What’s interesting about Verizon’s approach is it isn’t making its recommendations based on how entertaining, useful or fun a particular app is. Instead a team of Verizon engineers is looking at each app’s impact on the phone’s battery life, its drain on a customer’s data plan and how loosely it plays with security and customer privacy.

Basically, Verizon is compiling a series of regularly updated recommendation lists. The first is a list of 20 apps available either for Android or iOS that Verizon claims deliver a “best in class” experience on smartphones and tablets. As you might expect, Verizon isn’t being entirely objective in its choices, but it never claimed to be. One of the apps is even Verizon’s own AppLuvr software, which recommends other apps based on what’s already installed on smartphones.

The second list applies a much more visible methodology, rating the top 25 free and top 25 paid apps in Google Play based on three criteria: security, battery consumption and data usage. The third set of reviews is essentially Verizon’s naughty list: 13 apps – all games – that will drain your battery or eat up your data plan at a rapid clip.

Verizon isn’t making any friends here among the game development shops. Enormously popular games like Halfbrick’s Fruit Ninja Free and OMGPOP’s Draw Something got bad marks because of their battery drain. Other apps like Facebook Messenger and eBay scored relatively high but were penalized because of their high data consumption.

That may come us a surprise to many users since Facebook and eBay wouldn’t appear to consume that much data, especially compared to streaming multimedia apps like Pandora and Netflix, which received the highest possible Verizon ratings. But what Verizon is likely highlighting here is the persistence of those two apps’ connections. While Facebook might consume only a tiny fraction of the data in a single hour than, say, a Netflix video stream, the social networking app is always running in the background – transmitting a constant stream of signaling traffic over the network and whittling away at your data plan.

Alcatel-Lucent recently analyzed the enormous impact Facebook has on mobile networks through that signaling traffic. On Nov. 15, the social networking giant updated its iOS and Android apps, precipitating a 60 percent boost in Facebook signal load on mobile networks, even though the number of new Facebook mobile users increased only 4 percent in the same time frame. Alcatel-Lucent now estimates that Facebook is responsible for more than 15 percent of all mobile signaling traffic and accounts for more than 20 percent of all network airtime.

Carriers have long implored developers to keep the constraints of mobile networks in mind and build more efficient apps. With these rankings Verizon could be upping that pressure, punishing developers who keep developing unnecessarily chatty software.

As you might expect, neither Facebook Messenger or the main Facebook app made Verizon’s list of “must have apps” (though eBay did). Verizon, however, named Facebook’s much more network-efficient Instagram photo-sharing app in its top 20. I doubt Facebook cares either way.

Any time a carrier produces a must-have list you should take it with a grain of salt, but I will give Verizon credit. It actually recommended Tango, an over-the-top voice, video and messaging app that competes directly with Verizon’s core voice and SMS services.

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If you’re lucky enough to have an unlocked phone with GSM and HSPA radios, you can buy another carrier’s SIM card service when you arrive at your destination and pay local rates. If you’re really determined, you could rent a smartphone or mobile hotspot. Whatever option you choose you have to be prepared to either pay an exorbitant amount of money or go through an enormous hassle – sometimes both.

To put it simply, international data roaming is broken, and no U.S. carrier seems to be lifting a finger to fix it. They seem to prefer the miserable status quo to the headaches required to repair the system. But where the network operators are falling down, mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) are picking up the slack.

As its name implies, an MVNO doesn’t have a network of its own. Instead they buy minutes and data capacity from traditional carriers, and resell them under their own brands and pricing plans. While most MVNOs tend to work in a single country with a single carrier, there’s nothing preventing them from buying capacity on multiple networks in multiple countries and then selling international access to a customer in a single pricing plan.

Companies like Tep Wireless and XCom Global are doing just that, renting out mobile hotspots to European-bound travellers that they can take across borders. Both will save you a lot of money if you’re a globetrotting heavy data user, but they’re by no means cheap, charging upwards of $15 a day if you opt for unlimited data packages.

London-based Voiamo, however, is thinking bigger with a new service called GlobalGig. Instead of just renting you a hotspot and selling you a temporary plan when you travel, it proposes to replace your current country-limited 3G or 4G modem plan with a service that will work in multiple countries with a single pricing plan. Its rates are a comparable to the prices most of the major carriers charge for hotspot plans — starting at $25 for 1 GB a month and up to $50 for 5 GB — but those rates are good for the U.S., the U.K. and Australia.

In the U.S., GlobalGig uses Sprint’s network, while in the U.K. and Australia it uses the 3 and Optus networks, but it is negotiating deals with carriers in other countries and plans to expand its global footprint soon, Voiamo CEO and founder Nigel Bramwell said. Its $120 hotspot — which can connect up to five devices through Wi-Fi — can support networks in 100 different countries, Bramwell said. As GlobalGig adds more carriers to its roster it will periodically send out new SIM cards to its customers, expanding their coverage to new countries.

If you’re an frequent international traveller, GlobalGig would be an ideal service especially if you already regularly use a mobile hotspot, but there are some limitations. The biggest is that the device can only access Sprint’s 1X and EV-DO networks. That means fairly slow data speeds compared to the LTE, HSPA+ and even WiMAX broadband service offered by other carriers. But Bramwell said GlobalGig’s next generation device will support all major global LTE networks. If that’s the case, the company will have something truly powerful on its hands: a 4G data service that knows no borders.

Voiamo may soon have some company in the global roaming market. Last month at a conference, Sprint MVNO Voyager Mobile revealed it has plans in the works to offer international voice and data plans, which charged the same rates whether home or abroad. Robert Gaal, the CEO of recently launched mobile broadband MVNO Karma, told me that his company might expand its social bandwidth model to other countries as well. Gaal, who is from and regularly visits the Netherlands, is increasingly frustrated with carrier roaming policies, said the only restriction to going international is finding inexpensive devices that support multiple 4G bands and technologies.

Featured image courtesy of Flickr User bredgur; SIM cards image courtesy of Flickr user mroach

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• Mobile 2012 and beyond
• New solutions for the evolving mobile network
• CES 2012: a recap and analysis

I have an embarrassing confession to make: for the greater part of last year I subscribed to that 200 MB plan. Yes, yes, for shame. I’m a wireless technology writer. What am doing with a plan many of you would only advise your grandmothers to buy? In my defense I am a) very cheap and at the time was paying my own mobile bill (no longer, thanks GigaOM!), and b) am not really a gadget nor app writer (we have another Kevin who’s much better at it than I am). It’s sad to say, but I’m more intrigued by the radio connection between the phone and the network than by the phone itself.

But to be honest, I also really wasn’t consuming that much data – at least not on the mobile network. While in the wild, my primary smartphone use was email, social networking, maps and web surfing. I’d listen to Pandora and watch the occasional video, but I was also chintzy enough that I made sure to take advantage of every Wi-Fi access point available. Also, years of being an AT&T customer had trained me to save my app and bigger file downloads for home or work where a broadband network was readily available.

I still went over my 200 MB budget – quite often actually, and since this was before the throttled “unlimited” plans were introduced, I paid for that extra data. But the additionally overage charges I incurred were still far cheaper than the additional $20 a month I would have paid for a 2 GB plan (since then T-Mobile has lowered data rates considerably). I realize that 200 MBs may see like an intolerably low amount of data to many of you, but at the time it was all I needed, and I was using my smartphone constantly.

Of course, like all smartphone users, my data hunger became more ravenous. Overage charges eventually well exceeded the cost of upgrading to the next data, and I was also sick of the fact that I couldn’t use my phone as a mobile hotspot. Today I’m a 5 GB per month customer, and ironically my typical monthly data usage is even less now than it was last year. Because I now work from home, I’m rarely ever off Wi-Fi, but in months where I travel that usage shoots well into the multi-gigabyte range.

I can understand T-Mobile’s reasoning for shutting down the 200 MB plan, though. It recently reported that its average smartphone user consumes 760 MB a month, and a customer on one of its super-fast 42-Mbps HSPA+ devices eats up a whooping 1.3 GB. At such levels, there are few smartphone users that can reasonably expect to remain under the 200 MB thresholds each and every month. The difference between the 200 MB and 2 GB plans was only $10, as well, so arguments for thriftiness go out the window.

But, it’s never good to see a carrier reduce the number of data options its customers have, especially a carrier like T-Mobile, whose reputation is built on undercutting the other carriers on price. The average consumer may have outgrown the 200 MB but I guarantee there is still a substantial minority of people out there who are either using their smartphones sparingly or fighting tooth and nail to keep as many megabytes off the cellular airwaves as possible. I should know: I was that customer just a year ago.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock user Alistair Scott

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• CES 2012: a recap and analysis
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We’ve gotten tips and seen on Twitter that some folks are running into trouble using AT&T’s upgrader. Specifically, they’re seeing a message suggesting that their unlimited data plans won’t carry over with the purchase of an iPhone 4S. Luckily, that’s not true. If you ordered through Apple, you probably didn’t even run into any trouble; its site makes fairly clear that those upgrading can keep their unlimited data.

If, however, you went through AT&T’s site, you may have encountered a notice telling you you require a different Data Add-on Plan, as in the image below from tipster Chris Guthrie. You sort of do, but in name only. If you continue through the process on AT&T’s site, you’ll be fine. AT&T admits the site is a bit confusing, but are working on making it better.

It’s understandable that people would covet their unlimited data plans, since like an exotic species of rainforest flower, there might be a time soon when they go completely extinct. The iPhone 4S might be even more data-dependent too; new voice-activated personal assistant app Siri requires an active internet connection to do its thing, according to Apple promotional materials, and though it should only really sip data, a lot of sipping could add up.

If you’re still uncertain about whether or not your unlimited data plan will survive, feel free to give AT&T’s support department a call, but they’ll tell you the same thing: your plans are safe, mobile data fiends.

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• CES 2012: a recap and analysis
• Connected world: the consumer technology revolution
• A look back at mobile in the third quarter

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• Research In Motion: future scenarios for its fate
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This is really of no surprise that 33% of respondents stated email was their most needed mobile utility. There are many reasons to have a data enabled mobile phone such as: keeping up to date with your schedule, supporting your social life, and being able to check traffic when driving to a meeting; but when it comes to getting business done, email is still where the rubber meets the road.

This also explains one possible reason that since the iPhone was released, it’s been the number 2 smartphone, behind Research in Motion’s BlackBerry. Road warriors use technology to enable us work from anywhere, and BlackBerry is simply made for email.

The number two most requested feature was social networks with 25% of the survey results. This tells us that many mobile phone users (and most web workers, we estimate) like to get their MySpace or Facebook fix in between all those business calls and emails. It must be pointed out, however, that more and more business relationships are being fostered by using online social networks. I expect that as this use rises, social networking will take over as the number one requested mobile feature.

As a last statistic, local information requests were third on the list at 20%. These requests consist of questions such as “what’s around me?” With services such as Google Maps My Location, which tracks your location in a GPS-like service, local information requests are of great value to on-the-go workers. Imagine a situation where you are going to meet a client to discuss a proposal at a coffee shop, but the intended coffee shop is closed. With a service such as My Location, you can quickly see other coffee shops in your vicinity and easily change your meeting location without having to take too much time away from your meeting.

These mobile services add countless features to your daily working life, especially for nomadic web workers. What is your favorite mobile service? We look forward to seeing the comments!

Image credit: Gaeton Lee

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• CES 2012: a recap and analysis
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CNN/YouTube Debate Attracts Young Audience; pulling in a record 407,000 from the precious 18- to 34-year-old demographic. (Reuters)

EFF Defends Toddler’s Right To Fair Use And Dance; the EFF has filed suit against Universal Music Publish Group after UMPG had a 29-second video of a very happy toddler bouncing to Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” taken down with a DMCA notice. (EFF release)

ABC Online in HD (Beta); ABC launched its high-definition video player, the first major network to do so. The content rich player requires screen resolution of 1300×770 and a minimum bandwidth of 2 Mbps. (LostRemote)

One Million Joost Beta Testers So Far, says Niklas Zennström. (APC Magazine, via TechCrunch)

Justin.tv’s Nearly Naked Publicity Stunt; live-streaming singing with Naked Cowboy today in Times Square. (Justin.tv, see Sarah Meyers’ and Naked Cowboy’s streams too)

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• Who and what to watch in the new era of the living room
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• The new IT manager, part 1

Now the main issue here is early-on, deciding on a coloring scheme, and sticking to it. If your files are all willy nilly in their colored labels, you may not have as much success using them to your advantage. But then again I could be wrong I suppose.

If you’re curious to start playing with color labels, here’s a neat Apple Script posted at MacOSXHints. If you set it up as a Folder Action, it will color files based on their file type (movie files as blue, text documents as green, etc, etc). Seems like a nice way of quickly identifying what’s what when you get to that folder view and want to find the movie files without having to resort the columns…

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• Research In Motion: future scenarios for its fate
• Who and what to watch in the new era of the living room
• The new IT manager, part 1

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• CES 2012: a recap and analysis
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• Research In Motion: future scenarios for its fate