QuickAdvice: Keep An Eye On Your Cellular Data Usage With Threshold
Threshold ($3.99) by KVVLU INC. is an app to help you keep track of your cellular data usage on your iPhone.
Smart phones are great, especially the iPhone (that's why you're here, right?). But with these amazing devices comes lots of data usage. Now, before cellular companies started imposing caps on data usage, everything was fine and dandy. But now? Now you have to start watching your usage because you're probably on a monthly cap allowance of data, right? Keeping track of that stuff can be a daunting task, but now there is an iPhone app that helps you keep track of it all and does it in a beautiful way. Meet Threshold.
The first thing that you will have to do in Threshold is to enter in details about your current data plan. The details are pretty basic, but necessary in order for the app to help you keep track of usage. The three parts needed are your Plan Type, Reset Date (billing cycle), and Current Usage. For the usage, the app recommends that you add 50MB for safety measures, but it's not necessary.
If you ever change your data plan, you can always come back and edit your plan details.
Once all that is done, you get a nice overview of how much data you have used in the current billing cycle. The amount of data will appear in big typeface at the top, and a bar will appear underneath with the progress towards your data limit. If you're lucky enough to still have an unlimited plan, it will show the "infinity" symbol and the bar will be green. If not, the color will depend on your progress. You'll be informed of how many more days until the next billing cycle starts underneath this bar.
Tapping on the bar will give you a bar graph of your data overview. You can view your highest and lowest usage days of the current period by month, week, or day. The Day view will display the information hourly.
The area in the lower half of the screen will be reserved for your alerts. Alerts can be set up to give you a visual of when you have reached a daily, weekly, or monthly limit you set. In addition, the app can send you push notifications as you are using your device when you reach a limit. Each alert can be customized and you can set what amount you want to be alerted at.
Another feature that Threshold has is the Data Zone. WIth this, you can set up an area on a map within the app where you know you constantly use 3G/EDGE data. This will help prevent you from incurring extra charges when you're within this area. A notification can be sent to alert you as well. This is great for those that travel a lot, though you will have to set up a new data zone each time.
Threshold will need to be running in the background to be able to account for all the data that you use. If you quit the app, it cannot account the data that you use while it is not running. This may be a drain on the battery, but the latest version has improved the battery life while the app remains open.
I found Threshold to be a pleasure to use. Everything about this app is detailed and easy to use, from the woodgrain background to the inputting of your data plan information. Being able to view your usage details and patterns every day can be a great help to figuring out ways to reduce data usage by hopping on available WiFi, if available.
If you are on a capped data plan, then paying the money for this app is much better than paying those hefty overage charges. You get a beautiful, easy-to-use app, yet in-depth wealth of information about your data use.
