I am of the same oppinion as silverdragon here, however the micro can only charge via the usb cord. It does not come with an ac charger to charge the battery with a plug, therefore you must have a computer and it must be on to charge it. I don't know if creative makes an adapter to do this or not, perhaps do some research. You may be able to use the one made for ipods to charge the battery, as it is basically a plug with a USB port on it, however I do not know if will be the right voltage or not. This ipod killer may not actually be all its cracked up to be.