How to retain battery health

[Bierman]

I'm sure this question has been posed several times before, but perhaps due to the wording, it's difficult to find a thread that isn't referring to how long a battery lasts per charge.
Well, as it turns out, I'm downright impressed with my battery life on my Xoom. What I would like to know, rather, is the conventional procedure to making the battery last the longest over the life of the machine.
I understand that when being stored, batteries tend to be happiest at 1/3 charge. What about when the device is used every day? For example, should I wait until she drops to a certain percentage before plugging it in? Should I avoid running it down to 10% and lower? Is it better to use battery than to be plugged in? What I've done thus far is try to plug it in at 30%, which is once every two days under casual use. I also avoid keeping it plugged in at 100% for too long as that seems to have been harsh on my past laptops.
My ultimate question would be, how should we treat our batteries to keep them the healthiest over the life of the device?
Citing any references couldn't hurt.
And lastly, my apologies if this issue has been adressed. I'm still getting used to doing everything on a screen.

Motorola Xoom

 

[Nimble1]

Good question..I assume that most of the tablets have lithium-polymer batteries as do most phones these days. I usually get 2 to 3 yrs of life on my phone batteries. At least on phones you can change the battery but I'm not sure what you do when your tablet quits holding a charge..throw it away?

 

[Spider]

You might find what you're looking for here:
Charging Lithium-Ion Batteries

 

[Bierman]

That is perfect, thanks!

To sum it up:

• Charging to a full-charge is stressful to a battery. A partial-charge is preferable if maximum runtime isn't required.
• Turn off your devices when charging. A fully-charged battery connected to an active charger will enter "trickle" mode which repeatedly drops the charge level and charges it back up again. With the device turned off, fewer cycles are performed. The best solution is to unplug your device once a full-charge is achieved (if deemed necessary).
• If storing a battery for extended periods of time with no use, strive for a resting charge of around 40-50%. Better yet, bring the charge down below half, and charge it back up to 40-50%.

This would apply to cell-phones and mp3-players too (anything with lithium batteries, really).

 

[Spider]

Good summary and don't forget the "Fully charge before first use." that appears in every instruction manual I've ever read. That's the one that drives me crazy, staring at my new toy until the charging light goes out before I can play with it.