Gadgetory

with every new operating system comes a set of new features and settings that drain your battery KitKat here on the Nexus 5 is no exception so if you want better battery life here are some tips GPS is always a big battery hog even when you're not using Google Maps when you check in using Facebook or even take a photo your phone pinpoints your location to minimize the effects on your battery head over to settings location then mode and enable battery saving most of the time you'll still get a pretty accurate location reading and for the times you need precise tracking switch it back to high accuracy Google search is also a culprit with its new hot word detection anytime you're on the home screen you can say ok Google to prompt a new search or voice action but that means your phone is constantly listening and waiting for you to say those magic words to turn that feature off head to Google now then settings then voice and disable hot word detection if you have an NFC enabled phone like this Nexus 5 make sure it's only on when you need it and same goes for Android Beam which is based on NFC just head to settings then more under that Wireless and network section to disable it you should also check to see that KitKat is only syncing the data you absolutely want synced general syncing options can be found under account settings here you'll find all the data that's being synced to disable one just uncheck the Box google photos in particular is a big battery hog so if you don't need Google uploading every photo you take be sure to disable it and finally don't forget to make use of the battery tool in the quick settings menu just swipe down to reveal the notification bar hit this icon then tap the battery icon here you'll see a list of processes and how much battery they're consuming if you see that an app is consuming too much of your battery shut it down if you have any questions along the way it hit me up on Twitter and check out how to cnet.com for more KitKat tips and tricks for cnet.com I'm Sharon Vaknin