1. Yes - there's a script for battery-status monitor that makes a small bubble come up giving you the percentage of battery. You can assign the script to either button(s) using the Input Actions on Control Center and/or you can create a menu item for it using Menu Editor and/or you can create a desktop shorcut for it by first creating the menu item and then dragging and droping it to the desktop or placing the icon in your task bar. I personally have the script assigned to Ctrl+B.