Comments on: Data Hungry Mobile Apps Eating into Bandwidth Use http://gigaom.com/2011/05/19/data-hungry-mobile-apps-eating-into-bandwidth-use/ Sat, 25 May 2013 08:22:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: William C Bonner http://gigaom.com/2011/05/19/data-hungry-mobile-apps-eating-into-bandwidth-use/#comment-625439 Fri, 20 May 2011 01:55:29 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=347457#comment-625439 What is really needed is for each OS to support tracking of how much network resources are used by each app over time, and provide that data to the user in some reasonable fashion. It should be able to keep track of WiFi data separately from whatever goes over the cellular network. If 4G is somehow metered differently, then that should be tracked as well. The problem with all of this is that it really needs to be done at the OS level, so that information is tracked for all of the apps, including things that may be considered part of the phone OS itself.

I’ve long thought that a pie chart showing where my data usage came from would be great. Breaking things down by protocol just isn’t very useful when so many things ride on top of older protocols.

]]> By: Sean, Dallas, TX http://gigaom.com/2011/05/19/data-hungry-mobile-apps-eating-into-bandwidth-use/#comment-625333 Thu, 19 May 2011 16:18:54 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=347457#comment-625333 We will probably need legislation to force Apple and app vendors to log app-by-app data usage. My daughter’s new iPhone4 uses a shocking amount of data and we have to uninstall the apps one by one then wait a day or 2 each time to try to track down the heavy user. AT&T will oppose this because they have a financial incentive for users to exceed the cap.

]]> By: Kevin C. Tofel http://gigaom.com/2011/05/19/data-hungry-mobile-apps-eating-into-bandwidth-use/#comment-625319 Thu, 19 May 2011 15:30:46 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=347457#comment-625319 That’s true, Todd, and it can be done in iOS as well. Through the multitasking feature you can close any running application. But I don’t think the issue is one of consumer control for the apps; instead, I think it’s consumer awareness for how much data an app actually can or does use.

]]> By: Todd http://gigaom.com/2011/05/19/data-hungry-mobile-apps-eating-into-bandwidth-use/#comment-625314 Thu, 19 May 2011 15:10:03 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=347457#comment-625314 I doubt the iPhone provides it but, all Android phones allow you to individually control apps.

Settings>Applications>Manage applications>All

…then touch suspect app icon and hit “force stop” button. But FYI evil apps like the Twitter will re-initiate themselves upon a reboot and start sucking down the data all over again.

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