Another hack in the grand tradition of Altoids tin usage, the Minty Boost hack from from Ladyada is a new external iPod battery pack that uses AA batteries and some design smarts to about double the battery life of your iPod. The last time we saw an Altoids-based charger for the iPod it was running off of some 9v batteries, making the hack a simple one, but not very efficient. By using cheap and available AAs, the Minty Boost should make quite the addition to your collection of iPod accessories -- as long as you can manage to follow along at home with Ladyada's detailed instructions. Luckily, she's quite thorough, and even has a kit available to make things even easier. Plus a little bit of fresh breath never hurt anybody.