How to set a mobile data limit on your Android phone
Smartphones are evolving at a rapid rate and as they do, we’re consuming a lot more internet based content on the move. While carriers have aimed to increase inclusive mobile data limits, some people still have low data allowances, so how can your stop your phone from going over and ending up with a large bill?
Most Android smartphones come with a data usage section that also allows you to specify a limit to the amount of mobile data your smartphone can use. While the exact location of this in the settings menu will vary according to which phone you’re using, the option should be present on most smartphones running Android 4.4.2 KitKat or later.
Here’s how to set a mobile data limit on your Android phone:
For the guide below, you’ll need to know how much data your plan comes with each month and what day your allowance refreshes each month. It’s worth noting that your carrier may measure data usage differently and the information displayed on your phone should be used as a guide only.
- Navigate to Settings > Data Usage.
- Toggle the Set Mobile Data Limit
- If the date listed beneath this is different to the day your allowance refreshes, tap on this and select Change Cycle.
- Then set the correct day your allowances refresh.
- On the graph, you’ll now have two lines; one that specifies a limit to your data and the other, which lets you set a warning.
- Drag the top line (the limit) up or down until you reach your data limit. Although you can set a limit equal to your allowance, we’d recommend setting it slightly lower, in case your carrier measures data usage differently.
- You can also drag the lower of the two lines (the warning) up or down to set a limit and we’d recommend putting at around 75% percent of your data allowance. E.g. if you have 4GB data each month, the warning should be 3GB. This is a really useful tool to help ensure you don’t go over.
There you have it, a quick and easy way to set a mobile data limit on any Android phone. If you’ve got other tips, let us know in the comments below!
Bell Canada slammed with hefty fine for posting fake Play Store reviews
Canadian telecom company Bell has been fined a hefty $1.25 million CAD (~$970K USD) by Canada’s Competition Bureau for posting fake application reviews on the App Store and Google Play Store. Apparently, a handful of Bell employees were encouraged to post positive reviews and ratings of the MyBell Mobile and Virgin My Account apps in Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store, without mentioning that they worked for Bell. The ratings have since been removed by the Canadian company, but Canada’s Competition Bureau decided that the damage was already done.
But how did Bell get caught? The company’s rogue behavior was first discovered by Scott Stratten, who was already well aware of the applications’ poor ratings in the app stores. Then out of the blue, the apps began rising in the ranks thanks to the 5-star reviews, and Stratten got curious. After doing some digging on LinkedIn, he discovered that the majority of the reviews were made by Marketing Managers, IT Executives and Project Managers from Bell.
In a statement, Paolo Pasquini, director of communications and social media for Bell, told The Globe and Mail:
The postings were the result of an overzealous effort on the part of our service team to highlight the app. It’s certainly not Bell’s practice to encourage employees to rate our products, and we’re sending a clear message out to the team to that effect.
Aside from the fine, Bell has agreed to “enhance and maintain it’s corporate compliance program,” with a specific focus on prohibiting the rating of its own applications. Bell will also host and sponsor a workshop to promote and discuss “Canadians’ trust in the digital economy,” which will include talks on the integrity of online reviews.
Related: Telus and Bell facing lawsuits for rounding up customer voice minutes
YouTube Gaming updates with mobile game capture and live broadcasting for Android devices
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Have you spent countless hours watching video streams of people playing console and PC games and thinking “Man, I could do that, but I play mobile games.” Well, your chance to be the mobile gaming king of the world is at your finger tips with YouTube Gaming. The latest update that started rolling out yesterday, gives would be mobile gaming stars the tools needed to live broadcast their gaming sessions, expressions and vocal thoughts directly from the app.
Mobile Capture, as it is called, lets you record your sessions for sharing or editing later, or go straight live for other to watch while you play. You can turn on your selfie cam and on lookers can watch your reactions as well as get play by play through your devices mic. The function does require your device to be on Android Lollipop or higher, but I have seen some comments on the Play Store of devices like the N7 and Droid Turbo having issues.
What’s New
A winner is you! New features:• Mobile Capture! Live stream or record your mobile games. Host your stream with your selfie cam and record your commentary with your phone’s microphone. (Lollipop and higher)• Faster discovery of live streams for games in your collection• Support your favorite creators with Fan Funding (just tap “$” and choose your tip)• Easy video bookmarking with Watch Later• Import existing subscriptions from YouTube via Settings• Performance improvements and bug fixes
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Cubs fan uses jukebox app to troll St Louis fans
In the hours ahead of the decisive game four for the NLDS, a Cubs fan who goes by Clue Heywood on Twitter, and lives in Arizona, pranked Cardinals fans. Hoowee, he pranked them hard. Using a jukebox app, the kind that let you pick a song from the bar’s Whurlitzer, he plunked down $50 worth of “Go Cubs Go” by Steve Goodman at various bars throughout the St. Louis area.
I’m remote playing “Go Cubs Go” at every St. Louis-area bar jukebox. I’m trolling Cardinals fans the RIGHT way. pic.twitter.com/xOHNPgR1q3
— Clue Heywood (@ClueHeywood) October 13, 2015
And, apparently, it worked.
CUBS WIN! Don’t think I won’t continue to play “Go Cubs Go” on your jukeboxes all winter, St. Louis residents. You’ve earned it.
— Clue Heywood (@ClueHeywood) October 13, 2015
[Image Credit: Getty Images – please note the guy in the picture, David Lee Cook, is not the guy living in Arizona that pulled the prank.]
Source: CBS Chicago
The Intercept publishes massive leak on America’s drone strike program
The Intercept published a huge trove of secret documents Thursday morning that extensively document the Obama administration’s secretive and controversial drone-based assassination program. This program sought to kill high-value enemy targets throughout Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia. These documents, obtained from an anonymous whistleblower, cover an enormous breadth of subjects. Documents on how the legal and logistical architectures behind the program were constructed, details on how people wind up on President Obama’s “kill lists”, revelations of startlingly regular intelligence flaws, internal analysis of collateral damage and the strategic limits of the program are only part of what’s included in the cache. You can begin reading through the documents at The Intercept, we’ll have a deeper analysis of this leak for you tomorrow.
[Image Credit: The Washington Post/Getty Images]
Source: The Intercept
Microsoft’s Transparency Hub tracks surveillance requests
Microsoft has released transparency figures for the first half of the year and launched a new site to keep all the reports in once place. The Transparency Hub is very similar to Google’s Transparency Site, and brings together law enforcement demands and national security orders. It’s also the first time Microsoft is showing requests to remove content, both by governments and via Europe’s ‘right to be forgotten‘ laws. Redmond is also using the hub to show how it’s resisting efforts by governments and police to get at customer data to the full extent of laws, both in the US and abroad.
According to the reports, the trend for data requests has ticked up a bit. Microsoft received 35,228 requests for information from law enforcement around the world, up 14 percent over the second half of 2014. Nearly three-quarters of those came from the US, UK, Turkey, France and Germany. The software giant rejected 4,383 requests for not meeting legal requirements, up nearly double from the previous period. It also disclosed customer content in only 3 percent of cases.
As for US national security orders, Microsoft must wait at least six months to reveal (very vague) figures, so the report is from the second half of last year. It received less than 1,000 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) orders affecting between 18-19,000 accounts, and less than 1,000 National Security Letters (NSLs) from the FBI.
Content removal requests fall into three categories: government, copyright removal and ‘right to be forgotten’ requests. Governments asked Microsoft to pull content from Bing, OneDrive and MSN a total of 186 times, and it accepted the requests 165 times. The bulk (165) came from China. Microsoft complied with 92 percent of the nearly 25 million copyright takedown requests, and agreed to exactly half of the 10,337 right to be forgotten demands.
Microsoft said it requires that requests for content removal be in writing and informs users when search content has been removed. It also limits the removal of search results to country-specific versions of Bing, something countries like France are fighting. It’s hard to say how much people actually care about this stuff, but at least Microsoft, Apple, Google and other tech companies are making it easier to find the info. Of course, the companies might not be doing it at all if not for bruising they took the Edward Snowden revelations.
Source: Microsoft
The Apple Store’s biggest fan, Gary Allen, passed away at age 67
You may not recognize the name Gary Allen. For a time, though, Allen traveled the world to be among the first in line when a new Apple Store opened. He wrote about Cupertino’s retail efforts on his blog, ifo Apple Store, including details of the over 140 store openings that he visited. He even drove across the country to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the first store (pictured above). After being diagnosed with brain cancer, Allen stopped blogging in March, but not before amassing a knowledge of Apple’s retail footprint that may never be rivaled. He passed away this week at age 67, leaving behind his wife, son and two brothers. “He made all kinds of friends all over the world,” his brother Jim told The Washington Post. “I think that’s the part of it he most enjoyed.”
[Image credit: Washington Post/Getty Images]
Source: The Washington Post
‘Fallout 4’ live-action trailer brings the wasteland to life
With less than a month to go until Fallout 4′s November 10th release, Bethesda has debuted a new live-action trailer to whet your appetite for some post-apcocalyptic wandering. Fallout 4 will feature the series’ most in-depth character creation yet, Bethesda said earlier this year, and it’ll sport a new dynamic dialog system that actually lets you walk away from dull conversations. The blend of real-world environments with Fallout models works really well for the trailer. Really, though, it just makes us long for the days when actual game environments can look that good. We’ll get there, someday.
Google’s Trekker program takes you on a tour across the US
The individuals and organizations that borrowed Trekkers from Google’s loaner program have been a big help to Street View’s growth, capturing various places around the globe that you can tour online. Now, Mountain View has launched the five newest Street View locations that came out of the project, which can take you on a virtual journey across the US. You can take a tour of the Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve with its ancient redwoods and meadows, or of Kansas City that takes you to the top of the Liberty Memorial Tower and to the famous Shuttlecocks installation.
Next stop is Cane Creek within the Daniel Boone National Forest, then Pennsylvania’s Ringing Rocks County Park and the Sand Castle Winery’s vineyards. Finally, you’ll now be able to soar across the waters of the Hudson River in New York. All these routes were captured by different organizations using Google’s camera-equipped backpacks. You can access them all, along with other places in the US you can explore right from your computer chair, on Street View’s website.
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Source: Google Maps
Macs Saving IBM Money on IT Management Despite Higher Up Front Cost
IBM this year began adopting Macs for its employees, a move the company says has been highly successful. Speaking at the JAMF Nation User Conference (via AppleInsider) earlier this week, IBM vice president of Workplace-as-a-Service Fletcher Previn said that far fewer Mac users require help with their machines than IBM’s PC users.
“Every Mac that we buy is making and saving IBM money,” he said, as the Macs require less management and setup effort than PCs, even though they cost more up front.
Just five percent of employees using Macs call IBM’s internal help desk for troubleshooting, while 40 percent of the company’s PC users make calls to the help desk. According to Previn, these numbers point towards the Mac’s ease of use and the solid job the IBM team has done setting up Macs at the company. IBM’s Mac onboarding experience is highly streamlined, making it easy for employees to do much of the setup work themselves in a short period of time.
IBM’s deployment allows for employees to receive a shrink-wrapped, brand new Mac and quickly and easily set it up on their own. Using Apple’s Device Enrollment Program and JAMF Software’s Casper Suite, users set up and install IT-approved apps, software and configurations.
JAMF Software’s Self Service allows IBM and its employees a simple method for installing licensed software. In an example given by Previn, the employee simply needs to click install for Microsoft Office, and IT will handle the licensing on the backend without exposing any of it to the user.
IBM is rolling out 1,900 Macs to its employees each week, and there are more than 130,000 iOS and Mac devices being used by IBM employees at the current time. In July, IBM CIO Jeff Smith said he thought IBM might end up purchasing 150,000 to 200,000 Macs on a regular basis for the company’s 400,000 employees.
As of 2014, Apple and IBM have been working together to create specialized enterprise-focused apps and services for iOS devices. Under the partnership, IBM is selling iOS devices to its corporate customers, developing apps, and providing on-demand AppleCare service.
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