A few months back I needed to get a new mobile phone. I really wanted the new iPhone 4 but upon looking into things further I found two things I really did not like about them:
- The Price!
- The Lock Down!
By lock down I mean the attitude that seems to preveail within Apple that “they own the phone in your pocket”. Whereas, with most products and companies, when you buy a device, its yours, to do with as you please. You own it, you control it.
It seems apple do not see it that way with some of their practices, particularly the way the switch out standard screws for “special” uncommon ones when you get your battery changed!
I could rant on about this, but, I will cut a long rant short and say that I found a really cheap HTC contract using this comparison site. I went for the HTC Desire HD, not that I need HD video, I dont, but that seemed to be the best deal at the time. So, armed with my new app ready phone I was feeling pretty pleased with myself, having got a great deal on it, and being very pleased with the Android OS (HTC have done a nice job of skinning this which is why HTC Android phones have become so popular), and had a really good play with it.
Its amazing how many apps there are for Android, though, recent issues with hacking via un checked apps may hinder that going forward, which would be a shame.
Anyway, I was in app heaven, and, off to parradise on a short holiday! Great, I can take my new phone and stay up to date with everything I need to I thought.
A few weeks after getting back I got an unpleasantly sized bill for all the data transfer I had used. At first I could not fathom it, I had only used apps once or twice. I checked my FaceBook profile a couple of times, and replied to a couple of mails and that was it. I just could not figure it at first.
When I looked a little deeper it turned out it was updates and apps running in the background, like, that helpful little app that tells me its raining back home… when I am 1000 miles away, ridiculous.
I then found I could have disabled this setting if I had looked into it a little deeper, but its not an easy setting to find, buried in the bowels of the android system!
It seems Im not ther first person to fall foul of this, a lesson learned I guess, all be it an expensive one. That said, it could have been a lot worse, we were only away for a few days. Heaven knows what would have happened if I had been away for an entire month!