Ex-marine Brad Collum has written down eight ways to kill someone with an iPod Nano. They include some original ways, so check 'em out. Anyone willing to try these out?

1. Break it in half with your hands (very easy to do) and use the glass viewing screen's broken edge as a razor blade to slice the jugular when they are looking the other way.

2. Take off one sock (a dress or tube sock; pantyhose will work in a pinch), place the Nano in the sock, swing it around as fast as you can (being careful to not hit yourself), and whack the intended target right on the temple.

3. Take the reflective shiny part and catch the sun's ray and shine it in a vehicle driver's eyes, or if you are at a rock concert and the lead singer is prancing around on a center stage that protrudes into the audience like a phallus, you can use the same technique.

4. The cord on the earbud headphones can be used to strangle someone. A knee in the back can give extra leverage.

5. Dig a pit about 5 feet deep, then take about 15 3-foot-long stakes 2 inches in diameter and sharpen one end to a fine point, like a very sharp pencil. Jam the sticks at least a foot into the ground, with the sharp ends pointing up. Cover the hole with pine boughs, grass, and leaves. Treat the Nano like a slice of cheese pizza in a deep, hot oven and place it gently in the middle.

6. Carefully unstaple a tea bag and pour the contents on a plate. Break into the lithium-ion battery pack and saturate the tea with the battery's poison, then dry the tea in the sun (or with a hair dryer if you are in a hurry). Put tea back in tea bag and bend the staple back to its original position. Put the tea bag back where you got it.

7. Download to the Nano "We've Only Just Begun" by the Carpenters. Tell someone you will give him or her your Nano if they listen to that song a hundred times in a row.

8. Hide the Nano in a bowl of lutefisk, then take it to the annual Norsefest Lutefisk Eating Competition in Madison, Minnesota.

iPod owners know for a fact that battery performance is very important to ensure full music enjoyment while on the go. With the 5th generation and video iPods, external battery packs become more essential than ever. If you scour the net, you'd find commercial ones selling for as low as $12. You can opt for the more expensive packs with price range between $20 and $50. Belkin makes the most popular pack which uses 4AA batteries (rechargeable or disposable) and sticks to the back of the iPod via a suction cup.

If you've been looking around for rechargeable all-in-one packs, that just means you have money to spend on products like the Battery ii, which gives 40-70 hours of non-stop music, or 15 hours of video on the 5G. It retails for $99 but some online retailers sell it a lower price of $29. If you are loyal to Belkin, it'sTunePower is being sold for $80. It claims 8-10 hours of extra audio time. Without an AC adapter, it charges only via a powered FirewWire port or Apple's AC adapter. Of course, there are other brands like Technuity Energizer ER-i150 with over 7 hours of video playback time and the Nyko iBoost.

But of course, nothing beats cheap homemade USB chargers. Newer iPods can charge via USB ports which require a constant 5-volt power supply. A guy named Jeff McFadden was able to make an iPod Shuffle charger by wiring a voltage regulator that takes 7 volts in and gives 5 volts out to a 9-volt battery. Though this is not efficient, it works fine for a Shuffle or even a nano. There's also the clever MintyBoost charger that makes use of 2 AA batteries with voltage-boosting electronics which was said to offer 1 full recharge of up to 3 hours on 5Gs. It's placed inside an Altoid gum tin, hence the minty name.

If you think that's a really clever idea, you'd find stranger homemade batteries. Some people even made use of soap dishes, and band-aid tin cans, and they actually work. No kidding.

We all know that different iPod models fit different personalities, but with all the battery charger packs available in the market plus the homemade ones, you're sure to find one that fits your personality and your budget.