Your App A Data Hog?

CTIA-The Wireless Association® did research on the top 50 apps people are most likely to install on their smartphones and how much data they can consume.

This should concern not only those with data limits on their plans but those with so-called 'unlimited' plans as well. Most providers are not forthcoming with information regarding 'unlimited' plans. Many throttle down speeds when someone exceeds a certain amount of data (bandwidth) is used on a given month.



Check out the link above. CTIA also offers helpful information on choosing a device and a plan that best suits an individual's needs.

TIP: Whether someone has a tablet or smartphone it's always a good idea to switch apps connections to cellular service off when Wi-Fi is available.. A wireless router with Wi-Fi is always a lot less expensive. It's also faster too!

CTIA also recommends turning down or entirely off an app's request for updates. This can consume data as well. They also recommend exiting apps so they don't continue eating up data while running in the background. One more advantage is, this will help your battery last longer without needing to recharge it.

I'd also wish to point out tablets and smartphones don't have tons of memory. If your not using nor intend to use an app, uninstall it. It's always a good idea not to keep more junk then needed because no software is perfect. When a program closes it's supposed to pull itself entirely out of memory. This is not always the case. As a result this can create conflicts (errors). When that happens a reboot may become necessary.

This also is good advice for PC's as well. Some recommend doing restarts every day or so if a PC is left on all the time. Programs load dozens of threads into the RAM. No matter how well a program is designed it is possible not all the threads were removed from the RAM when the program was closed. Any legacy threads can result in errors or the dreaded 'Blue Screen' which locks up a PC. There are built in recovery methods for operating systems, but they too are not perfect. Best to do reboots and avoid the problem altogether.