http://tidbits.com/ Apple has finally allowed the DataMan Pro usage tracking app back into the App Store, so if you’re experiencing unexpected amounts of cellular data usage on your iOS device, you can now track down the apps or processes at fault. en-us Copyright 2012 TidBITS Publishing Inc. Wed, 27 Feb 2013 00:00:00 EST Wed, 27 Feb 2013 00:00:00 EST editors@tidbits.com (TidBITS Editors) editors@tidbits.com (TidBITS Editors) http://tidbits.com/images/tb_logo_152x55.png http://tidbits.com/ 55 152 TidBITS badge http://db.tidbits.com/article/13402?rss#comments_17814 Wed, 27 Feb 2013 08:25:52 EST http://tidbits.com/article/13402#comments_17814 http://db.tidbits.com/article/13402?rss#comments_17813 Wed, 27 Feb 2013 08:14:11 EST http://tidbits.com/article/13402#comments_17813
So how accurate do you feel the per app usage data is this far?]]> http://db.tidbits.com/article/13402?rss#comments_17809 Wed, 27 Feb 2013 06:12:11 EST http://tidbits.com/article/13402#comments_17809
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dataman-pro/id572431648?mt=8]]> http://db.tidbits.com/article/13402?rss#comments_17804 Wed, 27 Feb 2013 05:52:28 EST http://tidbits.com/article/13402#comments_17804
However, those who have it already may not want to update just yet. Although the interface is much prettier than in the past, version 6.3 lacks the daily and weekly stats of the 6.1 version, and can show per-app usage only at the monthly level. Johnny Ixe has said that he's trying to get those features back in, but it's really hard working with Apple, since there's no way to know what they'll allow without submitting it and seeing if it gets rejected.

I'll write more about this in TidBITS once I've had a chance to test the app.]]> http://db.tidbits.com/article/13402?rss#comments_17807 Wed, 27 Feb 2013 00:26:34 EST http://tidbits.com/article/13402#comments_17807 http://db.tidbits.com/article/13402?rss#comments_17220 Tue, 01 Jan 2013 15:05:22 EST http://tidbits.com/article/13402#comments_17220 http://db.tidbits.com/article/13402?rss#comments_17202 Fri, 28 Dec 2012 08:56:11 EST http://tidbits.com/article/13402#comments_17202
Onavo is the only other one I know of, but I agree, running all my traffic through someone else's VPN is not something I'm comfortable with either.]]> http://db.tidbits.com/article/13402?rss#comments_17190 Wed, 26 Dec 2012 17:03:49 EST http://tidbits.com/article/13402#comments_17190
Adam, do you know of any other apps that measure per-app data use monitoring? Onavo is nicely presented, but using someone's VPN for everything is spooky - and when Onavo is active some things don't work (for instance, Facebook Poke is broken with Onavo enabled.)

thanks]]> http://db.tidbits.com/article/13402?rss#comments_17188 Wed, 26 Dec 2012 15:28:54 EST http://tidbits.com/article/13402#comments_17188 http://db.tidbits.com/article/13402?rss#comments_17187 Wed, 26 Dec 2012 15:19:10 EST http://tidbits.com/article/13402#comments_17187
Are there any other apps that measure per-app data usage besides the VPN wacky Onavo Count?]]> http://db.tidbits.com/article/13402?rss#comments_16826 Sun, 09 Dec 2012 18:34:14 EST http://tidbits.com/article/13402#comments_16826 I try to avoid Apples apps.]]> http://db.tidbits.com/article/13402?rss#comments_16630 Wed, 28 Nov 2012 12:22:43 EST http://tidbits.com/article/13402#comments_16630
I am sorry that this new version of DataMan Pro that passed Apple's review has had to mask Apple's own iOS services. I have the old version of DataMan Pro that displayed the data usage for Apple's processes as well. Given that the strange data usage patterns seen in iOS 6.0 relate to native iOS processes, the new DataMan Pro doesn't help track down problems.

For my part, using the old version I have seen that the Siri process uses massive amounts of data at strange times. Even when I don't use Siri at all, I have seen it use 500MB and more over LTE. One time this seems to happen is just after downloading a large amount of music from iTunes Match. Immediately after doing so, the Siri process consumes huge amounts of data. I don't know if it maintains a database of song metadata so that it can do voice recognition for all the iPod related commands, but the amount of Siri data usage is often 40-60% of the size of the music files downloaded.]]> http://db.tidbits.com/article/13402?rss#comments_16615 Tue, 27 Nov 2012 13:16:13 EST http://tidbits.com/article/13402#comments_16615
I also do think it's important to not get hung up on a small amounts here and there. The goal is not to have a perfect accounting of usage; the goal is to identify serious usage culprits.]]> http://db.tidbits.com/article/13402?rss#comments_16612 Tue, 27 Nov 2012 10:39:50 EST http://tidbits.com/article/13402#comments_16612
I contacted the developer who told me that DataMan Pro "masks" Apples services, and that the podcast download is therefore hidden in "Store Service". This still does not explain why the Things app consumed nearly 15 MB of cellular data.

I assume that Apple requires the developer to mask system services. Unfortunately, this fact makes the tool a lot less useful.

Anyone else with unplausible results?]]>