Monitoring And Geotagging Your Iphone Data Usage With Dataman
AT&Ts Unlimited Data Plan are what most of us were raised into when we first got our iPhones
. Those older versions dont exist for those of us who are becoming new users. Now you only have two choices, you can either pay $15 for a month of 200MB service or you can pay $25 for a month of 2GB. Its good to always know when your getting close to your plans limits if you are in the US or away. With AT&T you have a way to access your limit information. One of the ways to do this is to text out to the number *3282#, in which you will get a return text straight to your iPhone with all your usage information. Not only can you do this but you can also get the application AT&T had designed especially for this purpose. You have to check these things by manually entering information to receive it, which some might believe to be a hassle. If you get the DataMan application you can have it running on your iOS 4 all the time in the background so you will always have the information handy without having to go through any hoops. You can customize both your alarms and usage monitors to fit your liking as well. You can start yourself on a preset allowance which entitles you to a certain amount of memory you can use so you dont go over. This can be set either by months, weeks or even days and will always alert you if your about to go over your own limits. Something that AT&T didnt offer but DataMan does is the ability to geotag areas where you have been and also the usage of your 3G or WiFi. This a great feature for data roaming travelers.
Is Unlimited Data Something I Really Need?
Your probably thinking of turning your head right about now if you have an unlimited plan. The application itself is here to answer whether or not you need unlimited data. The DataPlus Plan which is offered from AT&T may be the cheaper way to go but will only offer you 200 MB of space. Many people dont need very much space and can live just fine with the 200 MB. One of the really neat things about DataMan is its ability to track how much space you are using so you can know how much data you would need to pick the right plan.
There are some things I should warn you about! The only device that the application will work with is the iOS 4. It wont usually even pop up as a download in the App Store unless you have the iOS4 capabilities. In order for the app to track usage, it needs to be running in the background at all times. There is an indicator that shows if your device is active or not and it should always be in an active mode. You might think that the batteries would run low fairly quickly because of how much it is running your location, but the iOS 4 actually has a battery saver that will only check locations when cell towers are reached. I have heard of having about 30 hours of battery life until you need to charge it up again. Since I have started to run the application on my iOS 4, I havent really seen any changes with the life of my battery either.