‘Disrupt Taco Bell’ Hack Stretches Your Dollar On Late Night Burrito Runs

It’s 1 am, you’re hungry and you’ve only got $5. How do you figure out what the maximum amount of grub you can snag inside that budget is? You could try to do some drunk math but that’s never going to work out. Or you could try the time-honored method of rolling up to the drive through and scrounging for coins in the ash-tray because you’ve over-estimated your wallet size.

That’s what the TechCrunch hackathon Taco Bell Disrupt is all about. You shoot an email off to a special address with a dollar amount in the subject and it rips you off a menu of the maximum amount of food you can get under that limit.

The list comes back with a list of items and the cost to you, as well as calorie counts to help you see exactly how much coal you’re giving your internal furnace.

It’s actually a very simple, kind of funny but very clever hack — just the kind of thing that we like to see at the hackathon. The hack was created by Kunal Batra, a Developer Evangelist at Sendgrid who came down with a friend just to have some fun. He scraped the Taco Bell website to snag the data and used a python backend to compile that together into the menu.

Batra says that the genesis of the hack was a Taco Bell trip taken at 3:30 on the day of the hackathon after he really couldn’t figure out what to make. While he was there he had a brainstorm about maximizing the amount of food you could get for your money there.

This kind of hack is fun to me because it’s relatively simple in nature and seems frivolous on the surface. But, if Batra decides to productize it, I could totally see it taking off with college kids and people with limited money to spend on food. Add in more restaurants and dining options — and maybe allow people to search by calorie count if they’re on a diet — and you’ve really got something.

And the model could also be applied to things that are more practical after you grow out of late-night taco runs. What about figuring out how many groceries you can stock in the fridge with a fixed income, or how many toys you can afford to buy your large family? Very cool possibilities, exactly what we love to see at the hackathon.

If you want to try it for yourself, send an email to tacobell@sendmail.io with just a dollar amount (no dollar sign) in the subject and nothing else. Happy taco-ing.

30 best iPhone and iPad apps this week

Draw Something 2, Little Red Riding Hood, LinkedIn Contacts, Netmums Chat, Toy Story: Story Theater, GoComics, Paper Fox, FocusTwist and more

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Disney's Toy Story: Story Theater app gets creative

Stuart Dredge

Friday 26 April 2013 14.32 BST

It's time for our weekly roundup of brand new and notable apps for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. It covers apps and games, with the prices referring to the initial download: so (Free) may mean (Freemium) in some cases.

Looking for Android apps? Check this week's 30 best Android apps roundup, which was published earlier in the day.

Here's this week's comparable iOS selection:

Toy Story: Story Theater (£1.99)

Disney's latest book-app isn't just about reading: it's about creating. Starring familiar characters from the Toy Story films, the app encourages children to create their own scenes and record their own dialogue with Buzz, Woody and co, moving characters around as they go.
iPhone / iPad

Draw Something 2 (£1.99)

With 100m downloads of the original Draw Something, Zynga has a tough act to follow. This sequel adds more drawing tools and a social feed to show you what friends (and celebrity players) have been scribbling. New to Draw Something? The idea is to sketch phrases Pictionary-style for friends to guess. A free version is also available.
iPhone

Little Red Riding Hood by Nosy Crow (£2.99)

This was reviewed at greater lengthearlier in the week. It's the latest fairytale book-app from British publisher Nosy Crow, retelling the tale of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf with a nonlinear-narrative twist: children choose her path through the forest to pick up items to defeat the wolf, with a different selection each time.
iPhone / iPad

LinkedIn Contacts (Free)

For now, you have to request an invitation to use LinkedIn's new iPhone app. It's interesting though, promising to aggregate all your address books, emails and calendars into one place, and access it from this standalone iPhone app.
iPhone

Netmums Chat (Free)

The Netmums Chat forums have been a godsend for many parents in recent years, and now they've got an official app. It's a simple way to access the discussions on the popular parenting website, and having ended up on Netmums a fair few times in the middle of the night with a sleeping (or otherwise) child in one arm, an easier way to browse one-handed on a mobile device is welcome indeed.
iPhone / iPad

GoComics (Free)

A number of apps are available that aggregate comics of the Marvel/DC kind, but what about comic strips – the ones you see in newspapers? That's the idea behind GoComics, which aggregates strips from the likes of Garfield, Peanuts, Doonesbury, The Boondocks and Dilbert, and presents them in an app whose archives go back more than 20 years.
iPhone / iPad

Paper Fox (Free)

Developer Bento Box's Paper Fox is a beautifully-crafted storybook-app for children where the animals all have a papercraft look. It sees the titular fox trying to get to the bottom of a series of earthquakes, while meeting other animals along the way to help his quest. Storytelling and mini-games are the order of the day, with two chapters free and the rest unlocked with a £1.99 in-app purchase.
iPhone / iPad

FocusTwist (£1.49)

There's a lot of interest in FocusTwist this week: a photography app for iPhone that promises that the images it captures "can be refocused later". It's built around the idea of "twists" where some elements in the photo are nearby and others are further away.
iPhone

The Sonnet Project (Free)

The latest app with a Shakespearian focus comes from New York, where the team behind The Sonnet Project are promising to film 154 short films – one for each of the Bard's sonnets – around the city, and make them available through this app. An in-app map shows which films/sonnets were filmed near your current location in NYC, too.
iPhone / iPad

Beauty and the Beast (£2.99)

StoryToys has turned a succession of familiar fairytales into pop-up book-apps, with Beauty and the Beast the latest to get the treatment. Aimed at children, it mixes text, animated and interactive scenes, and music. Simple mini-games keep kids amused, while the pop-up scenes are well-crafted and fun.
iPhone / iPad

The Nightjar (£2.99)

When The Nightjar first came out a couple of years ago, it was an audio-only game from London firm Somethin' Else starring the dulcet tones of up-and-coming actor Benedict Cumberbatch. Whatever happened to him? Anyway, it's been rewritten and relaunched as a paid game, as you explore a spooky spacecraft through sound alone.
iPhone / iPad

Fade > Black (Free)

This is a marvellous app for anyone interested in filmmaking or photography, from the people who publish the British Journal of Photography. It promises quarterly issues showcasing "the entire panorama of lens-based art" – films, music videos, photography and installations – selling six-month subscriptions for £8.99 through Apple's Newsstand.
iPad

Fotopedia Reporter (Free)

Photographic community Fotopedia has released several themed iPad apps, but this is a little different. It helps people create their own photo stories "to share the things you love with whoever you want", while browsing those shared by other Fotopedia users.
iPad

AppShopper Social (Free)

AppShopper is a website for tracking new iOS app releases, as well as price drops and charts. Its original app was kicked off the App Store after falling foul of Apple's app rules, but now there's a new version with social as its focus: "Share your app interests with your friends and see what apps your friends are interested in," as it explains.
iPhone

Google Fiber (Free)

This is only available in the US – and only useful in places where the Google Fiber TV service is available (i.e. Kansas City). It's a sign of Google's plans though: "Find and discover TV shows and movies that are airing live, recorded on your DVR, and available on-demand," explains its App Store listing.iPad

Gaze – A modern review (£4.99)

Gaze is a brand new magazine (including this digital edition) that promises content that's "gay(ish), political, cultural, diverse and above all serious" from a broadly Left-liberal perspective. Many of the journalists involved are well-known in the UK: managing editors Julie Bindel and Paul Burston, with contributors like Julie Burchill, Giles Fraser, Bonnie Greer, Suzanne Moore and Andrew Pierce.
iPhone / iPad

LEGO Batman: DC Super Heroes (£2.99)

The latest brand mash-up from Lego isn't just about Batman. The game features a big collection of DC superheroes and villains: Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Poison Ivy, Penguin and so on. More than 80 playable characters in all, all rendered lovingly in brick-o-vision.
iPhone / iPad

Crabitron (£1.99)

Crabitron is a marvellously-unhinged "game about destroying the universe as a Giant Space Crab", where you pinch your fingers and thumbs on the iPad's touchscreen to snap the crab's claws shut to maximum destructive effect. Its developer is tracking sales of the game on a spoof Kickstarter page, too.
iPad

Food Network: Super Soups (£0.69)

The US Food Network TV channel is launching a series of iPad cookery apps, with this one focusing on soups. You may have guessed that from the title, of course... Dozens of recipes are included with instructions, photos and videos.
iPad

Nutrino (Free)

Sadly not a (badly spelt) solo app for that chap who used to rap with Oxide. This is a "personal virtual nutritionist" app that asks for your dietary goals, then suggests healthy recipes and restaurant recommendations. Its developer says it will soon integrate data from health-tracking gadgets too.
iPhone

Spreecast (Free)

Spreecast is yet another video-chat app in a sea of video-chat apps. The twist here is its focus on themes – "conversations happening now on topics you're interested in" – although you can also use it to chat privately to friends.
iPhone

Max's Pirate Planet - A Board Game Adventure (£1.99)

This looks very nice from developer Slant Six Games: an all-ages piratical board game (a digital one) where you sail the world looking for treasure, and battling other players on the same device. It can also be played on a bigger TV screen when connected via cable or wirelessly via Apple TV.
iPhone / iPad

Iron Man 3 - The Official Game (Free)

Fans of the Iron Man films will take a shine to this tie-in game from Gameloft, which is billed as an endless-runner. Actually, endless-flyer would be more accurate, as Iron Man zooms through Malibu Shores, New York and China battling villains, and avoiding traffic and obstacles. It's freemium, so in-app purchases are used to speed up progress in upgrading Iron Man's powers.
iPhone / iPad

The House of the Dead: Overkill - The Lost Reels (£2.99)

If you, like me, have spent many a happy hour shooting at zombies in Sega's House of the Dead console games, this all-new mobile version is definitely worth a look. I say "all-new" – it's more a "remix" of 2009's The House of the Dead Overkill, with touchscreen-friendly controls and three worlds to explore.
iPhone / iPad

Cif The Web (Free)

Now this is a curveball. "You already know you can rely on Cif to clean your home. Well now Cif cleans the internet too," explains the App Store listing. That's right: a web browser designed to filter out "all traces of grime, muck and dirt from the web", as a promotion for the cleaning-products brand. "You can leave your kids to 'Cif The Web', safe in the knowledge that they won't see anything they're not supposed to..."
iPad

Transformers Legends (Free)

Japanese social games giant DeNA has made some of the most successful "card-battler" games on mobile so far. Now it's applying the genre to the Transformers. Fans will be collecting virtual cards of Autobots and Decepticons and taking on the world. Bagsy the one that turns into a cassette tape. If he still exists, of course.
iPhone / iPad

young + healthy Haringey (Free)

An app for teenagers featuring a "Sex Lottery" section sounds like a recipe for Daily Mail outrage. The aims here for youngsters in the London borough are educational though. "Think about the relationships you have. Change the ones that lead you to make unhealthy choices. Build on the ones that help you make good choices. It's your right to be healthy," explains its App Store listing. Meanwhile, in-app surveys encourage users to "make health services better for young people in Haringey".
iPhone

Circles Memory Game (£1.49)

Circles is a minimal yet hypnotic iOS game that sees you trying to memorise taps on glowing circles. Game Center ranks your performances against friends, and it's in a good cause – a portion of every sale will help fund Alzheimer's research and support programs.
iPhone / iPad

Talisman Prologue HD (£2.99)

Games Workshop's venerale Talisman: The Magical Quest Game evokes fond memories for many role-playing veterans. Now it's available in app form courtesy of Thumbstar Games. It offers 50 solo quests to play, with cards, dice and monsters a-plenty. Thumbstar says multiplayer features will be added in future updates, too.
iPhone / iPad

Robot Unicorn Attack 2 (Free)

Unicorns! Music! More unicorns! The original Robot Unicorn Attack was a viral hit, but now it has a sequel on the App Store. You build, customise and upgrade a unicorn then race through a new level every day. Background music is sold in-app, and there's one more new feature: "Oh, also? You can fly now. Yeah. Yeah, man."

10 great gadgets under $50

From wireless speakers and mobile game controllers to portable hard drives and even touch-screen tablets, you might just be surprised what you can find on the cheap at your local electronics store or favorite online retailer.

Rocki

You can turn any speaker into a Wi-Fi-enabled one with the Rocki Play device.

In fact, the following is a list of a few sub-$50 tech toys that deliver a lot of bang for the buck.

ROKU STREAMING STICK (HDMI Version)

Access more than 1,000 on-demand channels — including YouTube, Netflix, Crackle, Hulu Plus and HBO Go — with the Roku Streaming Stick ($49.99 with free shipping; roku.com). Simply plug the small device into your television's HDMI port and start streaming content via the bundled remote or with a Roku app on your smartphone or tablet (iOS or Android). Speaking of your mobile device, you can also stream your personal videos, photos and music to your TV with the Roku app. Other features include up to 1080p video quality (on a compatible television), simple search and channel shortcut buttons on the remote.

DataWind

DataWind's UbiSlate 7Ci is billed as the world's first $38 tablet.

UBI SLATE 7Ci TABLET

DataWind's UbiSlate 7Ci (datawind.com) is billed as the world's first $38 tablet. The 7-inch Android tablet lets you read e-books, watch videos, play games, browse the Web and pick up e-mail. It has integrated Wi-Fi, plus there's an adaptor in the box to snap in a WAN stick for cellular connectivity, if desired (3G only). Powered by a Cortex A9 processor (comparable to a first-generation iPad), the UbiSlate 7Ci also has 512MB of RAM (system memory) and 4GB of storage, but it's expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card. The screen isn't spectacular at 800 x 480 resolution, nor is the battery life (three hours between charges), but at $38 and a ton of bundled apps, it's certainly at the right price.

IHOME iBT16 CUBE SPEAKER

Sometimes you just don't feel like wearing headphones. IHome Audio's iBT16 Cube ($29.99; ihomeaudio.com) is a tiny wireless speaker that lets you stream music, podcasts or audiobooks from your nearby Bluetooth-enabled smartphone, tablet, laptop or media play (such as an iPod touch). Available in several colors (gray, blue, pink, green, black, orange, yellow and purple), these cube-shaped speakers have a rubberized finish, an integrated rechargeable Lithium-ion battery and a 3.5mm audio jack (cable included).

ROCKI PLAY

Turn any speaker into a Wi-Fi-enabled one, so you can listen to your music untethered. That's the premise behind the Kickstarter-funded Rocki Play ($49.99; myrocki.com). Simply connect this small gadget to the audio input of any speaker system (cables included) and you can then use your phone to play music wirelessly. Similar to Wi-Fi-enabled speakers that cost much more (such as Sonos), you can use the free Rocki app (iOS/Android) to search and select any song, control volume and playback and select which Rocki Play-enabled speaker to stream to (the app also supports HTML5, therefore you can also use a Web browser on a PC or Mac to play music).

VERBATIM FOLDABLE BLUETOOTH KEYBOARD

Don't like typing much on your smartphone or tablet? The Verbatim Foldable Wireless Keyboard ($44.99; verbatim.com) is ideal for long-form typing on virtually any Bluetooth-enabled touch-screen smartphone or tablet. As the name suggests, this full-size QWERTY keyboard folds up to half its size and slips into a matching black case for when you're on the go. When you want to type some notes, write a long e-mail or type an essay or sales report, simply open it up, turn it on and prop up your device with an optional pull-out stand. Because Bluetooth is a universal standard, it works with all four mobile platforms: Apple iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry.

MOGA PRO CONTROLLER

Want more control out of your Android games? MOGA Pro Controller ($49.99; www.mogaanywhere.com), which stands for "mobile gaming," is a comfortable controller that holds your smartphone securely while you use the buttons and analog sticks to control the action. Because MOGA works via Bluetooth, you can also use it with your Android tablet (stand included). A number of popular games are supported, including Pac-Man(included), Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, Lego: The Lord of the Rings, N.O.V.A. 3, Six-Guns, Sonic The Hedgehog 4, Dungeon Hunter 4and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

Toshiba

Toshiba's Canvio Connect 500GB hard drive.

TOSHIBA CANVIO CONNECT HARD DRIVE

Thanks for the memory. Computer users understand the importance of backing up important information — be it documents, music, videos, photos and other files — and a robust, easy-to-use hard drive you can take anywhere is a recommended companion. Compatible with PCs and Macs and available in multiple colors, this Toshiba Canvio Connect 500GB hard drive ($49.99; toshiba.com) features USB 3.0 speeds (data transfer rates up to 5 Gbps) along with an average read and write time of 12-milliseconds.

MICROSOFT SCULPT COMFORT WIRELESS MOUSE

Are you still getting hand cramps by using your laptop's touchpad for hours at a time? Instead, consider Microsoft's Sculpt Comfort Wireless Mouse ($39.99; microsoft.com), which pairs with a laptop via Bluetooth, therefore not requiring a dongle to be inserted into a valuable USB port. Along with multiple customizable buttons, a touch strip on top makes scrolling through long and wide documents quick and easy. Powered by both optical and BlueTrack technologies, you can experience accuracy and speed with this mouse, which can be used on virtually any surface.

SWANN MP3 DJ DOORBELL

If a more quirky gadget is your thing, the Swann MP3 DJ Doorbell ($49.99; swann.com) is the first product that lets you customize the sound of your doorbell. First, create a song clip from your music collection — such as the chorus to Ring My Bell or Who Can It Be Now? — and copy it to the large speaker via USB (cable and software included). Then, mount the other piece — a small, wireless doorbell — outside your door; when pressed, the speaker will play your music tracks inside.

D-LINK SHAREPORT MOBILE COMPANION (DIR-505)

The hotel you just checked into has only a wired Internet connection but you brought your iPad tablet, Android smartphone or skinny laptop without an Ethernet port. No worries. You can create a wireless network with the D-Link SharePoint Mobile Companion router ($49.99; dlink.com). About the size of a typical AC charger, it lets you wirelessly access the Internet on multiple devices when plugged into a modem or wired router. Plus, it also has a USB port, so you can insert a thumbdrive with media and stream to nearby devices. This product also acts as a repeater so you can extend the signal from an existing wireless router to cover a dead zone within your home.

Metal Slug Defense blasts its way into the iOS App Store

Since the glory days of Neo-Geo, I’ve been a massive fan of Metal Slug: the run and gun series of video games that sees you blast the living heck out of everything from enemy soldiers to undead zombies and giant crab monsters.

Now a new iOS game set in theMetal Slug universe, called Metal Slug Defense, has been released — and it actually looks pretty good.

Unlike recent abominations likeRollerCoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile, which are the nostalgic equivalent of being forced to burn your favorite childhood toy while your first girlfriend points and laughs at you, this game has taken the superb pixel art, animations and manic destruction that fans loved about theMetal Slug series and turned it into an entertaining iPhone experience.

It’s freemium, but early reports suggest that this is integrated in a way that doesn’t render the game unplayable unless you keep its money-grubbing heart pumping with a constant supply of your life savings.

Either way, we’ll have a review for you soon enough, but in the meantime interested parties can download Metal Slug Defense from the App Store at the link below.

Samsung wants to talk about your health at event on May 28

Samsung Electronics has sent out invitations to a May 28 event in San Francisco, at which the company is expected to expand its health-related offerings

When vendors send invitations they usually include hints at what they plan to announce, but beyond saying “a new conversation around health is about to begin” Samsung is tight-lipped about what its plans are.

However, trying to make its devices more attractive with health-related functionality is nothing new for Samsung. The company has been offering its S Health app for some time. The latest version has a personal fitness tracker that lets users keep track of diet and exercise data, for example. That, combined with the heart rate sensor in the Galaxy S5 and in Samsung’s new wearables, highlights how important the company thinks the area is.

Back in February Samsung also announced the S Health SDK (software development kit), which allows developers to use the health data created by the S Health application. The SDK is still in beta testing and prospective users have to make a partnership request to get access to it. One possible theme for the May 28 event could be Samsung taking advantage of the kit and partnering to make its offerings more attractive and comprehensive.

Samsung’s health event comes a week before Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), at which some expect the company to announce a health-related app. The rumored Healthbook app is said to include features related to monitoring blood sugar, blood pressure and nutrition.

Phone manufacturers aren’t the only ones who see great potential in health-related apps and services. For example, in March, mobile network operator Vodafone teamed up with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to provide mobile health services for improving the treatment of cardiovascular conditions.

Health care is a complicated area when used for clinical treatments, but also one with great potential for societal impact. There are lots of hoops to jump trough related to compliance issues, but that’s out of necessity, Matt Hatton, director at Machina Research, said at the time.

Five Android apps that prolong your smartphone's battery life

This collection of apps will not only extend the life of your handset, but could also improve its overall performance.

Not every smartphone comes with extreme power-saving measures. That's where other apps come in.

Josh Miller/CNET

Have you ever found yourself wishing that your Android's battery would last longer? Don't answer that -- I already know. Be it an app that's too greedy on resources, ever-larger display sizes that use up power faster, or our constant desire to play mobile games that keep our screens lit up for hours at a time, we're eating up battery life faster than we'd like .

It isn't all bad news. As a platform, Android keeps getting more efficient at task management, and multitasking is smarter than ever. Still, battery life never seems to live up to our hopes or expectations.

Thankfully, several high-end handsets now have custom touches built in that will adjust settings based on remaining battery life in an effort to squeeze out just a few more minutes. HTC recently introduced a new "extreme power mode" for the One M8 and Samsung has an "ultra power saving" feature in the Galaxy S5. Unfortunately, you have to curtail your usual usage to make the most of these, so they aren't the most convenient for relying on every day

I have spent time exploring a number of battery-saving apps over the years, and I have become quite fond of a few in particular. Here's a list of five of my favorite apps for prolonging the life of your Android's battery. Note that there are a few common settings that overlap across the apps, but in this piece, I've tried to highlight some of the features that help separate each app from the pack.

Juice defender 

Packed with seemingly endless options,Juice Defender is perhaps my favorite app on this list. The free client lets you manage common connections, such as mobile data as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Multiple preset modes, like "aggressive" and "balanced," allow for toggling and scheduling, background synchronization, and choosing which apps can keep your screen on.

Juice Defender is available in three versions with various features to suit your needs.

Latedroid

Aside from the free app, Juice Defender also comes in Plus ($1.99) and Ultimate ($4.99) versions. Depending on what level of control you are looking for, one might be better suited for your needs. The Plus version, for instance, adds "extreme" and "customized" profiles as well as location-aware Wi-Fi, not to mention scheduling for night hours. The Ultimate app also boasts peak hours and weekend settings, autosync, and deeper GPS controls.

Indeed, I definitely recommend the free client as a starting point but have no qualms about endorsing the paid apps.

Standout features: Multiple versions to suit needs, user profiles, scheduling, and location-aware features.

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Battery Defender

One of the more feature-rich free clients I've encountered, Battery Defenderoffers plenty of options at no cost. It might sound trivial, but I like having the exact battery percentage listed in my notification bar. Far more accurate than what the stock experience usually gives you, it's a simple pleasure.

Battery Defender provides quick access to a number of options.

InfoLife LLC

Battery Defender provides quick and painless access to toggling your common connections such as GPS, Wi-Fi, mobile data, and Bluetooth. I like being able to hop in and turn off the stuff I'm not using -- every little bit helps. While this sort of thing is built into many of today's top Android phones, older or less popular models aren't so fortunate.

Another feature that users will appreciate is Genius Scan, which allows sync to occur every 15 minutes. The adjustable "quiet sleeping" option disables Wi-Fi and data connections at night, a helpful feature for those who do not sleep next to their phones.

Standout features: Easy connections toggling, sleeping mode, staggered sync, and battery percentage in notification bar.

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Go Battery Saver & Power Widget

Designed by the Go Dev Team, this one is as gorgeous as it is flexible. A simple tap of the screen lets you toggle preset modes, making it easy to go from reading and relaxing to online gaming. For those who don't like the standard modes, there are two other slots available for creating custom experiences.

Go Battery Saver & Power Widgetkeeps an eye on your apps to determine which are eating up battery more than others. By assigning a score to your battery, the app is able to determine which features you can enable or disable to extend its life. Tapping the optimize button, in essence, cleans everything up and tacks on some extra expected life. Doing this alone can provide an extra hour or more.

GO Battery Saver & Power Widget recently received a fresh coat of paint.

GO Launcher EX

While the free app is stocked with options and settings, the premium pack brings about another dozen features. Available through in-app purchase for $4.99, this upgraded bundle removes ads and tosses in scheduled settings, more control over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and CPU, and a third "extreme" mode.

The app provides quick access to a number of settings with two home screen widgets. Should you go with the premium option, there are three more widgets to choose from. A number of skins or themes are available for Go Dev's own widgets, and you can also adjust how items appear in the notification bar.

Standout features: Handy widgets, multiple user modes, very clean interface, a steady stream of development updates.

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Autorun Manager

Perhaps the most "risky" app on this list,Autorun Manager lets you determine which apps start running when your phone boots up. Like the aforementioned apps, this one comes in two modes: basic and advanced. Apps selected in basic mode are terminated immediately when the phone boots, though some will pop back up and start running. My advice here is to leave those alone and let system settings take over. As for the advanced mode, you will find more control over things such as widgets and receivers, and system-wide actions.

Autorun Manager lets users decide which apps start upon bootup of the Android handset.

MobiWIA - AndRS Studio

The free version of Autorun Manager is supported by ads, but you can purchase a Pro key for $3.99. Doing so will also keep apps from auto-restarting in basic mode, as well as block more than 10 receivers in advanced mode. Just for good measure, you also get "Chuck Norris mode," which lets you kill apps in a more aggressive manner. Please note that if you are on the fence over this app, we suggest you err on the side of caution and pass. For those of you who demand more control and a have firm grasp on Android's core functions, however, this might be right up your alley.

Standout features: Stops pesky apps from starting up, two user modes, clear insight into what runs immediately at bootup, awesome Chuck Norris reference.

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Tasker

Of all the apps listed here, Tasker is the one that provides more than just battery extension and task-killing. In fact, I would recommend this one to anyone who wants to help automate the Android experience.

In the area of battery life, I like Tasker; it allows me to set times for sleeping and disabling of connections. While I generally tend to plug my phone in overnight, Tasker has proven handy in cases where I do not. Besides time of day, other triggers include day and location; both are useful for people with set work schedules.

Tasker provides users with a myriad of automation options.

Crafty Apps

I also appreciate the way Tasker lets me set my phone to handle media, texting, phone calls, and other Android functions. It might take a while to fully grasp the capabilities, but at $2.99, this one is a true set-it-and-forget-it app.

Those of you with a Chromecast may enjoy some of the extensions and apps that tie into Tasker. One recently making headlines in the Android space,AutoCast, brings about numerous configurations and settings for Google's HDMI dongle.

Standout features: Automated settings based on time, day, and location; automatic settings for text and calls; clean and clutter-free interface.

Other tips and best practices

Chances are good that you can extend battery life by adjusting a few settings on your device or by following a couple of steps. Switching to airplane mode or turning off features like Bluetooth, NFC, and GPS can eke out a few more minutes of life in a pinch.

Is your phone set to automatically adjust brightness? Are your social media apps constantly pinging for updates? You may surprised at how much control you have over the apps and services on your smartphone.

It's not uncommon for an app developer to introduce a new feature or make an adjustment that impacts the battery. Along those lines, I always recommend updating apps to the latest versions. Sometimes these little "bug fixes" can pay off in big ways.

Google Launches Standalone Docs and Sheets Apps for iOS and Android

Google Docs and Sheets apps, now available for iOS and Android, let you create and edit documents and spreadsheets.

Google has launched standalone Docs and Sheets apps for iOS and Android, letting you create and edit documents and spreadsheets on your mobile devices. Slides app, which will let you do the same to presentations, is coming "soon."

Why standalone? Because Google already offers the Drive app, which lets you store and manage your files as well as create and edit documents and spreadsheets as well as view presentations and PDFs.

Now, the company is splitting those functionalities in a separate app for each purpose. You can now get them in the App Store (Docs, Sheets) and on Google Play (Docs, Sheets). And if you just continue using Drive for editing documents and spreadsheets, you will be prompted to download the standalone apps over the "next few days."

The apps have offline support, meaning you can create, view and edit files without an Internet connection. And, when you open the new apps, you'll see your most recently edited files.

As for Drive, you will still be able to view and organize all your documents, spreadsheets, presentations and photos through that app.