Are you on a capped data plan? In this brief tutorial, we will share a few quick tips to reduce cellular data usage when you use the Facebook app on your iPhone or iPad.
How to use less cellular data in the Facebook app
Data
How to use less cellular data in the Skype app
Are you on a capped data or internet plan? Discover how to adjust settings to minimize the Skype app's cellular or internet data usage on your iPhone or iPad.
AT&T to throttle streaming video next year with new ‘Stream Saver’ feature
AT&T on Friday announced a new feature for its data plans called Stream Saver. The carrier calls it a "free and convenient, data-saving feature" that will cap most mobile video streams at DVD quality (or around 480p).
It sounds harmless at first, but customers who aren't concerned with data may not like that the feature will be enabled by default. To watch hi-def video, you'll have to opt out via the myAT&T app or the AT&T website.
Facebook halts WhatsApp data collection in UK following privacy probe
As of late-August 2016, WhatsApp has been sharing account data with Facebook in what the firm framed as an effort to improve targeted advertising on the social network. Although users can easily opt out of the WhatsApp → Facebook data sharing with just a few taps, most novice users are unaware that their WhatsApp usage data is being shared with Facebook.
In the United Kingdom, the Information Commissioner Office head Elizabeth Denham said her office had launched a probe into WhatsApp's updated Terms of Service a few weeks ago.
The new terms previously drew ire from European privacy watchdogs who expressed “serious concerns” over the policy change. As a result of the UK government probe, WhatsApp has now suspended account data collection and sharing with Facebook.
Global mobile internet usage passes desktop for the first time
Online visitor stats tool StatCounter reported on Tuesday that worldwide internet traffic coming from mobile surpassed that of desktop for the first time in October. A clear sign of the times, StatCounter found that global mobile and tablet devices accounted for 51.3% of internet usage compared to 48.7% for desktop.
Data Saver mode is reportedly coming to Facebook Messenger in a few weeks
I use Facebook Messenger literally every single day to message my friends and family and have always hated how the mobile app discriminately downloads media content regardless of whether I open the message or not.
Sometimes my friends would attach really long videos or high-resolution shots to their messages, prompting me to completely disable cellular access for Messenger on my iPhone, but then I don't receive their texts on the go.
Wouldn't it be better if Messenger handled data-hungry attachments more intelligently when the user is connected to a cellular network? As per a report by The Next Web a few days ago, a new data saver option is indeed coming to Messenger in a few weeks.
Sprint’s new tablet-exclusive unlimited plan degrades your video, music and gaming streams
I don't trust “unlimited” wireless plans because they're all but unlimited and often come with a bunch of caveats one needs to consider carefully. The latest example: Sprint's newly announced data plan for tablets which promises unlimited 4G LTE data in exchange for $20 per month. So far so good, but the devil—as always—is in the detail.
If you take a closer look at the fine print, you soon realize that the plan limits video streaming to DVD-like 480p resolution, music streaming quality to 500kbps and your online gaming streams to up to 2Mbps.
How to optimize the Spotify app to use less cellular data
In this tutorial, we'll show you how to configure the Spotify app on your iPhone so you can use it to your liking without blowing through all of your cellular data.
How to move your Health data from one iPhone to another
When developer Dan Loewenherz got his new iPhone 7 last month, he looked for a way to migrate his old iPhone's Health data into his new one. He eventually stumbled on a post I wrote about how to export and import your Health data last year, but he was surprised the process wasn't easier. So he decided to develop his own app. Enters Health Data Importer.
Apple SIM partner AlwaysOnline Wireless unveils new UK plans, expands in 29 countries
Apple SIM is available in 140+ countries via GigSky, but now customers traveling abroad have additional choices when it comes to buying short-term data plans on the go, directly from their cellular-enabled iPad, thanks to a company called AlwaysOnline Wireless which today announced that its 4G LTE roaming network is now available via Apple SIM in the United States and 28 additional countries.
The company also launched new data plans in the United Kingdom via a partnership with British wireless carrier Three: an hourly plan with 100MB of 4G LTE for $0.49 (£0.37), a daily plan with 500MB of 4G LTE for $5.99 (£4.50), a 1GB plan for $10.99 (£8.26), a 3GB plan for $18.99 (£14.28) and a 5GB plan for $29.99 (£22.55).
Tip: use Messages low quality image mode to conserve precious cellular data
Apple's Messages app provides an optional iOS-only mode which cuts down your cellular data consumption to a bare minimum when sending image attachments. I don't know about you, but I worry about sharing high-resolution images when cellular data is on. In my experience, most normals are oblivious to the fact that sending a single shot-on-iPhone photograph through iMessage burns through one to five megabytes of data, sometimes even more.
In low quality mode, Messages uses only 100KB per image attachment. Another way to think about it: you can send 30 to 50 images for the same amount of data required to share a full-resolution attachment in Messages. In this brief tutorial, we'll teach you how to tell Messages to send lower quality images in order to optimize your cellular data consumption and prevent unwanted overage fees.
New low quality mode in iOS 10 Messages uses circa 100KB per sent image
As you know, iMessage overcomes many of the limitations of standard MMS. Every time you attach an image taken on your iPhone and iPad to an iMessage, it's delivered in its original size and resolution. Some downscaling may occur, but only for very high resolution images: those taken with an iOS device are always delivered in their original form without any resizing taking place.
And herein lies a problem for those of you who send a lot of images via a cellular data connection.
Knowing a typical photo taken on an iPhone 6s weighs in at between three to five megabytes (or even more), it does add up pretty quickly. If you're concerned about cellular data consumption (as you should be), pay attention as Messages on iOS 10 offers a brand new low quality mode.
We've determined it downscales images sent through iMessage to circa 100 kilobytes each. In other words, for the amount of data you'd normally spend to shoot someone a single photo via iMessage you get to send 30 to 50 images in low quality mode.