htm that:
Totally discharging the battery pack before charging, will allow the battery pack to be charged to its highest capacity
But this and other points do not comfirm information about maximum battery lifetime from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_ion_battery
Question: What's the best option to maximize battery lifetime with Lithium-ion batteries???????????

Hi Flutters
The "best" way to "maximize" battery life is always a tricky issue but there are a few important factors to consider:
A Li-Ion (lithium-Ion) battery will not suffer from the "memory" effect that many other battery types, including Ni-Cd (Nickel-Cadmium), are well known for. This means that only charging for short times or charging for different periods of time during use will not change the battery's ability to store a charge, but like any chemical process this will break down over time, so the older the battery, the less chance there is of it storing a charge properly.
Another thing is how to store the battery. The general rule is to discharge any rechargeable battery if it is to be stored for a significant amount of time (say 1 month or more.
The way a battery pack behaves will also vary according to temperature, so a warm battery pack in a warm room will charge much quicker than a cold battery pack in a cold environment, although you should never artificially warm a battery by maybe heating it in an oven.
At the end of the day, I would suggest just being sensible and consider what the laptop was designed for; the spec will tell you whether the unit was designed with simple applications such as Office or more demanding tasks such as video editing and other resource-intensive tasks. The harder the processor (and therefore the rest of laptop) is working, the more strain this will be putting on the battery.
I hope this helps

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