After struggling for awhile, I followed the hair-dryer tip and prying in the empty space on the case side of the battery just below the volume buttons as suggested in one of tips in step 19. Don't understand the advice in the video about the only safe places to pry. They completely contradict step 19!

I completely agree. These are unnecessary steps. Might be a little easier to pry the battery out with the display completely off, but not enough to make it worthwhile IMHO.

When I did this strep the battery connector (step 12) came with it. There seemed to be a bit of adhesive but it wasn't hard to separate them after the fact.