As I’ve been busily toiling away on projects here at the Airstream I’ve been neglecting The Airstream Chronicles once again. Sorry about that!
This morning I got up and took a look at my iPhone. I check my e-mail after getting up and before I set down in front of the computer. But before I checked the 40+ messages this morning I noticed that my App Store icon was showing several updates. So I went and took a look at what needed updates. Spotify, Lose It, Twitter, My Verizon, & Facebook. I was about to select update all, and then I decided to take a look at each update to see how big it is.
Remember, we’re mobile. We use 4G devices to connect to the Internet. Many of the full time RV families we know do the same thing. So I was wondering how big the updates were before I went ahead and hit update.
Remember when Apps were small?
Apps are getting too big
When the iPhone first hit the market there weren’t many app developers. But today that’s not the case. There are apps for everything. And apps have always been thought of as small applications, stripped down versions of programs you run on a big computer. But today? Apps are anything but small.
Looking at the apps I had to update I totaled everything up. 81.1, 39.5, 60.9, 28.2, and 91.5 Mega Bytes. What’s that come out to?
301 Mega Bytes.
That’s a whole lot of downloading to do. For folks on limited data plans this one set of updates could account for more than 10% of their monthly data allowance.
As smartphones get smarter, and apps get bigger, we’re definitely looking at monthly downloads for our programs alone running into the Giga Bytes. And for highly mobile full time RV’ers who work from the road, this could become a problem.
The amount of data needed for these devices, versus the plans currently available are making it harder on the truly mobile crowd. Hopefully in time the carriers will be able to offer larger data plans at reasonable costs. Right now though, you might want to look for a free wi-fi hotspot to do your updates at!
Comments 2
This has been an issue for me with a 5 GB plan for a while. Adding insult to injury, every app seems they must upgrade to accommodate ios 9. My 4s won’t even begin to cope with ios 9.
Stay happy and healthy, Rich. Getting old with bad health and no money isn’t fun.
Author
Wil, it is painful with limited data plans and insane app download sizes. Somebody needs to breathe reality into app sizes, or data caps. Something has got to give.
Thanks for the well wishes. Believe me I’m trying to stay happy and healthy. With the latest round of food allergies it’s getting tough and super expensive. I understand the getting old with health issues and no money.