Blackberry Battery Life

My blackberry curve 8330 seemed to no longer be holding a charge, after about 8 months of use.  No crazy apps running or anything, the WSJ reader is about the most data intensive that's open.  It got to the point where it wouldn't last a half-day, even lose a bar overnight when it was only receiving e-mail.

I called Verizon, hoping to get a new battery, which incidentally is warrantied for one year, so that's good to know.  But the nice helpful woman gave me a bunch of ideas, the simplest being: pull the battery out, wait a little while, and put it back in.  And whaddyaknow, it worked!  After the reset, suddenly it seemed to be back to a long-life battery.

Why in the world this works, and why the blackberry would be confused about the battery life, I have no idea... but it worked!