New user, data usage questions.

[Ifandbut]

Hello,
Last Saturday I finally joined the 21st century and purchased my first smart phone. I wish I had done it sooner and gotten unlimited data but the only company that does that now is Sprint who's coverage is spotty at best (one side of my apartment I get no signal and the other side I got 2 bars).

I got the Droid X2 and am on the 2GB/month data plan. As soon as I got it home I downloaded My Data Manager to track my data usage by app and 3G Watchdog to watch my overall data. I have been doing most of my heavy usage at home connected to WiFi. Most of what I do on 3G has been GPS/Maps and casual web browsing. I just tried Pandora today to see what the data usage was like (11.7MB for about 2.5 hrs).

According to My Data Manager the two apps/processes that have use the most data are "Media Storage" and "Streaming Media" with Browser and Pandora at 3rd and 4th.

My question is: what exactly are the "Media Storage" and "Streaming Media" processes? If "Streaming Media" was my Pandora data usage then why is it not showing up under Pandora instead (note: Pandora is at 11.7MB and Streaming Media is at 17MB)? I have no clue what Media Storage would mean (maybe browser and GPS cache).

I'm just really paranoid about my data usage because I have no idea what 2GB/mo data is in terms of smart phones (I can blow through that in 30 min on my computer). Hell, I almost came down with Stockholm syndrome today and thought about switching back to Sprint for unlimited data.

Any help for this smart phone noob is greatly appreciated,
-Ifandbut

P.S. Is there a paid version of Angry Birds that I can download somewhere? The adds are really annoying in an otherwise fun game.

 

[z96Cobra]

Verizon has an app you can download that also comes with a data usage widget. Put the widget on one of your home screens and you'll be able to track your usage. Last time I used it, it would update about 1 time a day. I believe that it updates more often now.

Unless Angry Birds has changed the way they display ads, root your phone and disable the ads with an app/script or even by editing your hosts file.

 

[Ifandbut]

Ya, I have Verizon's app but that does not keep track of which apps or services are using the most bandwidth it just says how close I am to cap. This is why I downloaded My Data Manager.

I'm trying to keep track of which apps use the most data so I know which ones to limit my time with to stay under the cap. That is why seeing things like "Media Storage" and "Streaming Media" concern me because they mean nothing to me (as far as knowing which activity to stop).

 

[Insidious]

Well I can't tell you up front pandora does use a lot of data, along with app downloading. Try to use wifi when using either of those-but don't become paranoid about it. 2 gb is roughly 2,150 mb's.

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using DroidForums

 

[Jordan8]

Hello,
Last Saturday I finally joined the 21st century and purchased my first smart phone. I wish I had done it sooner and gotten unlimited data but the only company that does that now is Sprint who's coverage is spotty at best (one side of my apartment I get no signal and the other side I got 2 bars).

I got the Droid X2 and am on the 2GB/month data plan. As soon as I got it home I downloaded My Data Manager to track my data usage by app and 3G Watchdog to watch my overall data. I have been doing most of my heavy usage at home connected to WiFi. Most of what I do on 3G has been GPS/Maps and casual web browsing. I just tried Pandora today to see what the data usage was like (11.7MB for about 2.5 hrs).

According to My Data Manager the two apps/processes that have use the most data are "Media Storage" and "Streaming Media" with Browser and Pandora at 3rd and 4th.

My question is: what exactly are the "Media Storage" and "Streaming Media" processes? If "Streaming Media" was my Pandora data usage then why is it not showing up under Pandora instead (note: Pandora is at 11.7MB and Streaming Media is at 17MB)? I have no clue what Media Storage would mean (maybe browser and GPS cache).

I'm just really paranoid about my data usage because I have no idea what 2GB/mo data is in terms of smart phones (I can blow through that in 30 min on my computer). Hell, I almost came down with Stockholm syndrome today and thought about switching back to Sprint for unlimited data.

Any help for this smart phone noob is greatly appreciated,
-Ifandbut

P.S. Is there a paid version of Angry Birds that I can download somewhere? The adds are really annoying in an otherwise fun game.

I'm not sure what media storage is, but I'm pretty sure "Streaming Media" is more pandora usage.

 

[Ifandbut]

I figured that "Streaming Media" was related to Pandora I just thought it was very strange to have it show up under that instead of Pandora.

 

[Marky Mark]

Verizon has an app you can download that also comes with a data usage widget.

Can you please tell me what the name of this app is?

 

[guidot]

Verizon has an app you can download that also comes with a data usage widget.

Can you please tell me what the name of this app is?

My Verizon.

 

[ConqSoft]

There are paid versions of all the Angry Birds games in the Amazon App Store, with no ads.