I’m looking at pay-as-you-go data plans for my original iphone.
Is there some way to figure out what my likely use will amount to, in terms of data?
In other words, is there some means of calculating what a map search is. loading a given webpage, etc? It seems like most low cost data plans allow a ridiculously tiny amount of data. 300MB over 30 days = 10MB per day = one map search?
I’m on a mac using Safari and Firefox. Are there tools that can tell me what data I used loading a particular page?
This is a pretty rough data point, and the ipad might not be reporting the increase in received data until I hit the next whole MB mark. Suffice it to say I’m on a 250 MB/mo plan and that is more than enough. I only use the 3G perhaps 10 days out of the month at most because most places I go have open wifi access points.
There was no change in data sent but the received went to 422 MB. There’s no way to know if that actually took an whole MB or if the device was already sitting at 421.9 MB and the map search just tipped it over to 422. But I would say that you are way off in your guess that a single map search takes 10 MB. That much data would probably take several minutes to download on a 3G link. Maps load pretty much instantly or within a few seconds.
Wait… you only get charged for data you SEND, not data you RECEIVE? Or…what are you looking at? Where does that register? I have the iphone, is there somewhere on there I can see what the data is, or is it only viewable when you have a plan?
200 MB actually goes a long way if you aren’t streaming videos. I had the original unlimited data plan for over two years and I consider myself a heavy non-video data user. When I renewed (to get the iPhone 4, of course), I looked at my usage over the past 30-ish months and found that I had never gone over 200 MB. I reached 178MB in only one out of 30 months, but all the rest were well below that. Also, the AT&T data overage charges aren’t like the voice ones. It’s something like another $20 for the next 200 MB or something. So, if you do ever manage to go over by a bit, it won’t generate a $1000 bill or anything.
To better describe my usage: I use Google maps tons, I web surf anytime I’m stuck in a line somewhere or at the airport (which is very often), and I download the occasional app or podcast directly to the phone rather than via my computer. I do not stream many videos (maybe one YouTube clip per month on average).
I also now use Opera Mini for web browsing whenever possible. I highly recommend it. It is not only tons faster but it reduces data usage through compression. (It’s probably not a big deal on the usage side since web pages aren’t typically data hogs, but the speed alone is worth it. My usage statistics above are mostly from before I used Opera Mini.)
Finally, anytime you are on wifi, data doesn’t count on your usage. So, assuming you have wifi at home, your home usage is all “free”.