I do have some pics on my iPod of chips. They get there by using an iPod as an external, USB hard drive on a desk or laptop computer and just dragging the pic filder to the iPod.

I believe that there are some database programs that work on an iPod, but the investment and complication was too much for me and the iPod will shortly belong to my wife for its intended purpose...playing tunes!

I have since acquired a handheld that is a cellphone, a pocket PC (Windows mobile), and internet capable device and I plan on running a mobile version of FileMaker or Access to keep my collection at hand!

Although I am not there yet, I have developed a stream-lined approach to creating individual files for my chip scans. Now I imagine that a macro can be written to accomplish some of this, I have not bothered because this process is fairly straight forward, as follows:

Using my HP 1210v all-in-one, ported to a Compaq PC running Windows 2000 Professional, I scan a grid of chips 5 x 8, but the chips are not touching each other. I try to carefully place them in the rotational alignment I want, but do not bother to rotate any image as long as it is close to being OK.

The scan process makes two runs (I have it set for 200 dpi) and after the second run the image is automatically placed into an image folder for the given month. (This is a feature of the HP software. Each month it creates a new Monthly folder and all scans are automatically placed into that folder. The current month's folder I keep on my desktop, while I drag and drop all past month's folders to a common "Monthly Images" folder. This causes an automatic archive of all scanned images.)

However, all of the scans are named by a sequence number. I could do a Save As, but I only intent to use the scan as a copy/paste file, so I don't bother changing the name. (Yes, each monthly folder has a "scan0001" and a "scan0002" etc.)

After the scanning is done (I do multiple scans, right after one another) I close the HP scanning application and open Photoshop (what a great application!!!). In Photoshop I open the first scan and then magnify the image until about four chips arevisible in the work space. I then use the circular selection tool, in the fixed size mode. The fixed size is set to give me a circle that is sized very close to regular chips (39mm) and BandG chips.

I then position the cursor over one of the chips, click and hold the left button and move the circle to fit over the selected chip. Letting go of the mouse button, I have now selected one chip.

I then do a copy (Control+c),
New file (Control+n)
I accept the defaults of the pop-up window and type in a file name; one that describes the chip, and hit Enter.

A new work screen is presented and I do a paste (Control+v)
I then "flatten" the image, because if I don't, when I do a Save, the default will be in Photoshop (.psd) and it can't be changed! (Flatten is a selectable item under "Layer".)
Then I do a Save, but only after I have created a folder to place all of these individual pics into.
Control+w will then close that saved file and I then click and hold select the next chip to copy and repaet the process until I have copies and saved all of the individual images.

Simple!! I'll be happy to answer questions...

Jim