Resolving the Directly Conflicting Battery Advice

Question

I have been trying to be a good MBP - Retina owner, and I need to understand the conflicting batter advice.
A Level 7 (prestige points) in a thread titled, Macbook Pro Retina batter problem states: "They [the battery] do not suffer from the "Memory Effect" of Nickel Cadmium batteries. You need to let it run down ONCE so that it can calibrate where the endpoints of battery capacity are."
But then, in a thred titled, Can I leave my MacBook charged at night, a Level 9 says, quote: "You should avoid ever draining the battery completely, if you can. That's far harder on it than draining it down to 50% twice, recharging in between."
While the quote above says you avoid EVER draining the battery completely, another guy in the same thread says let it run flat ONCE A MONTH, quote: "Let the battery completely discharge and then fully charge it and leave it charging another hour or so after it says it's fully charged.  Repeat this process perhaps once a month if you notice the battery not charging properly.  This process helps the battery calibrate."
Then in direct contradiction to the paragraph immediately above, another post says, "If your MBP was made after June 2009, its battery never needed calibration or "conditioning" in the first place."
Okay.  Some are saying run it flat once a month for conditioning, another says after 2009 running it flat is just about the only thing you can do to hurt a modern MBP battery?
What are the actual battery practices to follow for a healthy modern battery, because I sure as heck am confused now.  Assuming you never want to run it flat if possible, what are the best discharge practices in terms of percentage of battery charge?
Thanks!

Answer 1

Love it.  I saw your order of a fully loaded machine discussed with your buddy in BC.  I couldn't be more happy with mine.  I understand that driving this screen make long battery life a challenge.  I have also decided to get the larger Flash memory, so I'll be swapping this one out.  Here's a what I e-mailed a co-worker after my company got me mine:
Not as distinct looking as I thought unless you're looking from the side, but very wellexecuted.  It did draw a crowd at the set up table Tues at the Apple Store.   Turns out they sold a few they had gotten for display models by accident, so they told me and another guy really lucked out.  So far, I think they're right.  There's a new Apple Business manager at this store now.
Keyboard seems to have additional rebound in the key stroke, I like it.
Weight loss makes a much bigger difference than I had imagined.  Much more comfortable to use and move around.  You can easily hold it with one hand by it's corner open.
The screen doesn’t flop anymore!  Used to make me nuts.  If I used the open 15” MacBook Pro at certain angles, particularly if I was laying back in bed or on a plane reclined, the screen could  fall forward some under it’s own weight (or move slightly in turbulence on a plane).  Now the retina screen no longer has the glass cover, the hinges function much more stiffly and it holds it’s angle!!
Screen is gorgeous.  Did not seem to be such a huge difference at first, but that is because I have been duly spoiled by Apple using the Retina iPad for a while now.  When you do get a graphic like a detailed high res photo, and oh my goodness, it is indeed spectacular.  Text is like a magazine.
Screen Glare!  What happened?  I guess when Apple dropped the glass cover on the screen.  Anyway, a major issue in certain settings is no longer an issue.
Crazy fast.  Loads faster.  Once an update is downloaded the install time is spectacular.  Sucked up files I was transferring by high capacity thumb drive (USB 2) incredibly quick.  Can't wait to use thunderbolt, I ordered a Lacie with two 3 Terra drives I'll run mirrored.
Does not appear to run any warmer than my last generation 15" Mac Book Pro.  Perhaps cooler, hard to say this early on.  Fan is much quieter.
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Very surprised at the speakers - much improved.  I would never compare these new speakers with the Bose Blue Tooth portable; however, it is worth noting that the new speakers in the computer stopped me from buying said Bose speakers as the on-board new ones are enough for the hotel rooms I frequent with my high travel job and I won't be lugging something else around.  At home I have even gone to bed with these speakers whereas I used to go through that little black TV box Apple sells to my stereo.
Next machine we buy I'll get the next step up as I need the extra 250 gigs but not the speed.  I'm at 62% full with this because I left most of our promotional videos off the machine, and just loaded around 5 key ones.
HDMI worked great in a presentation Wednesday, you have to tell the sound to go to the T.V. speakers via the System preferences.  No problems, nice to just take an HDMI chord and no data projector!
My daughter is the most happy - she went from a Vista based laptop to my previous MacBook Pro Tuesday.  When I set up her profile, I learned there’s some very cool parental settings available, she’s not as happy about that (set it not to operate between 12a and 6a.
I have ordered a LaCie Thunderbolt 6 Ter two drive external memory - I will run it mirrored.