MacDailyNews recently received an email that may be of interest to more people than you would think, thanks to some misinformation floating about on the Web. For clarity’s sake, we’ll post the question and our anwser:

Q. Is it true that iPod users must send unit in to Apple to have battery changed at a cost of over $200.00?
A. No, it’s not true. You can do it yourself through a third party, such as Other World Computing’s (OWC, a MacDailyNews sponsor) and NewerTech’s high-capacity iPod replacement batteries (your iPod will play longer, up to 70% longer with over 20-hour runtimes reported, than with an Apple battery) for about US$25-US$39.95:
http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Page.cfm?Parent=1225&Title=Apple%20iPod%20Batteries

Or users can send their iPod into Apple and they’ll replace your iPod battery for a service fee of $99, plus $6.95 shipping:
http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/service/battery.html

We’d got the OWC route, it’s cheaper, easy enough to do yourself, and the batteries hold longer charges. ExtremeiPod.com has a review of the Newer Ultra High Capacity 2100mAh battery here.