A:Answer Yes, you can leave it connected. Did with my 7 gen. Battery life is about 3-4 years. Bluetooth is preferable over headphone Jack, as many have had problems with jack; me too. If you can run WIFI at 5 Ghz; instead of 2.4, do it. Had interference on home router (2.4 Ghz), but found a channel in the router that caused no interference. (Channel 1, in my case.) Must configure your router to best channel.