Ask Slashdot: Measuring (and Constraining) Mobile Data Use? 129
An anonymous reader writes: I've carried a smart phone for several years, but for much of that time it's been (and I suspect this is true for anyone for whom money is an object) kept pretty dumb — at least for anything more data-intensive than Twitter and the occasional map checking. I've been using more of the smart features lately (Google Drive and Keep are seductive.) Since the data package can be expensive, though, and even though data is cheaper than it used to be, that means I don't check Facebook often, or upload pictures to friends by email, unless I'm in Wi-Fi zone (like home, or a coffee shop, etc). Even so, it seems I'm using more data than I realized, and I'd like to keep it under the 2GB allotment I'm paying for. I used to think half a gig was generous, but now I'm getting close to that 2GB I've paid for, most months.
This makes me a little paranoid, which leads to my first question: How accurate are carriers' own internal tools for measuring use, and do you recommend any third-party apps for keeping track of data use? Ideally, I'd like a detailed breakdown by app, over time: I don't think I'm at risk for data-stealing malware on my phone (the apps I use are either built-in, or plain-vanilla ones from Google's store, like Instagram, Twitter's official client, etc.), but of course really well-crafted malware would be tough to guard against or to spot. And even if they can be defeated, more and more sites (Facebook, for one) now play video just because I've rolled over a thumbnail. Read on for second part of the question.
Second, what tools or tips can you offer for doling out my data more carefully? Can you name some apps that actually do a good job of minimizing data transfer, or managing apps' data use to at least to look harder for a Wi-Fi connection? I know Opera Mobile uses compression to minimize data transfer, and I'm sure it's possible to turn off many of the annoying sound-bearing ads of the world.This makes me a little paranoid, which leads to my first question: How accurate are carriers' own internal tools for measuring use, and do you recommend any third-party apps for keeping track of data use? Ideally, I'd like a detailed breakdown by app, over time: I don't think I'm at risk for data-stealing malware on my phone (the apps I use are either built-in, or plain-vanilla ones from Google's store, like Instagram, Twitter's official client, etc.), but of course really well-crafted malware would be tough to guard against or to spot. And even if they can be defeated, more and more sites (Facebook, for one) now play video just because I've rolled over a thumbnail. Read on for second part of the question.
In short, what are some ways to get the most use from my limited data allotment, and be mindful about the ways I *do* spend it? This will be even more important if, as I hope, my next laptop has built-in data service. Web sites are I suspect only going to want to use more of my bandwidth in the future, even if it does get slightly cheaper. Nowadays, browsers have made it a chore even to do things like turn off images, never mind dancing, animated ads. Turning off images used to save my 56k dialup bandwidth, and the concept here is the same. (Google doesn't exactly make turning off images in Chrome friendly enough for my mom.)
(I'm using an Android phone, but I'm sure there are iPhone users who'd like to know the answers to parallel question for Apple gear. I can't be the only one who finds cavalier bandwidth sucking by web pages to be a blood-pressure-raising offense, when I'm paying for each expensive byte. There are lots of places where even wired connections are expensive, but at least with a wired network connection things like Squid can be deployed.)
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Your phone is an advertising portal (Score:3, Funny)
Why would you want to turn off ads? If you could do that, there's no point in these companies spending all their time and energy producing the device.
Just use a sane carrier (Score:2)
Just use a sane carrier like T-Mobile or similar that gives everyone unlimited data and just throttles you after that. I never even think about it.
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Re:Just use a sane carrier (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah, that's why they just call it "unlimited data" with 2GB of "high speed data". I don't find it confusing, though I'm a bit confused why other people do.
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I highly recommend ROK Mobile. I get 6gbs of 4g and unlimited 3g for $50/mo.
On the EDGE of legality, you say? (Score:2)
I don't see on what grounds a court could strike down an "Unlimited with the first x GB at blazing fast speed" claim for a carrier that falls back to dial-up speeds after the subscriber exceeds his quota. It's still unlimited, even if on EDGE.
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Those are ISDN speeds.
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What are you talking about? TMobile is the best at it- I get free unlimited data in Europe for fucks sake. Unlimited roaming data in over 120 countries. ANd I've used it in Spain and South Korea. Only place I wasn't given free data was Gibraltar.
http://www.t-mobile.com/option... [t-mobile.com]
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Android / DroidWall (Score:5, Interesting)
Android has a built in data meter (at least in Cyanogenmod/AOSP). Go under mobile data and it will break it down by app.
Now install DroidWall and disable network access for your apps that don't need it. I walked out of my house once listening to a YouTube "video" lecture (screen off via XPosed plugin) and blew through my entire 300MB data plan on that.
2GB is crazy-high usage if you're trying to be conservative - I have email and calendar sync and occasional photo uploads on trips and rarely have to buy an extra data card.
I presume you have to own your phone (be "rooted") to do such useful things. Being slashdot this should be safe to assume.
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Xposed and XPrivacy have issues in Android 5.x, so it might be a while before the platform stablizes enough for that.
An alternative is the successor for LBE Privacy guard... provided you can read Chinese, and don't mind trusting the source.
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Am in the same boat. I had to roll back to 4.x just because I rather have XPrivacy than the latest gewgaws and UI.
The acid test of privacy is running Yik Yak. If you like a few posts, delete the app, and reinstall it, without it showing you your old yakarma score, then you did the job right, because that app does a lot of stuff in order to permanently ID a device.
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Success might be model and even ROM specific. I did the manual install of the framework on a 5.x ROM with a HTC One M8 with default ROM... and it promptly bootlooped.
No root needed (Score:3, Informative)
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There are also widgets you can install that will tell you your cumulative network usage for the month. There may not be any need to panic and start fixating on what every little app is doing. Drilling down to that level of detail simply may not be necessary.
What *is* every little app doing? (Score:3)
There may not be any need to panic and start fixating on what every little app is doing.
But then again, there might. How is one to know? That's the biggest problem I have with the mobile telecom computing model. I have no idea what the apps do, and no way, other than make it my life's work, to find out.
I hate having to trust the OS provider that everything is properly sandboxed, that none of the apps in their stores are malware, etc. What's going on, inside this box?
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if you don't trust the OS provide then you'll be much happier with iphone than android. iphone tracks data usage by app. most of my data intensive stuff is pandora, web, maps, email.
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Huh? If you don't trust the OS provider, Apple is the worst choice- you can't put on a custom ROM, you can't use non Apple stores, you can't use non Apple approved software, you can't use non Apple approved browser. If you don't trust the OS provider a custom ROM of Android is the only option.
Also Android tracks usage by app, and has forever. My biggest user is Maps, then facebook, then messenger. It even lists out things like Google Play Services.
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I do NOT understand the jailbreak community. "I don't trust Apple, so I'm going to download a jailbreak from an unknown chinese hacker group that is based on zero day flaws, because then I'll feel safe."
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the issue apparently isn't the ability to track data use, it's the reliability of these numbers. I think because iOS has greater control over the phone its numbers are going to be more reliable. arkham knight ftw!
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But then again, there might. How is one to know? That's the biggest problem I have with the mobile telecom computing model. I have no idea what the apps do, and no way, other than make it my life's work, to find out.
If you have Android and root steal a wakelock and run tcpdump for a day.
Re: Android 5 takes care of this (Score:5, Informative)
I have a stock Nexus 5 with Lollipop (Android 5.something) and they put in a pretty excellent data meter under Settings | Data Usage
It shows a cumulative graph of data usage over time, and a linear projection up to the end of the month for your billing plan, along with a customizable warning threshold. Under that it lists a histogram of how many MB is used by each app. Click on those, and you can configure background data for each app to restrict them to only update on wifi (or not at all).
This is pretty much a solved problem if you can convince your phone manufacturer to update you to Android 5 (or just flash a CyanogenMOD build yourself like I used to do on every phone I had before my Nexus 5)
Re:Android / DroidWall (Score:4, Informative)
As does the iPhone: Settings -> Cellular -> Cellular Data Usage -> Current Period (that page also breaks it down by app, including both system and installed apps, including tethered usage).
One "gotcha", you need to manually reset it (at the bottom of the Settings -> Cellular page) when your billing cycle rolls over every month, but not really a big deal, I just set a recurring reminder to do it.
And yes, I realize the FP specifically mentioned Android, but others (like me) trapped semi-unwillingly in the iGarden may well have the same question.
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Yes, over the next two or three years, tracking my bandwidth usage will waste fifteen minutes of my life.
No doubt, that loss of precious time means I'll miss the half of an episode of some random sitcom that would have changed my world.
Watch all apps (Score:1)
My best recommendation would be to turn off all apps (disable them) that you do not use. TCTB (The Carriers That Be(TM)) load phones up with worthless tripe applications that continually "phone home" or check for updates or blah blah blah. This has reduced my data usage 25%.
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Titanium Backup is good for disabling apps, even if they live in /system, and are not able to be turned off by normal means. This is a must have app, since it not just can back up, but can use reliable encryption, and back up the encrypted files to a cloud provider.
Disclaimer: Root is needed.
Open source (Score:1)
All your apps that have no actual need for network connectivity should come from F-Droid.
Games (Score:2)
All your apps that have no actual need for network connectivity should come from F-Droid.
Which leaves what for single-player games? Free software has tended to lag at producing compelling video games that aren't flat-out clones. Or would you consider the online leaderboard an "actual need for network connectivity"?
Interactive fiction control on touch screen (Score:2)
On my Android devices I play mostly emulators
Where should one (lawfully) obtain ROM images for these emulators now that Retrode is out of production?
text adventures
How does text input work on those? Is there any attempt to work around the limits of the on-screen keyboard that ships with Android OS?
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If copyright holders want to make money, they could set up a place where we could pay for such ROMs.
They do. It's called Nintendo eShop.
Where should one (lawfully) obtain ROM images for these emulators now that Retrode is out of production?
many has legal ROM content extracted from an old device still sitting in a closet somewhere.
That's what I was asking for: recommendations of such a device.
Besides, even if you do have ROMs, action games originally made for a physical D-pad and buttons don't work well on a flat sheet of glass in my experience. I tried a few platformers in Nesoid, and they were an exercise in frustration as I kept either pressing the wrong button or "whiffing" (pressing outside all buttons).
iPhone5S w/VZW (Score:4, Interesting)
I have an iPhone5S w/VZW and find their tools to be 100% spot on. Between my wife and I, we end up right at our 4GB limit each month and sometimes we're in airplane mode + wifi for a day or more in order to make it under the wire. I feel VZW's own tools are just fine for monitoring my bandwidth, at least at this point in time.
Many of you will ask why we just don't add more to our plan. Well, that's simple: I don't believe that carriers should be able to charge what they do for the limited amount of bandwidth they provide; data is the new SMS (something I also refused to pay for when I was on AT&T and instead forced the carrier to block all incoming SMS to my phone and I used Google Voice + iMessage to avoid paying for it).
YMMV.
tips (Score:5, Interesting)
I would see what apps are the most egregious, make sure you are on wifi at work and home and go from there. You can also look into cyanogen or other roms for your phones that allow you to turn data off at the app level.
Also, look into ting, since now you can use GSM or CDMA phones on their service. Well worth it.
Re:tips (Score:4, Informative)
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The post above yours mentioned CDMA, so that's Verizon, also.
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It's a bit off-topic relative to this OP, but I wonder how long it'll be until AT&T and Verizon just decide to unilaterally either (A) move people off of unlimited plans and onto limited/shared plans; or (B) threaten to cancel their service entirely if they refuse to move to a new plan.
As an unlimited subscriber, this prospect scares me a bit every time I think of it. I know that unless we're able to change the carriers' attitudes about unlimited (which is really an uphill battle for many reasons), the
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The only thing 'irrevocable' then was my decision to find another carrier. No, it's not unlimited, but at least I'm getting what I agreed to pay for.
Data-hogging JS malware (Score:3)
Most mobile web browsers make it difficult to keep a device "clean from malware" that is written in JavaScript and served through advertising networks. Without wiping a device to root it, for example, there's no way to install a third-party firewall.
The feature I want to see (Score:2)
Has Safari for iOS added a way to block HTML5 video ads from even starting? If so, in what version?
Be a man (Score:1)
tcpdump it all and then sort it out packet by packet.
Greenify (Score:1)
I'm sure you're going to get a lot of posts about Droidwall and things like that, so I won't bother. Instead, I thought I'd mention the app Greenify. Its intended use is for improving battery life by keeping apps from running when you aren't actively using them, but apps that aren't running can't use data, so it can also help you out there.
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Juice Defender is another app along these lines. It is mainly intended for dealing with prolonging battery life by turning off the data and Wi-Fi options, only turning them on at selected intervals to allow mail to be fetched.
You're halfway there already (Score:3)
do you recommend any third-party apps for keeping track of data use?
On Android? No. Data usage is a baked in feature since forever ago, including an app by app breakdown, warning levels and mobile data cutoff limit. Just use that - it should be buried in settings somewhere.
As far as data limiting tools, the only thing like that I've ever used is DroidWall, which is just a simple GUI for IPTables. It does require root (!) but once installed you can hand out network privileges (Roam, Data, WiFi, all independently) on an app by app basis. This lets you keep data crazy apps from ever touching a cell tower (WiFi only), or apps that have no good reason to be calling the outside world from doing so. Just be warned that a blacklist by default policy means installing a new app isn't just as simple as pushing install - you also have to remember to set it's network rights, or most mobile apps won't work as designed. All that said, I'll admit that DroidWall isn't a perfect solution for what you're looking for (requires root, no way of throttling an app, just yes/no access) but it might still be useful.
Firewall (Score:2)
Re: Answer coming soon to Slashdot (Score:1)
I assumed it was him asking when it said "read on for the second part..."
Maybe he is crowd sourcing his next "article".
A gigabyte is not worth a dollar, much less 10 (Score:2)
A gigabyte of data transmitted over the public Internet is not worth a dollar, much less $10. Carriers do not *need* to charge that much, but they choose to because it's profitable and you don't have any other choices.
Well, you do, kinda. You can "rent" an unlimited data plan from someone who has one grandfathered on Verizon or AT&T, on eBay. It'll be expensive, but if you use data like nobody's business, it's the best way to go. Don't do this if you plan to "sip" data, though, or you'll end up paying M
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The issue as I see it are the economics of the network seem to be 180 degrees out of phase with their billing. There is so much spectrum available and so much time slice available on channel in a cell. Its a limited resource. I don't know how the cell towers are connected, you would hope its hub and spoke each tower having its own backhaul to some well connected POP, but maybe not perhaps some of the last mile towers are daisy chained.
In any case the voice requires consistent latency and fixed bandwidth.
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Frame it how ever you want, Libertarian free-market scum. You're so narrow-minded that you couldn't see your hand if you held it right in front of your face. To put it in terms that your tunnel vision paramecium brain can understand, people are rapidly starting to no longer be willing to pay $10 per GB. With the emergence of alterntives to doing so, it's only a matter of time -- a time short in comparison to how long they've been milking $10/GB -- until their market dries up. So they can either drop their p
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Actually you two seem to agree: the price of data is cemented by the paying customers. He isn't going to liberterian extremes, he's pointing out that the tiered-plan carriers are raking in lots of proft. The reason Sprint has unlimited plans is because they are nowhere near as profitable as they'd like to be.
Customer frustration over data prices is there, afferall AT&T is finally doing data rollover (well... sort of), but right now they are in nowhere near the danger you are predicting.
Airplane Mode (Score:3)
Do you have wifi at home and work? If so, turn the phone off, put it in airplane mode, or shut off cellular data; you are doing something wrong if you think you are a light user and are consuming more than 1GB/month. I do video conferencing, web meetings, VNC, and a few other data-intensive uses, and am around 1GB/month (up from 250MB though a year or two ago).
With the iPhone you get application-specific cellular data usage, and you can limit applications' access; I assume Android does the same. For my iPhone, about half of my usage is system services and the app store (needed to replace phone while on the road, so I had to download everything over cell).
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McWi-Fi (Score:2)
needed to replace phone while on the road, so I had to download everything over cell
Was there not a restaurant on the way where you could grab a bite while your package manager could also grab a byte?
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On the accuracy point, my iPhone says '30' and my provider's app says '40'. I reset the statistics on the same day the usage period rolled over.
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Provided records what is sent, phone records what is received. That is why I dumped ATT; they indicated I used 1GB in a month while the device indicated 120MB, consequently charging me for substantial overages. They actually have an incentive to provide bad coverage.
Limit apps' ability to use cellular data! (Score:2)
good luck (Score:2)
You're in a bad situation where you carrier is billing you, and you have to pay. You don't get to question the data.
That said... use the Android data limits, have it warn you at a certain level, and turn off data when you reach your limit.
Uninstall Facebook, their app is disgusting in the way it consumes data. Auto-playing videos, messaging app on all the time in the background, refreshing itself with no option to disable it. It was by far and above the worst offending app, even with most options disabled,
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Avast Firewall (Score:2)
For me, is good enough.
Look at the carrier's apps (Score:2)
WSJ App (Score:2)
Android - My Data Manager (Score:3)
Started using "My Data Manager" recently on android. It shows data by app per time period. There's a lot of other stuff out there, probably plenty better and plenty worse, and probably most of it free like this one. Still...it seems pretty invaluable. I just use it to see which apps are using way more data than they ought to on my unlimited plan, but it also lets you set alarms, and it differentiates between wifi/phone data use.
Voicemail Drain (Score:1)
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You still have voicemail? That's cute.
The rest of the world moved on from the 90's.
You're focused on the wrong things (Score:2)
You need to work big to small here, and your focus seems almost backward.
The things you mention as concerns are relatively data-light: Avoiding checking facebook through the app, or turning off image loading in the browser aren't really going to save you much unless you're hitting very image-heavy pages often*. You can spend a ton of time working to minimize these and in the end you won't save much--as a hint, if you were doing it on a 56k modem (even if it was "bandwidth-heavy" then), then it's probably n
Just turn it off most of the time (Score:4, Informative)
Apps can never background update if you have your 3g radio off except when you're using it. As an extra bonus, it also saves you tons of battery (I turn off wifi and gps when I'm not using them, too, even though they don't cost any money to leave on). If I turn my 3g on and immediately notice it start flashing like something is using data, that's a big red flag, then I investigate what's doing it.
I'm a huge fan of Ting - when it was just me using it by myself (now we've merged several accounts, so bookkeeping would be more complicated), my phone bill was usually an amazingly low ~16 bucks after taxes and fees. I got that because I rarely went above the lowest data bracket of only 100 MB. I used data as much as I needed to - I was just mindful of it. Occasionally I'd go above 100 MB and have to pay an extra ~10 bucks that month for the 500 MB bucket, which I was alright with. I can't even imagine needing 2 GB, though. (Now me and my wife have a combined 500 MB bucket for a couple dollars more each, which is even nicer. We *never* go above that.)
Your carrier (Score:2)
Your carrier charges you based on what they know you used so the carrier tool is your best bet.
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Which is why I said your carrier. The carrier servers contain the billable amount.
Sigh. (Score:3)
My Android phone has a data measuring tool built-in and also warns and stops when you hit the limit. It's not rocket-science, it's already there in the settings on any vaguely recent phone (fuck knows about Apple, because I don't care about them).
If you don't have a vaguely recent phone then install something like Onavo, which does exactly that.
Also, if you're doing 2Gb on a mobile, stop using the mobile for data, connect to Wifi, or up your package. How hard is this? Pissing about shrinking images hasn't done much since the days of Opera Mobile and WAP.
This is Slashdot and you HAVEN'T worked this shit out?
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Perhaps not, but there's no reason to be a jerk about it. Some people prefer to ask about the alternatives rather than hunt through the zillions of possibilities on app stores and reading through the dozens of utterly useless online reviews from sketchy sites that have names like "manage-your-mobile-data.net", etc.
The submitter trusts the /. community to give better than average advice on this sort of thing. Humour them or don't respond, but maybe don't be so disparaging. Asking is more often the right thin
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Pissing about shrinking images hasn't done much since the days of Opera Mobile and WAP.
I might agree with the rest of your post. Particularly as what the #^@% is he expending 2G on? I use my phone all the time, and the only time I came close to my 2G cap was the month where I watched every episode (to that date, 5th or 6th season) of Mad Men on it. And that took me most of the month to do so.
I however disagree with your attitude about using appropriate dimensioned images. It is so ridiculous that, with broadband service, it takes longer to load some of the web pages, with little more real
Ads (Score:2)
If you browse the web, make sure you have adblock activated. Firefox supports this.
Also in android there's a built-in feature to allow you to see which app that consumes most bandwidth.
iOS 9 content blockers (Score:2)
For iOS users that somehow haven't heard, it'll be possible to write content blockers for Safari in iOS 9, and someone has already implemented one as a test that significantly reduces the amount of data that mobile sites use. (Using iMore as a test, he got page load times down from 11s to 2s, and reduced the amount of data transfer from something as high as 14MB in some cases down to 4MB.)
That seems like something that those of us that are concerned about data limits should immediately get on.
Unlimited data? (Score:3)
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Hehehe, 2GB plans. I'm amazed people put up with such rubbish, but maybe they don't have a choice ni their part of the US. I bet I use way more than that viewing Youtube videos alone. Lucky I have an all-you-can-eat data plan with Three in the UK.
Enable "Data Saver" in Chrome (Score:1)
Chrome has a "Data Saver" feature in settngs; enable that.
I think it compresses and/or down-scales images on a proxy before sending them to your device.
My Data Saver reports that it has saved me 32% in the last 30 days sample.
Internet Speed Metere Lite (Score:2)
Built into Windows Phone (Score:2)
Check Carrier Settings (Score:1)
I use Verizon Wireless with an iPhone. This gives me two levels of data overage. My philosophy is - I'm paying for 2GB, nothing wrong with using it.
Check with your carrier - I'm sure they all have similar features. Here's what VZW & iOS offers...
First: VZW offers to send me text messages when I get to ~80% and 90% of my monthly usage. Enable that.
Second: iPhone now has "widgets" and VZW created a data usage one. So I can now see a % progress bar in the notification screen.
Third: I've configure
Add a cellular data toggle widget (Score:2)
On Android 4.4 I could toggle my cell data on and off with a swipe and a press. Android 5.1 has broken that simplicity, so now it's a swipe, a press, a careful swipe and another press (thanks, Google, for making that harder). I can toggle background data access on and off from the same widget bar. I just turn it on when I need it and off when I don't. The rest of the time I use wi-fi. I set my podcast app to only update and download on wi-fi, so I have plenty to listen to on my commutes without consumi
phone cost USD $3 per month. (Score:1)
1. I remain on old fashioned phones with only talk and SMS on a PAYG (Pay As You Go) scheme. 2. I use computer based data only via WiFi or Ethernet work, home or Public Wifi. My costs are about GBP £2 per month (say USD3 per month) fro phones (two of them on separate networks so roaming and dead spots are minimiseed) 3. I see no reason for a data phone or visual 'apps' outside my base (home,work or pub) 4. Maybe because I am a canny Scot I do not like transfering my cash to others. 5 Organise your lif
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Edit. No voice mail allowed.
By scrolling past it, or by getting a laptop (Score:2)
How do you roll over a thumbnail on a smart phone?
In context, I think it's referring to video that some apps start as soon as the user scrolls past it. Also tethering, and "This will be even more important if, as I hope, my next laptop has built-in data service."