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Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha took time yesterday to talk business strategy, the advantages of Android, and to take developers to task for poorly optimized apps. At several points during the 50-minute chat the topic turned to lackluster battery life, and Jha placed blame squarely at the feet of hastily tested apps -- which he said can sap between 30 and 40 percent of your phone's juice. The chairman even suggested their effect on longevity and performance were the impetus behind 70 percent of handset returns. But, the company has a solution, and (surprisingly) its name is Blur. In a moment of presumably unintentional creepiness Dr. Jha said, "MotoBlur allows us to know, with precision, what battery life you're seeing," before suggesting that future phones could warn you about power draining apps and bandwidth hogs. What wasn't clear though, was if he was talking about the existing Android battery manager or if Motorola has been collecting usage data -- since w...

A lot of portable PC power cells last for only four or five hours, after which you'll find yourself chained to a wall socket. Good thing there are external batteries to keep us in current when a plug's nowhere to be found, and  Tom's Hardware  has done some benchmarking on a slew of such devices so you'll know which one's suited for you. A Dell Vostro 3300 and an Inspiron Mini 10 running Windows 7 were used to put packs from Amstron, Brunton, Digipower, Electrovaya, Energizer, Lenmar, PowerTraveller andTekkeon through some real-world paces -- we're talking word processing and web surfing, not fragging and film editing. So if you're in the market for a mobile power unit, hit the source link and get the down and dirty on which external battery's best. Tom's Hardware