DataConsumption
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The data dilemma: content, bandwidth, and metering
Just a week old, the new iPad is quickly exposing a problem with US data usage. As device access to bandwidth increases, content becomes more enticing and accessible. Think Hulu, Netflix and funny videos of monkeys riding pigs. At the same time, unfortunately, metered data isn't getting any cheaper. As the Wall Street Journal detailed today, some American consumers are finding they need to go on a data diet after receiving their 4G-enabled iPads. This problem is not unique to the iPad among Apple's products, and certainly not to Apple's product among mobile computing. But it's getting a fair bit of coverage due to the prominence of the iPad in recent news. Go to any carrier site. Somewhere you'll find an interactive data calculator that estimates how many web pages, how many emails, and how many minutes of video you can consume with a given allocation. Here are a few popular ones in the US: AT&T Verizon Sprint T-Mobile It's not hard to see that videos in particular quickly eat away at data buckets. For some US iPad users, holding tight to their grandfathered AT&T unlimited data plans has been a blessing, even with the 3GB throttling recently imposed. They can reasonably expect to keep on top of March Madness in the car without having to re-charge off their credit card every few hours. This isn't an option for the majority of iPad owners, especially the new ones. For them, we'll make a few rather obvious suggestions to help put yourself on a data diet from the start. Fill up at home. Although services like Netflix won't allow you to temporarily download movies, iTunes does. You can add multiple rentals to your iPad in advance (up to 30 days) and watch them when away from home. The 24-hour clock doesn't start ticking until you begin watching a title. Don't rely on Hotel Wi-Fi. Don't go on a trip expecting to offload your iPad's data needs onto your Hotel's wireless, which in the US often range between poor and awful. Make sure your consumption needs -- surfing, email, etc. -- can be met by your cellular data plan. Enjoy the view. As annoying as fellow travelers at the airport are, you can often find something to do that doesn't involve staring at a screen. A nice conversation can improve your life, your outlook, and your data consumption. Sure, we'd love to see better infrastructure with cheaper data costs for the carriers that are passed on to end-users, but we're not thinking that's going to happen any time soon. Got more suggestions on how this problem can be dealt with? Drop your thoughts into the comments and let us know.
Arieso study: iPhone 4S data use is nearly double that of the of iPhone 4
So, first things first. Arieso, the ouftit that conducted this here study, is a company that makes ends meet by "optimizing mobile networks." In other words, there's just a bit of motivation to find results such as these in studies like this. Now that we've got that cleared up, you may be interested in knowing that Apple's iPhone 4S users are consuming around "twice as much data as the previous iPhone model, and even more than iPad tablets due to increasing use of online services like the virtual personal assistant Siri."Of course, this relates only to those sampled, but there's no question that the inclusion of Siri gives users one more reason to tap into their data plan. According to prior studies, the iPhone 4 used only 1.6x more data than the iPhone 3G, while the iPad 2 consumed 2.5x more data than the iPhone 3G. As time marches on, more and more websites are tailoring themselves for mobile use, and there's obviously no stopping the proliferation of data-sucking apps. Whatever the case, we'd just encourage you to mind that data tier (if you're in one) -- wouldn't want to have to ask Siri how to raise money to cover overages, no would you?
Visualized: a zettabyte
Remember the good old days when a gigabyte was considered a lot of space? Improvements in hard disk technology have allowed the humble magnetic drive to reach the dizzying heights of multiple terabytes of storage, but Cisco foresees a future that's a few orders of magnitude more impressive. Pinpointing 2015 as the commencement of what it calls the zettabyte era, the company has put together a handy infographic to show us just how much data can be fit into one: you can alternatively think of it as the equivalent of 250 billion DVDs, 36 million years of HD video, or the volume of the Great Wall of China if you allow an 11oz cup of coffee to represent a gigabyte of data. So "zetta" must be Greek for one hell of a lot, but what Cisco expects is that we'll be pushing that much information around the web each year by 2015. Any bets on how many exabytes of it will be to stream videos of cats diving into cardboard boxes?
FaceTime 3G data consumption tested: about 3MB per minute
The folks over at 9to5Mac have kept up their investigation of FaceTime over 3G with a quick and dirty data usage analysis. Lest you've forgotten, jailbreaking Apple's Quattro permits walled garden escapees to FaceTime each other using dusty old 3G, and now we've got some numbers to show how much of an impact doing so will have on your bandwidth allowance. A 5-minute call resulted in 14.7MB of data transfers -- including both uploading and downloading -- for the 3G-riding iPhone, which breaks down to a rate slightly lower than 3MB per minute. That's not too horrible when you consider some streaming services use that much just to feed you video of England embarrassing itself in global football tournaments. Then again, we'd be remiss not to note that Fring does it at a claimed 1MB a minute and sans the jailbreak -- but who are we to begrudge having more options? [Thanks, Sam]
Will mobile carriers charge different rates for data during peak / off-peak times?
Yes friends, your worst nightmare could indeed come true. With companies looking for every last way to nickle and dime their few remaining loyal customers, it's now being suggested that mobile operators could start charging different rates for mobile data depending on the time of day. And, let's face it, it makes total sense in a sick, sadistic way. Reportedly, carriers will soon start having a tough time keeping up with all the data-using cellphone and laptop owners, with the latter crew obviously causing the greatest strain on existing networks. A mocoNews report suggests three main ways of dealing with the uptick in demand: 1) keep building out the network and burning cash, 2) using new technology (read: LTE) with more capacity or 3) create rate plans that discourage usage during peak times. We've always heard that history repeats itself, but we'd be just fine with never hearing the words "peak time" ever again.
