The Apple iPod Touch (or iTouch) has gained popularity as a music player for young and old alike. With it’s sleek look and multiple functionality, it is an entertaining gadget that has enthralled the world.

However, as in many innovations, there are a few kinks to work out and one of the things about the iTouch that an increasing number of people are grumbling about is the tetchiness of its battery. There have been numerous blogs and forums discussing the vagaries of the iTouch battery and Apple have been working hard to work out the kinks in the system.

For the user, the upper right corner of the touch screen that sports the icons of the battery pack is regarded with some suspicion, and has been the subject of a few undeserved acid observations. For the record, not every icon that appears next to the battery means there’s something weird going on with the battery. In fact, there are only six battery icons that need concern the iTouch user.

The first one is the full battery icon, in which the icon shows a completely grayed out battery. This will progressively decrease as usage continues until finally a blinking empty battery icon will indicate the need to recharge.

When this happens, you either plug it into your AC wall charger or your USB charger. In either case, this is the icon you will see:

This means the battery is charging properly. When this icon appears:

This means the battery is fully charged.

If you neglect to charge the battery in time, you may encounter

or this

which means you’ve been bad and your iTouch is very low in power. It may even show a blank screen first that can be scary until one of these icons appear. You will need to plug in your iTouch for a minimum of 10 minutes for it to function properly again.

Sometimes, one of these two icons appear and the iTouch stops responding. If plugging in does not wake up your iTouch after 10 minutes, try the following maneuvers:

1. Depress the Sleep/Wake button found on the top of the iTouch and hold it until the slider appears. If it does, slide it to unlock the phone and depress the sleep/wake button again until the logo appears.
2. If that doesn’t go so well, you’ll need to reset the iTouch. You can do this by simultaneously pressing the Home and Sleep/Wake button until the logo appears, hopefully in 10 seconds or so.

In the best of all possible worlds, that is as much troubleshooting you will need to know when those icons seem to herald a trip to Apple Authorized Repair Service land. If you’re out of luck and your iTouch refuses to come out of its coma, you may need to erase all the data in your gadget, even reinstall the software, but that’s a whole different story.

Let’s not be a Gloomy Gus and regard these last two icons with apprehension. If you really want to get the most out of your iTouch, consider getting a battery extender so that you don’t abuse your battery too much. One of the best is IMaxPower.com’s IMP500 Battery Extender. If you keep up your end of the bargain and treat your battery as you should, then in all probability your iTouch will behave itself. Maybe.

The military standard 130 regarding the unique identification code has undergone several revisions. The new UID, MIL-STD 130 specification document refers to quality standards for unique identification codes and the encoding process to be applied during UID marking.

• According to MIL-STD 130 change 1, ISO -16022 is no longer the recommended print quality for bar codes. The new version includes the ISO/IEC 15415 standard as the approved print quality for unique identification code labels. In addition, code 128 is referred to as a symbol to be ranked according to ISO-15416 specifications. It requires a ‘B’ grade as a minimum passing category.

• The changed version of the MIL-STD 130 specification document emphasizes the use of ISO-15415 on print labels. It recommends the use of a single scan to obtain the overall grade. According to the new standard, symbol contrast, and modulation grading parameters are allowed to drop to a ‘C’ grade. Exceptions were added to do this. In addition, the ‘B’ grade is determined as the minimum grade for all other parameters. Change has been made regarding the use of a 2D data matrix symbol. For instance, the range of nominal x-dimension the data matrix symbol gets changes from 7.5 mil to 25 mil. In addition, a set of new rules has been applied to the linear bar code verification. The rules specify ‘B’ as a minimum grade. The process must go with a test aperture of 5 mil and a light source of 660 nm, per ISO-15416 quality specification.

• The updated UID specifications emphasize new rules for Dot Peen, Laser, and Chemical Etched codes. This new version allows AIM-DPM-2006 quality standards for identification codes. ’C’ has been named the minimum grade with no exceptions. As for illumination, the new version permits using multiple angles. Low angle illumination requires 30 degree lighting from four sides, any of the two sides, or any of the single sides.

• ISO 15415 is recommended as the accepted standard for Dot Peen, laser or Chemical Etched codes. As for lighting wavelength, there is a change from 660 nm +/-10 nm to 640 nm +/- 20 nm.

• The new MIL-STD 130 N allows the APM-DPM specification for all marking processes. It allows diffused or off-axis illumination as a light source. Another important addition is the curved surface rule. It requires the data matrix code to contain a maximum 32 percent of the radius.

Keeping up with the changes to the UID specifications can be difficult. To ensure your products comply with the standards, you may wish to enlist the help of a service provider like www.uid2go.com, who will ensure your nameplates and labels meet the latest standards.

As much as I truly and honestly don’t want to talk about the iPhone, I can’t. I was hoping that all the iPhone talk will go away after the big launch, but it didn’t. So I really must cover some of the news that came out lately about the new Apple baby.

First of all, Apple has released the developer guide for the iPhone, which basically enables developers of all sorts to create websites and applications to run on the iPhone. You will have to use the Safari Web Kit engine, the same that runs on the iPhone and on the Safari browser on your desktop, this will provide basic tools and functions on which you can improve. So you can get better audio and display, map integration, fast loading webpages or whatever you feel like creating.

To design a web application that shines on iPhone and ensures a great user experience, you’ll want to:

* Understand the capabilities of iPhone.
* Follow established design practices for the web.
* Adopt iPhone-specific design principles.

These being said, applications like multi-platform, multi-service, IM client, Trillian Astra can now be ported to the iPhone. In Trillian Astra’s case, development was underway for a while now, so the beta will be out soon. What the guys behind the project (Cerulean Studios) want to do, is to create an IM client that will run on several platforms, such as Windows, Mac OS and now, on the iPhone, but that will also provide multiple IM services such as Yahoo! and MSN. That’s not as easy to accomplish as it is to say , but as I previously mentioned, due to the fact that they wanted to bring it on the Mac and Mac OS and the iPhone use the same Safary engine it’ll be a walk in the part to make port it.

So the IM problem on the iPhone was solved but how about Office tools? Well you have gOffice at your disposal. It’s neat enough, you can edit stuff and then mail it to yourself or mail it. Although it’s a bit rough, it does have some templates you can use, and you can apply signatures to your text, so for now one can say it’s Ok.

But I know more apps are needed at any time, and that’s exactly why we have iPhone Web Dev. A group of “Developers helping Developers”, that are offering support for applications under the Safari platform, to run under the iPhone. If you’re interested take a look at their Google Group you can find examples, bug fixes and much more. So now you have both the platform and the support to design your own Web 2.0 iPhone applications, or just optimize your sites.

Now speaking about hacks. First of all the guys over at #iPhone on IRC, worked really hard and managed to hack the iPhone interface. This was done with realative ease, as as the iPhone features the same 30 pin dock connector as the iPod, so to skip a lot of technical data it’s possible to connect to a fully usable interface. They even released a command list for it. Besides that other hacks have emerged, some interesting and some quite boring. But I’ll mention just one of them, as it’s about the famous DVD John, who did it again and managed to hack iPhone’s activation so it doesn’t require AT-T.

This being said I really hope this is the only iPhone coverage I’ll have to do (before all the crazyness starts in Europe, that is).