How to use the new MacBook 13'' with Built-in 7-hour battery

Question

Hi,
I just bought the new MacBook, it is my first Mac, and having the Built-in 7-hour battery I don't know if I can plug it in most of the times without doing any damage to the battery.
On other portable computers, I just take the battery out and than plug it in and use it, but in this one that can not be done.
So, what to do? Try to always drain and recharge fully, or it is no problem to plug it in when the battery is fully charged?
I read that you should let it sleep(when it goes to sleep because it doesn't have battery)for 5 hours before charging it so it really drains. Is that really necessary?
Also after it goes to sleep and I plug it in to charge, should I let it charge in Sleep Mode, or should I Shut it down and let it charge?
What has been your experience with battery life? The first time I used it, it lasted for 4hours, is this normal and it will get better with 3 or 4 fully charges/draines?
Thank you very much for your help.
Pantuf

Answer 1

Hey guys, I understand your concern that you're not getting 7 hours out of your battery but let me put a couple things into perspective and also offer you some info from Apple's website that may or may not explain why you aren't getting the full 7 hrs.
First mgb545, 5.5 hours is killer for laptop battery, but nonetheless you paid for it for the 7 hour battery so I don't fault you in any way for wanting what they said you would get.
Second, the MacBook is Apple's "sub $1000" notebook. At first mention of that you think, "alright, it's under a thousand bucks!". It is, it's just $999...
My point is that it's an advertising game. The MacBook can get +up to+ 7 hours on a single charge but not everybody is doing the same things or has the same configuration as when Apple was testing their machines. You might have a Time Machine HDD backing up (which I don't recommend nor do I think you guys do since you didn't mention it) or some other USB peripheral that takes power which would lower the battery's life. However, I think there is
This is straight an easier explanation... This next blurb is the "fine print" from Apple's website right on their MacBook page about how they got 7 hrs.
+"Testing conducted by Apple in October 2009 using preproduction 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo-based MacBook units. Battery life depends on configuration and use. See www.apple.com/batteries for more information. The wireless productivity test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing various websites and editing text in a word processing document with display brightness set to 50%."+
That all being said, I think or at least hope you'll find your answer there. For starters, it says "various websites". Who knows if those were basic HTML or Flash heavy sites or a combination of both? The other stipulation of this is brightness. Do you guys have your brightness at 50% or is it higher?
Try this, I know the weekend just passed, but if you find that you have 7 hours where you don't need your laptop, leave it on, make sure it doesn't go to sleep or screen saver, play with it every so often, leave wi-fi on, make sure your brightness is at 50% and then see how long it lasts.
One last thing, when you say you're getting 5.5 hrs out of your battery, how low are you letting it go to? I'm assuming when Apple says "a single charge" they mean it. So if you're getting 5.5hrs when it goes down to 8 or 10% you also need to factor in the extra time you might gain from that.
Hope this help, let me know how your computers are set up, I'm curious to know if this will resolve or at least account for your lack of 7 hrs because me just recently got the 13" MBP and it doesn't get 7hrs either.
-David