Rechargeable / Cell Phone Batteries

[G-Man]

A while back I had a job where we used walky-talkies to communicate.  They had rechargeable batteries and we used to return them to their cradles, which were always plugged in, following every use.  As we generally used them during show performances, they were kept on standby for about 3 hours on average for each use.  We noticed that after a while, the batteries developed a "memory" and eventually would only last for about about 3 hours before needing a recharge.

Since then, I have always let my cell phone "die" before I recharge it as to not have the battery develop a "shorter memory".  I also noticed that the use of a car charger also reduced my cell phone battery life in the past, so I don't do that any longer.

My question is this,....is this still a concern with these "new" batteries in the cell phones?  I saw a nice iHome product that allows you to use the features in the iPhone, such as alarm, mp3, etc, as it doesn't have these features built into itself.  Obviously it also charges the phone when docked.  Will charging before the battery is drained have any effects on the battery's life or use?

[alph]

the old batteries were probably Ni-Cd (nickle cadium), then they went to NiMH (Nickle metal hydrate ?) which were better, but now cell phones and most all rechargables are Lithium ION which keep a charge until the very end, then die right away.  the older batteries didn't actually create a "memory" they just lost their ability to hold a complete charge, while the newer batteries just die quickly when their dead.  with Lithium batteries, you don't gain anything by draining them completely.

al.