Doc...thanks for the link. Good read! OK...you have convinced me (somewhat) that "topping" off the battery is a good thing for Lithium ion . But it still doesn't detract from the fact that each time you top off the battery, you are basically eating into one of your charge/discharge cycle, in which a lithium ion battery is only good for 300-500 of these cycles. If you do this every single day (assuming that you only drive your car once a day), it means that you will eventually need to replace your battery almost every year. Also, having the thing constantly plugged in and charging it unnecessarily will eventually produce heat...which will kill the battery. In a laptop, it is recommended that you remove the lithium ion battery (to prolong its life) when powered from an external supply. You can't remove the battery from the IPOD. These are the reasons why I don't like to constantly charge a device if it doesn't need to be charged.

So...the bottom line is that there has to be a balance between frequent charging and excessive charging. The Icelink only allows me to do the latter.