Proper Battery Care, Battery Life, and Options.
1. When you first get your iTouch charge it completely before doing anything! Even though you'll want to turn it on and play with it right away with any charge it was shipped with, you'll want to bypass that and charge it up fully right out of the box.
2. This step is critical. Once fully charged, play with, use, mess with the iTouch until it is fully discharged from your initial charge in step 1. DON'T recharge the battery until you have drained it completely after the first charge! Although many claim that new no memory Li-Ion batteries don't have memory problems and it shouldn't matter, it does. Trust me.
3. After fully discharging, charge it completely again. You should now have the battery set to give you maximum performance and rechargability for the life of the battery. Enjoy.
Also, here is a good alternative option for a portable power source from APC (as well as other markets). I have used mine with all of my iPods and Nanos and it works great. Best of all it can found in most Office Depots, Staples, or Office Max stores. No special ordering and waiting. If you are going on a long trip plug this in first. It will power the device saving the device battery for last. This will help prolong the life of your battery. Also, your USB iPod power cord plugs right in the top. You don't need any special adapters.
http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspecindex.cfm?basesku=UPB10
Hope this helps.
Custom PC 4GB RAM/Dual Core 6400/Nvidia 7950GTX Graphics/2.5TB HD, Windows XP, Apple TV, 80GB Ipod Video, 30GB Ipod Video, 1GB Nano, 1GB Shuffle