iOS 5.0.1 has been out publicly for a while. iOS 5.1.0 is currently in Beta 3. Apple released it on Jan 9th. I am fully expecting a 5.1 release within 72 hours of the announcement of the iPad 3.
As for "better" battery life on iOS 5.1.0 Beta 3....
Lets say it is more consistent. I am averaging about 7 hours 15 minutes of usage during a 24 hour discharge period. This is with EVERYTHING on. I can extend the time frame slightly if I force close all apps written by Zynga (yes they have really bad coding practices) after I am doing using them.
Most of the ideas floating around for "how to save battery life" are pretty much useless unless you adhere to a very strict regiment on how to use the phone. Which means you are wasting minutes of your life to save a few percentage of battery. Not really worth it in my opinion.
I agree with skull one. Most of the "tips" about saving battery life are very ridiculous. I had the same problem but I immidiately sold out my gadget at a much lower price and switched to a better one. This is what you can do right now to get more batterly life.