best thing is to minimise the power used on your laptop. So, turn down the screen as much as possible, turn off wifi/bluetooth if possible, and turn off cpu-intensive apps. Many people don't realise this, but having a browser open with 10+ tabs and especially if using flash, are running the equivalent of a game on their computer. So try to stick to a max. of a few apps at a time and no more than 2-3 tabs in your browser. My Macbook (not pro) runs an average of 4+ hours when I do all of this. - Vincent van Wylick

you normally have to callibrate your battery only once every few months, no more. The more you charge & recharge, the more you kill your battery as it has a limited amount of cycles it can do that. Also, having a second battery and using them on alternate weeks helps a LOT (doesn't work with the new Macbooks of course…) - Vincent van Wylick

Vincent has said everything I would've said! I do the complete discharge thing once a month, though, but I guess it's down to how often you part-use part-charge it, which, for me, is everyday. - Timothy Griffin

~ to note now that it's fall & winter approaches, cold saps battery life quickly so don't leave it out in the car or exposed to the cold because you will not get the same performance & this is exacerbated by the colder the temperature is. (goes with cell phones, iPod's & really almost any electronic device) - sofarsoShawn

Thanks for the input everyone... I am a little worried that I can't swap the battery out of this machine, but hopefully it will last me long enough to make it worth it. The advice I got from you all will help me out with that. - Frankie Warren

FYI I've got a non-swappable battery and am on 81 cycles with 99% battery health remaining. - Timothy Griffin

Install smcfancontrol 2.2.2 - http://www.eidac.de/?p=134 - and set up 3 profiles: one for the lowest fan speed, one for around 4000 rpm and one for maximum. Set up the prefs so when you are on battery the fan drops to low. When you're on AC power, shift your fan to medium or high. - Bill Sodeman

It's a Lithium Ion battery...your best bet is to let it go to about 40% charge and then charge it...You never want to let a Lithium Ion battery get to empty as it reduces their lifespan, or so I've read. - Alex Scoble

pretty interesting trick, that smcfancontrol. What I also noticed makes a massive difference is using Flux (http://www.stereopsis.com/flux...), which you can set to change the colour temperature of your screen. When it runs, I get like 20% more battery life. However… there's no way to make it run all the time, unfortunately, just when it thinks it's night. - Vincent van Wylick