That's the opposite of what my first Nokia phone's manual said (also using an Li-ion battery). It advised fully charging and discharging for a couple of cycles at the beginning. Have the battery designs changed to reverse this advice completely? Also: You said if the battery is fully discharged, it will be impossible to charge it because the N900 cannot boot into charging mode. Where does "accidental discharge-till-it-turns-off" fit into this? Will that brick the device, or that an incomplete discharge which turns it off by hitting a threshold?