I just got a 5th generation video iPod and was wondering if there's any way to charge it without mounting it as a disk. With the Rockbox firmware (great stuff, but eats battery) I can just hold Menu while connecting it and it won't go into disk mode, but that doesn't work with the Apple firmware. It's annoying since whenever I go to charge it (roughly once a day), it loses my place in the Shuffle All list. Alternatively, if anyone knows if the shuffle functionality is smart enough to know which songs haven't been played yet in an all-songs shuffle, that'd also work.

well if you have a spare usb cable you can just cut one open and take out the green and white cables leaving only red and black. it should only charge with no data connection. does the 5th gens not come with an AC adapter?

Mine did not. Got it straight from Apple, too.

Can't really cut the data cable since it's the only one I have. Maybe a short USB exentsion cable...

No, they don't, and you have to buy the plug ($30) and cable ($20) seperately.

well what I would do, would cost maybe $5-6 at the crap shack

pick up a DC wall plug rated at 5.0v and a usb cable, red to positive black to ground skip the other two, and youd have your self a decent wall plug

/me = pwnt

EDIT:

It looks like the wall wart charger will work with the USB-to-Dock Connector cable that the iPod came with, unless I'm missing something.

http://home.speedfactory.net/tcashin/ipodbattery.htm

Came across this on digg.com

Oh, right, you can use the 1 USB-iPod cable that they give you with the pod itself; it's just inconvienient. I just use the old Firewire cable and AC plug from my 3G iPod on my 5G one.

thats just lame sauce they dont give you a charger

Well, I can see the business case. You need a computer to load music on it anyway, and a power adapter doesn't sell iTunes.

nonetheless, if you happen to be away from a computer for more than the battery life, you're screwed unless you a) rig up something or b) pay the $50 and nurse your wounds.