My last report for now. After almost 3.5 hours of constant scanner radio, the battery died. This was after being listed at approximently 70%. I wasn't able to see the about phone info, as the battery literally died on me - I was ignoring the beeps hoping it would make it past lunch.
At any rate, I am charging yet again, this time with the phone off, from my laptop usb. I'm interested to see if its any faster or shorter. It started with a slowly flashing red led that has quickly progressed to solid red, so i assume it was pretty well discharged.
I'll also be interested if battery life improves anymore or not. The reason I left the phone on last time while charging was to see if there was a drastic difference from having it off, as been discussed in another thread. 3 hours of scanner radio streaming (from 70% battery left) seems a pretty decent indicator that charging while off vs while on isn't making that big a difference, but I beleive this is also an indicator that initially charging the phone while off has somehow recalibrated the battery.
My next steps will be to try the battery left app, and see what info I can glean from there.