If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that I recently moved from France to England. About a year ago, I wrote an article for TidBITS about how a company called Free had shaken up the cellphone industry in France. I had an iPhone contract with unlimited calls, texts and data (truly unlimited; no “fair use”), for only €16.
Well, my arrival in the UK changed things. One quickly learns that there’s little competition in the phone market, and prices are higher. While there are carriers that offer unlimited calls and texts, unlimited data is rarer. And one carrier, Three, that offers unlimited data, doesn’t offer unlimited calls and texts.
I started out using GiffGaff, a company run by O2 that sells pre-pay SIM cards. It was practical, and fairly inexpensive, but it doesn’t allow tethering, which I occasionally need. So I switched to EE, which offers good coverage (the company, Everything Everywhere, was born of a merger between Orange and T-Mobile), and decent prices, with an unlimited call and text plan. But since I didn’t use a lot of data, I settled for their basic 500 MB per month plan at £21 a month, or about 50% more than what I was paying in France (but, remember, my French contract had unlimited data).
Before moving to EE, I was using about 250 MB per month. The last two weeks with GiffGaff, from when I topped up my SIM card on April 15, to May 2, when I switched, I used about 120 MB of data. That made me think that the 500 MB with EE would be more than enough. But things got weird.
I went away for a few days, without Wi-Fi access, and discovered that my phone had eaten 260 MB in just the first five days of my contract. I was using the exact same apps and services as with GiffGaff, with the exception of an EE app to track my usage. I called EE customer service, and they were not very helpful. While the person did give me a credit for 250 MB of data, she suggested I download an app that would track data usage by app on my phone. This app no longer works on iOS 6, but I found another. This app showed much less data usage than what the iPhone – and EE – was reporting. While no such app can be precise, it only shows about half the data that the iPhone and EE report that I’m using.
I’ve tried all the usual troubleshooting routines. I’ve turned off all services – push notifications, automatic email checking, iCloud, location services, etc. – and data was still going in and out of my phone. I’ve restored the phone – an annoyingly time-consuming process – and data is still flowing like a broken tap. Here are two screen shots. The first is when I restored the iPhone; data is 0. The second is less than an hour later, while the phone was syncing.
In less than one hour, 19 MB was used, doing nothing. (There were some push services on, and perhaps one or two emails downloaded, but nothing else.) Imagine if I was using the phone? If usage continues at that rate, it could exceed 200 MB per day!
The only possibility is that EE’s carrier services have an issue which appears on some iPhones. I’ve seen hundreds of reports of different iPhone users having similar issues on all sorts of networks, and no solutions anywhere regarding how to track down what’s using up all the data.
So my only solution is to cancel the contract with EE: they clearly mis-sold me this contract; there’s a latent defect in their network service, which would clearly cost me much more were I to continue using them with my iPhone. (I’m paying £21 a month, and I would need to pay at least £31 a month to have enough of a data allowance.)
So, dear reader, have you confronted a similar problem of suddenly excessive data usage, with EE or any other carrier? Have you found a cause and a solution? I’m curious. From everything I’ve seen on the internet, there is no clear cause, and no solution, other than to turn off cellular data, which kind of defeats the purpose of having a smart phone.
Update: I’ve spent way too much time trying to solve this problem over the past two days. At the suggestion of a friend, I downloaded an app called ActMonitor, which shows system processes that are active, but also shows real-time incremental data transfers. So I could see exactly when data was coming into and going out of my phone, though not by process, which would have solved the problem immediately.
With this in hand, I tried turning on and off features, such as push, iCloud, etc. I rebooted the phone, and saw that there was about 2 K/sec going out and coming into the phone. When I turned off push, this stopped. But when I turned push back on, the data did not start sending again. This suggests that there’s a carrier problem with the way it handles push; it’s as though the first time, the carrier’s servers don’t register something correctly, but the second time they do.
For now I’ll leave push off – it’s useful to get emails more quickly in some situations, but not a deal-breaker – and see how much data I use over the next few days.
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Have you ever wondered what an Apple landline phone might look like? I did. And I wrote about it for Macworld.
You may disagree with the idea, but I think it would be very useful.
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Apple has released iOS 6.1, the latest update to the operating system for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. A minor change has been made to the lockscreen music controls – these are visible if your iOS device is locked, and you double-press the home button. Instead of displaying the time in a huge font, and the name of what you’re listening to below the slider, these small texts are above the fold, and the time is missing (it’s visible in the toolbar already, so it doesn’t need to be so big).
This lets you see more of your lockscreen wallpaper, which is, I guess, useful, but I’d much rather see more playback controls there: perhaps the shuffle and repeat buttons that you get in the Music app itself, or even the Genius button. Since I do use the lockscreen controls often when listening to music, it would be nice for those controls to provide the same access to features as the Music app. It would also be nice to be able to view lyrics from the lockscreen.
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With Apple holding a media event later today, to announce a new iPhone, iOS 6, and other products, what can we expect from this event? It seems obvious that the iPhone 5 will be announced today. iOS 6 will certainly be presented in detail, as it will be optimized for the iPhone 5.
But beyond those products, what else can we expect? My guess is that we will see new iPods: a revamped iPod touch, perhaps a new iPod nano, and maybe, finally, the demise of the iPod classic. One thing I think we will finally see is an increase in capacity for the iPod touch, and, perhaps, for the iPhone. It’s about time that we get 128 GB in these portable devices. And if this capacity increases for the iPod touch and the iPhone, it is almost a given that the iPod classic will be retired.
It is also very likely that Apple will present some new iTunes features. It’s not clear that we can expect a radical change to iTunes, but there has been some discussion of a possible streaming music service.
All the rumors that suggest the release of an iPad mini point to a separate media event sometime in October. An iPad mini is a very different device from an iPhone, and an event dedicated to that, and highlighting the iPad’s capabilities, would make a lot of sense.
I don’t think we can expect any new Macs today, at least not in the presentation. But no matter what, any speculation that I or any pundit or analyst can make will certainly only be partly correct.
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iLounge is reporting on new iPhone specs which include two major changes: a different aspect ratio, and a new dock connector. This seem surprising for two reasons.
First, changing the aspect ratio would mean that all apps have to be updated. Unless the additional space is something like the Dock in OS X; a list of icons for the most recently used apps, or those you wish to always have just a tap away. Instead of pressing the home button to change apps, you could tap one of the apps on that Dock. The downside to this is that it would be ugly. Imagine if you’re watching a video or playing a game; will that Dock disappear? I’m not convinced that this would be a good choice.
The second thing that would surprise me is a change in the dock connector. There is a huge ecosystem of iPhone, iPad and iPod touch accessories that depend on the current 30-pin dock connector. Rendering all of these accessories unusable with new models would be a severe change that would annoy millions of users. (Class action suit anyone?)
Also, changing the aspect ratio – and the size – would once again mean that your iPhone case doesn’t fit. Many cases work with both the iPhone 4 and 4S, and it’s fair to assume that a case won’t be compatible for a very long time, but Apple should try to maintain the usability of accessories as long as possible.
I think these specs are not authentic especially regarding the dock connector, which has millions, of not tens of millions of currently used devices, which would no longer function. The way the dock connector works in, say, docking stations with speakers, means that it’s not easy to add an adapter. Some devices might be able to use one, but most that I’ve seen wouldn’t work with an adaptor.
Also, if enough rumors come out that there will be a new dock connector, accessory manufacturers will have trouble selling their existing devices. I think that if Apple is definitely not planning to change the dock connector, they should make this clear, so both vendors and users can be sure that accessories will continue to work with future iOS devices.
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I recently wrote about the first iPhone case I tried, the Speck Candyshell. Today I’m going to discuss another, similar case, the Otterbox Reflex Series. Like the Candyshell, this is a light case that protects the iPhone’s body, and which is designed essentially for shock protection.
According to Otterbox:
Surrounding each device with a cushion of air, the Reflex Series flexes upon impact and rebounds to its original form. Focused on protecting the occupant, just like the crumple zone of a car, this case not only takes a hit but recoils and springs back, ready to protect again and again.
This case doesn’t have rubber inside its hard plastic shell, but protects the iPhone by having extra space. It is as light as the Candyshell – only 27 g – but has an interesting particularity: it is in two equal parts. You slide the phone into one part, then slide the other part on the phone, and they snap together.
In the first place, this makes the case a lot easier to put on and off the iPhone, if you want to do so. But the main reason for this is so you can take the bottom part off of the iPhone to place it into a dock. While there is a space sufficient to connect Apple’s dock connector cable, if you want to put the phone in a dock, you need the bottom to be naked.
I don’t put my iPhone in a dock, and this is probably less common now with over-the-air Wi-Fi syncing, but many people still use docks to connect to audio playback devices. If that’s the case, this is an extra reason to buy the Otterbox Reflex Series case.
Aside from that, the protection is similar to the Candyshell. I was initially worried that the two parts of the case would come apart easily, but that hasn’t happened. In fact, the ability to take the case off so easily has me preferring this case; for now.
Check out this and other Otterbox cases on the company’s website. They sent me another model that I’ll review soon.
If you’re a vendor who makes iPhone cases, feel free to contact me (there’s an e-mail link in the sidebar to the right). I’d be happy to mention any cases I receive that I like.
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As I mentioned recently, I’m new to the iPhone party. And I’m not going to take a €629 device and just stick it in my pocket without any protection, nor especially take it out of my pocket without something to cushion any shocks if it slips from my fingers. So I’ve been exploring iPhone cases, based on recommendations from friends and readers, and this is the first of a handful of reviews that I’ll be posting.
The first case I got was a Speck Candyshell in black and gray. It was cheap, and seemed to meet my needs: a simple case, that would protect the iPhone from falls. I don’t believe that I need a screen protector, but I wanted something solid and unobtrusive.
The Speck Candyshell is just that. After you struggle a bit to get it on the iPhone, it fits like a glove, and the rubberized interior makes sure the iPhone doesn’t move a millimeter. The back of the case is smooth, glossy plastic, which gets scratched pretty quickly (though not seriously), and the front has a raised rubberized edge to protect the screen if you drop the iPhone screen side down.
One thing I don’t want is a case that is very heavy. The iPhone weighs 138g, and the Speck Candycase only adds another 27g (though that’s still 20% of the weight of the iPhone). For this type of protection, you probably can’t get much lighter, unless you go with a flexible silicon case.
There’s enough room on the bottom to connect a dock cable, and access to the buttons is simple on the sides. There’s a hole for the camera and flash, and a decent sized hole for access to the headphone jack. All in all, this is a fine case, and is close to what I was looking for. While I think I found something a bit better (see an upcoming review), for what it cost (a mere €8; you can get it from Amazon.com for around $12), this is certainly a good deal.
Speck Products has a wide range of cases for iPhones, as well as plenty of other devices. While I don’t live in an area where I can see many of them first-hand, their website shows the variety of protection they offer for different needs.
If you’re a vendor who makes iPhone cases, feel free to contact me (there’s an e-mail link in the sidebar to the right). I’d be happy to mention any cases I receive that I like.
Posted: 2/2/2012 by kirk | Filed under: iPhone Tags: iPhone, iPhone case | No Comments »
Yesterday’s Apple event was mostly about the new iPhone 4S, and the Siri intelligent assistant. There were some small tweaks to the iPod line, but no real changes. The iPod nano got a slightly different interface, which will be available to owners of the current model via a software update. The iPod touch got a boost in capacity. And the other iPods – the classic and shuffle – are unchanged. As I said in a recent article, there were plenty of reasons to keep these models.
Interestingly, and for the second year in a row, Apple showed three of the four iPods on screen during the presentation; they left out the classic. They keep ignoring it, yet it continues to sell well. After removing the few games that you can buy for the iPod classic from the iTunes Store, maybe they’re just going to keep selling until they run out of stock. Or maybe this will be a recurring event: every year, people will speculate on the demise of the iPod classic, and every year it will hold one for a bit longer.
I tend to buy all new iPod models, as I write a lot about these devices. But this is the first year in a long time that I won’t be buying any. I hate the nano, and sold mine a few weeks ago. The classic hasn’t changed, I have the first version of the current shuffle, and the touch hasn’t changed either except for capacity.
It’s clear that the era of the iPod is winding down. I wrote about this last year for Macworld, discussing what I called the iPod plateau. Apple has clearly reached this point, as they had nothing new to add to the existing product line. They could, eventually, add the Siri technology to the iPod touch; my guess is we’ll see that next year. Apparently, this requires a more powerful processor than what the iPod touch has, but as Apple gets the technology refined, it will be easier to add it to the cheaper device. For the other models, it looks like there’s nothing left to do. They can change minor features, form factors, colors and capacities, but the era of the iPod is now over.
On the other hand, while Apple wants a lot more people to buy iPhones, the world is full of people not willing to pay the cost of a data contract for a phone. (I’m one of those people.) What I see in the future is a pre-pay iPhone, or an iPhone light, that offers phone calls, music play, apps and the rest, but without an expensive 3G contract.
The iPod is still an important device. Apple sells millions of them. But since they can’t go any further with it, they’re going to stop putting it in the spotlight. However, the same thing will happen with the iPhone soon; there’s only so much a device like this can do. They’ve added interesting technology to the new iPhone 4S, and I’m curious to see what next year’s iPhone will offer. But I think we’ve entered an era of minor incremental upgrades. The technology is mature, and there’s not a lot of room for major changes.
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