The Almost mobile phone: Battery woes

Ah, the never ending cycle of charge and deplete.

I recently attended a brunch gathering with some friends a restaurant in the Sunset District of San Francisco.  It wasn't long until the conversation turned to our phones. After much talk of how each of us had dropped the device and either cracked or destroyed the screen, the conversation turned to power (or the lack thereof).   Everyone had their charging cable with them, either in their car or presently in their pocket. Three members of the group had confiscated access to nearby outlets already.  

I've tried several power management apps, but finally resigned myself to acceptance of the fact that battery technology is still science-in-progress.   It's great that the battery can last longer than 2-3 hours (like a notebook), but it won't last 16+ hours, or even 24+.

Alas, I don't have a good solution for this problem.  I've continued to use JuicePlotter to track my usage, and gave up on another battery saver, JuiceDefender (even after having purchased the Pro version).  JuicePlotter is a must for me, despite the built-in battery monitoring feature of Android 4.0.  JP gives a great chart of the use-intensity and charge/ discharge rate.  Plus it offers a widget that displays a very accurate, estimated time to depletion.