Droid data queries

[SCHUMI-4-EVA]

So I'm about to go droid but without a data package and so I just thought well I'd discipline myself and not browse stuff whilst away from the home WiFi or a hotspot but suddenly I'm not so sure anymore....

Does droid have various services which constantly maintain a connection?

Can I turn those services off and effectively prevent my droid from using any data whatsoever unless I request it or give it permission?

On my current phone, a Symbian Nokia 6710 Navigator, I get prompts whenever anything needs a 3G or GPRS connection....Do droids do the same or do they just glomp up data without you noticing or requesting it?

Is it possible to maintain low or virtually no data use at all on a droid by only checking Whatsapp and perhaps one website a few times a day (like facebook or the local news site, at the moment this doesn't use much at all, like 10 bucks a month) and for all other data use relying on a home WiFi connection or hotspots? If not how much would that sort of data use amount to a month?

If I don't get a data package and am not willing to fork out 100 or so per month for data can I still realisticly get a droid?

Any apps that can help me with any of this?

Thanks in advance for any and all help you can give me with any of these questions.

 

[permanentmarker]

I'm running MIUI, which has a built in firewall that you can use to control data usage for applications.
Otherwise there are apps like 3g watchdog and juice defender that toggle your mobile data settings as you need them.
Another option is adding a power control widget to your desktop that switches your mobile data off when you dont want it (Juice Defender has one of these too).

If you wait till you're around wifi to mess about and just use your package data for e-mails and browsing on opera mini (which uses less data) then you can get away with using very little data.

If you're a little careful its easily done, I reckon at least.

 

[permanentmarker]

That said, if you don't have access to wifi at all, it would kill the android experience.

Most of my data is used downloading apps, which can be done via wifi if you use your noggin.

 

[SCHUMI-4-EVA]

I've got home WiFi (checked with my current phone that can connect to WiFi and I get WiFi in 95% of the house)) so it seems as long as I'm very Nazi on my phone's data connection (turning it off completely sounds great, that should definitely stop any accidental sky-high bills) when outside I should be able to get by pretty much the way I do now. Thanks for the help

I'd still appreciate even more input from others though.

 

[floydthebarber71]

I'm also a bit worried now. Turned off my wifi to see how it'd go, my phone used 5mb overnight!! Wtf...phone is unrooted, but thats insane. Used app killer and had to force skype to stop, but it still managed to drain that amt. Is that normal?

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

 

[Ockie]

My Moto Defy has only used 10megs from the beginning of this month till now. I only use whatsapp...the occasional email and sending a pic here and there with WhatsApp. My phone is set to turn off its data connection from 10 at night till 7 the following morning though to help conserve battery.

 

[SCHUMI-4-EVA]

I plan to force everything to off and then only giving it a taste of data when I graciously allow it or when I'm connected to WiFi. Granted it's not exactly going to be a connected Android experience, but it shouldn't be much different from my current phone either. And I'm not getting a droid because I want the connected experience I'm getting a droid because I want the compatibility they have and the grunt the hardware possesses. I want the apps, I want the games, I want the nice cam, I don't care about the youtube viewing connected to everything on the planet droid experience. Essentially I should probably be getting an iPhone based on my wants but I refuse to be locked into iTunes and the hardware is old and they're majorly overpriced in SA.

I found this rather old article which is probably a bit out of date but I plan to put everything it mentions into action and more.
http://www.tested.com/news/how-android-users-can-survive-on-just-a-150mbmonth-data-plan/1183/

I also found this small study on how much data Whatsapp uses
http://handytechtips.blogspot.com/2011/04/calculator-how-much-data-does-whatsapp.html

It's hard really finding info for this stuff online though since it's basically all americans and europeans who don't understand life without a billion youtube vids a day and being connected with everything else. Whereas I don't need that and don't want that. The best I can find is stuff like that article above on how to contain it to 150MB when ideally I want to contain it to 15 or even less.


Guess I'm going to be on my own with this Nazi approach to droid data use but I'm fairly confident I'll be able to starve my droid the way I want to eventually. Perhaps I'll post my experiences here if all goes well. Though I'm only going to get the phone near the end of the month so it will still be a while.

 

[CranialBlaze]

Realistically speaking you should not be getting a droid, R15 per month when data is still R2 per mb is insane. That's unrealistic unless you have wifi at home and at work and eery friends house you ever visit as well a the shopping mall and your car. I would be impressed if you managed to even thing about maintaining a nazi approach to phone usage once you have what can hardly even be called a phone, an android is many things and phone is probably 1 of the smallest of them.

Just in this month alone, as in these past 5 days wifi and 3g i have used up 70% of your monthly data allowance without sending or receiving a single picture. That's 1 application. Realistically speaking you should get yourself a 100mb bundle with with voda is R50. That should be good for a month with your nazi approach, i can do that but that has more to do with the fact that i have wifi at work and at home so 3G is on when i walk the dog, go to the shop or out for drinks. My friends and family all have wifi so in any of their houses im free too.

I buy a 300mb bundle and it does the trick for 60 days, usually have some left over, most times a lot left over, usually only knock back 50-70mb in a month.

Your financial desires are far quite unrealistic, their are people that used GB's per month just on their phones with normal usage. If you get a droid, do it without the dreams of being so cheap and root your device that way you can install MIUI or even just Droid Wall and be able to block applications from accessing 3G, but to disable it all together when your away from wifi is extremely unlike and about as productive as trying to shave your beard with sellotape. I can gaurantee you that unless your a practicing monk you will not be able to control yourself that well on a phone that's designed to give you the ultimate in freedom, choice and functionality. Also remember that compared to the cost of sms's the amount of money you will spend on data will be a drop in the ocean.

 

[SCHUMI-4-EVA]

I meant 15MB data, not R15 but yeah.
I honestly don't see how I'll need much data on the go. I mean I currently don't so I don't see why that will change especially if I toggle everything to off.
My on the go needs are calls and SMSs which don't use data. And then some Whatsapp but only on demand when I grant it a connection and then on rare occasions (I'm talking like 4-5 times a month) some other stuff I might want like the weather or gmail but that's it (and my sister will pop into facebook now and then but I'll find a way to make that low quality). Everything else (and even some of that) can wait till later when I'm near WiFi (or even better when I'm on the home PC and don't have to rely on a screen that fits into my pocket). And this isn't based on some new unreasonable imaginary overly optimistic profile because that's the way I currently use my phone (admittedly not a droid, a Nokia 6710 Navigator) in fact minus the WiFi. I would have gone Nokia again but all the games are on iPhone or droid (BB would be my very last choice cuz it's overpriced AND can't do jack) and since iPhone is out that just leaves droid.

I'm more about offline media richness (which I know is more iPhone but I refuse to go there) than online connected social junk. Games (which will be forced offline) and then some of my collection of anime and audio visual material from home and a bit of music and I'm sorted. Essentially if you take away the games and the vids and music I'm your oldschool black and white type phone user.


The bundels carry over? Guess that's an option in the worst case scenarion then, but I don't want to up my monthly costs.

 

[CranialBlaze]

Mate i speak from experience here, i was you once upon a time. Comparing a navigator to an android is like comparing a tricycle to a ferrari, yes they both have wheels, but that about it for thier similarities.

You own a phone with limited features and assume you will continue the same with some in a whole new league but your wrong. All those lovely featurea you dont have which is the whole reason your going droid is the exact reason your dreaming.

An androida not a phone, its a swiss army knife, it does everything. Gwt yourself a data bundle, 15mb, add R20 to that budget, wont break any banks n you can get 3x the data and be in a more realistic android situation without owning a swiss army knife and using it as a pocket weight.

And yes bundles with voda at least are valid till the end of the next calendar month so even in the EXTREMELY unlikely event that you live up to your dreams you still have 50mb per month instead of 15 and u saved urself R5.

 

[SCHUMI-4-EVA]

You own a phone with limited features and assume you will continue the same with some in a whole new league but your wrong. All those lovely featurea you dont have which is the whole reason your going droid is the exact reason your dreaming.

Point taken.
However on this point you're wrong. I'm not moving to droid not because I want it's features I'm moving to droid because Symbian is dead. Only a handfull of apps and games (and I can't even enjoy the massive S60v3 library from the past few years on these new touch only Nokias) with no indication it's gonna get better and every indication it's gonna get worse and as soon as Nokia fully get into WP7 not even any official support anymore. So I have to look at one of the other OSs. BB is out because it's overpriced and can't do jack, even less than if I got myself a C7 on the dying Symbian. WP7 is out because it can't do much yet either, certainly not what I want. iOS is out because iPhones are overpriced and I refuse to be locked into iTunes (I would honestly rather manually transpose every byte of data in 1s and 0s than use iTunes) and additionally the iPhone 4 is old and also at the end of it's life, it'll get a bit of life support from iOS 5 but it's a bit like dropping top dollar on the previous generation PC tech. That just leaves droid. Apps are made for it, games are made for it and the phones have stunning hardware and it's not likely to die a few months from now like Symbian and that's all I needed to know, the choice is clear.

I didn't go o wow look at those droids, I can do everything my PC can do and treat my phone like a mini-laptop whereever I am.

But o well, we'll see what my needs and wants eventually end up being. Thanks to Hellkom I have a lot of training in starving myself of online media goodness so I'm fairly confident at this point (in fact because of this I'll likely even have to hold back a fair bit when on WiFi, if anything extra bucks are likely to go towards MWeb uncapped).