Mobile device, is it harmful to keep them charged?

As far as I know charging lithium batteries takes place in 3 stages, namely:
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1. The main phase in which the battery is charged by a current amounting to ~ 0,4...1 from its nominal capacity. During the primary stage, the battery gains about 70-80% of their working capacity.
By the way, the duration of the basic stage of the charge indicated in the documentation on the phone but after the phone reports the completion of charging;
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2. Finishing the stage at which the battery gets up to its full capacity. Formally, this step is optional, but it is thanks to him, the battery may reach 20-30% of its capacity proportionately increases the battery life of the device. The magnitude of the charging current at this stage is gradually reduced, and the completion of the charging is the time when the charging current will be quite small magnitude from their initial values.
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3. Phase compensation charge. If after the completion of battery charge, the phone was not disconnected from the charger, with some frequency, is charging a small current to compensate the discharge.
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\rIt means much harm, from holding the phone on charge there.
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By the way, despite the fact that lithium batteries the memory effect is almost absent, for maximum battery life it is recommended to periodically perform a full cycle charge-discharge – fully discharge (by disabling the phone with the message "Battery is low") and fully charge the battery.

If the correct stabilizer charge, but not to worry, especially as in a battery (not Chinese)is the electronics Board controlling its performance, the charge/discharge, current, temperature.
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Generally, the charge process is as follows. First there is a quick charge lasting about 2 hours (on average), while the battery is being charged by a large current until approximately 80% of capacity after the indicator shows that the charge is over. Then switched to slow charging (low current), which continues for another several hours.

As someone who's written on the battery degree, roughly say this:
if the phone is more modern, then it is a normal chip, the battery, which works like this: charge the phone from 90% to 100%, then he sits down from 100 to 90, and so on.
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For li-ion batteries, it's not scary. But, contrary to marketing bullshit about "memory effect" will tell you that aging and gradual mixing of the contents of the battery are inherent in all types of batteries. In this mode, the idea of aging should be slower.

Can say about Apple. Overall — not bad. But, once a ~month, you need to make full discharging and subsequent full recharging of the device. Apple talked about this somewhere in the manual, otherwise you can charge anything you like. In modern devices, controllers, batteries already smart enough.
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Unfortunately, with regard to each specific type of battery I can not tell.

As I understand it, these tips are equivalent and for laptops that use Li-Ion battery? Or actually there are some subtleties and nuances, from which the battery life can vary?

the phone should not drain completely. This is lost the capacity of its battery. In General, the feelings, the phone charging feels more robust and works faster (Probably on my HTC Touch Diamond have the same profiles in power). He put the phone on charge constantly like coming home and take it off in the morning. Reduction of battery capacity not to feel.

The question in the topic — is there any difference when charging the phone (my Hero) from microUSB or from the usual outlets? Just thought that microUSB the phone is charging a longer and self-discharge faster. Heard from him, and a "bad" charge.