Apple has confirmed earlier reports that iOS devices continue charging after reporting a full 100% charge and given its explaination.

AllThingsD follows up a report from CNBC which revealed that when the battery indicator reads 100%, it's actually full enough to give you Apple's promised battery life.

Apple does in fact display the iPad (and iPhone and iPod Touch) as 100 percent charged just before a device reaches a completely charged state. At that point, it will continue charging to 100 percent, then discharge a bit and charge back up to 100 percent, repeating that process until the device is unplugged.

Apple VP Michael Tchao told AllThingsD that doing this allows iOS devices to maintain an optimum charge.

"That circuitry is designed so you can keep your device plugged in as long as you would like," Tchao said. "It's a great feature that's always been in iOS."

With regard to claims that the new iPad takes longer to charge... it does. The third-gen tablet requires a lot more power to make all the pretty amazing new features work as intended. As we know, Apple gave the new iPad a bigger battery to help run the device without shortchanging the operating time on one full charge.

But the bigger battery requires more charging time. Nothing more complicated than that at work here, folks. At least, that's Apple's official position on the matter, according to Tchao's comments on Tuesday.

via iclarified