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1. Carat

While "battery saving" apps may help you keep track of the amount of battery your using for which app, some of their features can do more harm than good, like Carat's location services tracker.
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By Taylor Casti1 day ago

Whether you're an Android or an iPhone user, odds are you have a gripe or two about your phone's battery life. It's the number one complaint among cell phone users, and unfortunately, there haven't been many breakthroughs in cell battery tech. As apps continue to get more sophisticated, they're also sucking more of the life out of your phone's battery.
Almost all smartphone users download apps, which explains why we're all familiar with the agony of being down to 10% battery by 5 p.m. We're not suggesting you should give up your Twitter or Google Maps apps, but learning which of your apps are the most battery draining can help you make smarter decisions using your smartphone.

See also: These 11 Apps Will Supercharge Your Personal Life

While these nine common apps in the above gallery can have a negative effect on your phone's battery usage when used improperly, most of them are less draining with the proper settings.
Some tips for making the most of your precious battery juice:

• Keep Location Services off until you need it. Maps are a no brainer, but there are tons of apps that use your phone's GPS to determine where you are in the world. Services like Yelp and Google Now are also going to pinpoint your location on the map, so it's best to just keep this feature turned off until you need to figure out where you're headed next.
• Avoid apps with lots of advertisements. Games are the biggest culprit here. Those ads are constantly refreshing, sucking up your precious battery life while doing so.
• Keep your 3G or 4G and Wi-Fi off when not in use. You don't need to completely stop using your phone's Internet connection, but if you want that battery to last all day, turn off the cell connection and Wi-Fi when you're definitely not going to be using it, like when you're at your desk and using your computer anyways. It'll also eliminate those pesky phone notification every time you get a new email.
  

  9 Apps Draining Your Phone's Battery

  
  

Android VP Hugo Barra leaves Google, joins Chinese phone maker Xiaomi

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Update: We have received a statement from Google that confirms Hugo Barra's departure:

"We wish Hugo Barra the best. We'll miss him at Google and we're excited that he is staying within the Android ecosystem."

Update 2: Barra's taken to Google+ to announce that he will indeed be joining Xiaomi as VP Global in a few weeks. We've added his blog post after the break and have updated the post to reflect the confirmation. Xiaomi has also confirmed the appointment.
Barely a month after he was showing off Google's new Nexus 7 tablet Hugo Barra is departing to join Xiaomi, according to AllThingsD. Part of Google since March 2008, as the Vice President of product management for Android he's been a regular face to anyone that's watched Google I/O events and Nexus product launches over the past few years. With his exit Barra follows Android creator Andy Rubin, who stepped away from the Android team three months earlier. It's a huge score for Xiaomi, a company that goes from strength to strength in China, with smartphones that run on a heavily customized (and customizable) Android ROM. The company's also dabbled in smart TV boxes, which could make for a very familiar role for a former Googler. According to Xiaomi, he will be in charge of steering the company's global expansion starting in October.