iPhone 4 Super Thread: iOS 4.2 Released. Find my iPhone now free

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

Update... I phoned Telus, apparently the usage thingy tracks both wifi and cellular data. The guy suggested downloading an app that distinguishes between the two. I've only used 250ish mb, versus 8.2gb. Whew.

The usage reported under Settings -> General on an iPhone? That's explicitly cellular usage, it says so right on the screen. There is nowhere on any iOS device that tracks wifi usage (maybe a third party app could query some API in iOS, but it's not generally available)

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by oilers_fan

I don't know man. Wait for someone who knows for sure, but I don't think they update like that. For example, the twitter application I use does not update until I re-open it from the task switcher. I could be entirely wrong, but I don't know how it would use data.

Apps can only do the following in the background:

Background audio - Allows your app to play audio continuously. So customers can listen to your app while they surf the web, play games, and more.

Voice over IP - Your VoIP apps can now be even better. Users can now receive VoIP calls and have conversations while using another app. Your users can even receive calls when their phones are locked in their pocket.

Background location - Navigation apps can now continue to guide users who are listening to their iPods, or using other apps. iOS 4 also provides a new and battery-efficient way to monitor location when users move between cell towers. This is a great way for your social networking apps to keep track of users and their friends' locations.

Push notifications - Receive alerts from your remote servers even when your app isn't running.

Local notifications - Your app can now alert users of scheduled events and alarms in the background, no servers required.

Task finishing - If your app is in mid-task when your customer leaves it, the app can now keep running to finish the task.

Fast app switching - All developers should take advantage of fast app switching, which allows users to leave your app and come right back to where they were when they left - no more having to reload the app.

Unless you are streaming internet radio or actively engaged on a VOIP call, or navigating, there is no way apps are chewing up data in the background. Even the task finishing is hard limited to like 10 minutes of multitasking, after which your app gets put to sleep. Similarly, having many apps in the task switcher is of no consequence to performance or battery life. Everything is suspended, unless it's using one of the above, and even then, its only the background audio, VOIP, and location services that you need to be concerned about.

So if your phone is making noise (eg. streaming audio or VOIP), or if the little directional arrow is active in the top right corner of the status are, those are the ONLY situations in which an app is chewing battery or data because its running in the background. Everything else is in suspended animation.

[burn_this_city]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

The usage reported under Settings -> General on an iPhone? That's explicitly cellular usage, it says so right on the screen. There is nowhere on any iOS device that tracks wifi usage (maybe a third party app could query some API in iOS, but it's not generally available)

I thought so too, but apparently it isnt.

[metallicat]

I think the Telus guy was either lying to you, or was clueless.

[FanIn80]

I think "Telus" is french for "I have no clue wtf I'm talking about."

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

I thought so too, but apparently it isnt.

Nope, it's definitely cell data only.

Maybe the confusion is that it doesn't reset monthly? You have to manually reset it, so if you're seeing huge numbers, its probably over the lifetime of the phone (assuming you've never hit reset in there)

[burn_this_city]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

Nope, it's definitely cell data only.

Maybe the confusion is that it doesn't reset monthly? You have to manually reset it, so if you're seeing huge numbers, its probably over the lifetime of the phone (assuming you've never hit reset in there)

The phone is a month old. Perhaps its a bug, but for whatever reason my phone is tracking both as cellular data. I'm not here to defend Telus, but if their system shows I've used less than a GB which makes sense for the amount of 3G surfing I've done, and my phone says 8+ GB then something isnt right.

[ken0042]

The problem I'd have with that is how do you actually track your data usage? I just checked mine, and it shows 11.6 MB up and 101 MB down. Logging into Bell's self service they show my usage at 135 MB; which is probably right as I think I forgot to reset my phone for a couple of days after my billing cycle hit.

Even if it is counting the voice data used; 8 GB is a LOT of voice. I don't know the exact math, but even without any compression that would be close a dozen hours.

[burn_this_city]

Originally Posted by ken0042

The problem I'd have with that is how do you actually track your data usage? I just checked mine, and it shows 11.6 MB up and 101 MB down. Logging into Bell's self service they show my usage at 135 MB; which is probably right as I think I forgot to reset my phone for a couple of days after my billing cycle hit.

Even if it is counting the voice data used; 8 GB is a LOT of voice. I don't know the exact math, but even without any compression that would be close a dozen hours.

Agreed, I was worried yesterday I'd have an additional $350ish on my next bill for overage. I did some facetiming with my folks in BC, so maybe thats where it added up quickly, and perhaps because thats a mix of wifi and cellular it tabulated them together.

[burn_this_city]

Seems like its a bug, although the thread is kind of old.

https://discussions.apple.com/messag...ageID=12490891

[Russic]

You'd have a hard time racking up 8 gigs in a month even if I you used it constantly with wifi turned off. Definitely sounds like a bug.

[Julio]

I've had some weird stuff the past couple of months...somehow received almost 2 gigs in one day...no idea how, and had a fairly big freakout when I was getting repeated text messages about how I was going over my limit...BTW, Telus was great, they saw that my normal usage is in the 1-3 meg range, and that it had only been for that one day (I had it in Airplane Mode, then got rid of anything new on the phone and it stopped).
The past couple of days the battery loss has been just crazy, down 80% overnight with no apps running. Even put it in Airplane Mode again and it was still draining. I threw it on the charger over lunch, and it seemed to reset and is now draining at normal levels. Wacky stuff.

[MickMcGeough]

Probably a stupid question, but it's reasonably easy to unlock an iPhone 4 isn't it?

Last time I did it, it was as simple as jailbreaking and running an app, but that was several OSes/basebands(?) ago. I'm looking at buying a Telus or Bell iPhone and using it on Fido.

[Julio]

iOS 5 being released on Monday:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/2011/05/ap...ios-5-at-wwdc/

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by Julio

iOS 5 being released on Monday:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/2011/05/ap...ios-5-at-wwdc/

It's being announced, and released as beta candidates for developers to start playing around with. It'll go through about 4 beta candidates before gold master.

If you want beta firmware, be prepared for some major hiccups in beta 1.

[metallicat]

So is this typically when they would announce new iPhones as well, despite them probably not doing so this year?

[Julio]

Good point kermitology...general release will be a bit away yet...

[worth]

Hello gentlemen. After being away for 8 months or so I am back in the iPhone game and it is nice.

I'm literally setting my phone up now and I can think of two things already that are annoying the he'll out of me.

The inability to choose a text tone other than what iOS provides is ######ed. The only good one is the tri chime and EVERYONE uses it. Way too confusing, especially at work. You would think if you set text to none and your phone is on vibrate your texts would vibrate. But no, that is too straight forward.

Next thing I would love to see in iOS 5 is a 5 icon dock. My last iPhone was jailbroken and the tweak in cidya was awesome. I dont think I will jailbreak this phone, but that means no 5 dock.

Is there a list of potential improvements for iOS 5?

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by oilers_fan

So is this typically when they would announce new iPhones as well, despite them probably not doing so this year?

They've announced it at WWDC for the past couple of years, but Apple has come out and said, there will be no new iPhone announced this time. I'll believe that because we likely would have heard a lot more about new hardware if it was coming. We saw build up for the iPhone 4 and iPad 2, though less so for the 3Gs when it released.

WWDC should be about software, so making this one about iOS 5 and OS X is definitely a good idea. iOS has been so stale for the past two years, it's been in need of a major overhaul. I'm very curious to see what Apple has done to bring iOS up to snuff.

I'd suggest if you have an iPad or iPod touch, load the new firmware on there, not on your phone.

[Burninator]

Anyone have experience with clear protectors on their iPhone 4? I was looking at the Zagg one here. I've heard they are good, but with the shipping it comes out to around $40. Not sure if it's worth it. I currently use the Apple case, but I would like to ditch it. I would still like some protection. Thanks.