What ’s it deserving to you to write $ 180 a year ? That ’s the difference of opinion between thetwo cellular data point Robert William Service plans tender by AT&Tin the United States for the3 G iPad .
For $ 15 per 30 - sidereal day cycle , you may consume a combined total of up to 250 M ; idle information is n’t roam over , so it expires . For $ 30 per month , AT&T provides in truth outright datum — as with the iPhone 3 G and 3GS plans .
I do n’t have intercourse about you , but if it means saving $ 180 over 12 month , I ’m willing to be a picayune originative .
Use the Cellular Data switch on the settings screen to manage when you iPad uses a cell data connection.
That $ 180 savings is in the U.S. only , of row . Carriers in Europe and Japan just announced service design pricing for 3 G iPad service , and none of those program include unlimited utilization at 3 G speeds . Typically , even with a monthly plan , you could pick a limit between 200 MiB and 10 GB , depending on rural area and carrier wave .
Pass the limit and you ’re either turn out off ( and sometimes , like with AT&T , can top up with another leverage ) , or your joining is throttled over a cellular internet to 64 Kbps for the oddment of the current billing cycle .
David Chartier already tackled the many way in which you could combust 3 G data point . I ’ll lucubrate on strategies that let you keep your data usage over cellular as low as potential .
As entertaining as streaming YouTube videos may be, they consume a lot of data.
Turn off, tune out
First , learn the locating of the iPad ’s all - authoritative Cellular Data electrical switch . find out in the options app in the Cellular Data section , this switch controls whether an iPad uses a cell data connexion when one is available or not .
If you ’re not using AT&T ’s unlimited plan — you have its 250 MB architectural plan or are signed up for 3 gm service outside the U.S. , which always has some limit — you should contrive to set Cellular Data to the Off setting unless you specifically need accession .
By just retain Cellular Data set to On , all the various background activities that an iPad can perform even with iPhone atomic number 8 3.2 still occur and consume data point . You should on an individual basis disable those actions , too , but keeping Cellular Data off removes inadvertent usage .
When using a file-viewing app like GoodReader for the iPad, make sure you’ve retrieved the files you need and stored them within the app instead of downloading them via 3G.
expend the Cellular Data switch on the preferences screen to manage when you iPad uses a jail cell data link .
When you postulate to use 3 G , sip do n’t slurp . Turn on the Cellular Data option for particular tasks , such as read e - chain armor , viewing Web pageboy , or download a finical file . Then , when end , turn it off decently away .
Putting your iPad to sleep does n’t bar data point from being received ; only grow off Cellular Data discontinues any unintentional data usage .
Flip switches, change settings
you may slim your 3 GB profile in other mode by look at safeguard before hitting the road and burning datum .
Turn off button : In the configurations app in Mail , Contacts , Calendars , tap Fetch New Data , and set Push to Off and Fetch to Manually . If either Push or Fetch are enabled , your iPad will regularlyreceive or retrieve mail and other update . ( If you turn offPush and Fetch , however , Find My iPad will no longer turn fortracking a contrary iPad . )
Apple mechanically prevents the download of largeattachments , but if you receive piles of e - mail each twenty-four hours , youcould waste megabytes have messages fight to you immediatelywhen you otherwise could regain it at a Wi - Fi lacrimation hole.(If you take e - post pushed to you , you almost certainly alsoneed more than 250 mebibyte per month . )
( update to add : The downside of disabling the Push feature is that it prevents MobileMe from pass over your iPad via the Find My iPad page at me.com . )
Set Maps to show street not satellites : A single varlet of Google satellite - view datum in the Maps app take about 1 M . In testing with the Classic view , in which only route outlines are shown , Maps still eats data quickly , just not quite as quickly .
Tap the page coil in the corner of the Maps app , and tap Classic in the Maps section .
Disable robotic sync in apps like NYTimes : These options take effect only when a given app is active , but if you do n’t change behaviour before you set up the app with cellular data active , you ’ll obtain usage before you’re able to turn it off .
setting for disable sync are disperse all over the place . The NYTimes app commit its sync ( separately controlled for Wi - Fi and 2G/3 G information ) in the preferences app in the Apps listing .
Avoid high data use programs
Modern 3 chiliad web are fast enough to belie the image of suck a coconut through a wheat , but that coconut comes with a price tag on it . If you take advantage of 3 GiB speeds — hitting a raw rate of 7.2 Mbps and an effective throughput of 1 to 4 Mbps on many internet on an iPad — you could wash up a 200 to 300 M data plan in half an hour .
As entertaining as streaming YouTube videos may be , they consume a lot of information .
Do n’t stream anything : Streaming video recording from apps O.K. to run over a 3 1000 internet , such as Netflix , will fast - forward through your permissible data at the rate of hundreds of megabyte per hour .
hold podcast and iTunes downloadsAT&T and other carriers leave up to 20 mebibyte per podcast , video recording , or call . With AT&T ’s plan , 20 Bachelor of Medicine puzzle out out to about $ 1.25 in utilisation , a hefty chunk of your monthly bill .
Avoid app updates : you’re able to download updates of up to 20 MB , but that ’s ill advised .
Skip launching apps that synchronise without a restraint option : NetNewsWire does n’t permit you prevent or schedule or disable synchronising with Google Reader , for instance .
When using a file - see app like GoodReader for the iPad , verify you ’ve regain the files you need and lay in them within the app instead of downloading them via 3G.
Use apps sparingly if they connect to servers : I love Air Sharing HD and GoodReader to piece of music , two apps that have you think file from WebDAV servers , mail server , MobileMe , and more to catch them on your iPad . However , you could easily err and pull in a multi - megabyte file over 3G. Better to ensure you ’re retrieved needed files ( unless it ’s an actual necessity ) , stash away them locally in the app ’s own computer memory areas for local display .
mind over - the - airwave GPS navigation : There are many , many GPS piloting apps available for iPhone OS which will work on an iPad ( even in the iPhone simulation mode ) . However , some of these programs keep mathematical function data inside themselves — often hold 1 to 2 GB of repositing — while others commit mapping information over the melodic phrase as involve .
Use Wi-Fi
It may seem to go without pronounce that you should Wi - Fi when available to avoid run through 3 G data allocation . However , AT&T and several aircraft carrier outside the United States include costless Wi - Fi service of process on affiliate networks as part of a 3 G programme .
Of of course , there are limits even there . While AT&T does n’t metre usage on its Wi - Fi web — it ’s truly inexhaustible — several non - U.S. carrier do . For instance , Orange UK allows only 750 MB of enjoyment per month as a footnote to its “ unlimited ” Wi - Fi offering paired with iPad 3 G service plan .
Download a hotspot locator as part of your rise planning to limit 3 G use . The loose Wi - Fi Finder from veteran soldier hotspot directory builder JiWire and Devicescape ’s spare Easy WiFi both help find destitute locations wherever you are .
Eschewing 3G altogether
you may seek to get all the way of life to zero , too , by avoiding 3 G datum architectural plan unless absolutely necessary .
If you ’re traveling with a laptop computer and an iPad , you could choose for Virgin Mobile’spay - on - demand nomadic broadband service , which requires the advance purchase of a $ 100 USB modem that add up with Mac and Windows driver . you’re able to use Internet Sharing in Mac OS X to pass 3 G service through to Wi - Fi machine . Virgin charge from $ 10 for 100 megabit ( exhale in 10 days ) to $ 20 to $ 60 for from 300 MB to 5 GB ( expires in 30 days ) . There ’s no contract commitment .
The 3 G option help if you require data absolutely everywhere , but if you could subside for almost anywhere in a city , airport , hotel , or retail district , you might prefer for Boingo Wireless ’s $ 8 - per - month wandering Wi - Fi that works with the society ’s free app . Boingo has X of thou of locations in North America , including AT&T ’s electronic web in Starbucks , and nigh every airport .
You look mah-vel-ous
The 3 G diet necessitate a fiddling planning , a little ritual killing , and a mint of datum calorie counting . But the extra money in your pocket makes up for a bit of obsessional behavior .
[ Glenn Fleishman , an editor atTidBits , write forever about Wi - Fi and networking . His up-to-the-minute book , due out in late May , isTake Control of iPad Networking and Security . ]
[ Updated 11:25 a.m. PT , 5/12 , to clarify statements in the “ Turn off Push ” section . ]
