Video: Data Sense & The WiFi finder in Windows Phone 8
I recently flashed my Lumia 920 with a French ROM because of the delay in GDR2 and Amber update. Now that I have the latest updates, some of the features which weren’t turned on for my Windows Phone -have now come to life.
One of the features is Data Sense — the inbuilt data tracker from Microsoft which lets you track and control your spend on mobile data on a day-to-day basis. That said this feature isn’t enabled or available on all devices because of carrier dependency. Why is the carrier involved here ? It is also intended to help users lower down on the consumption by caching at the carrier side, very similar to what Nokia is trying to do with Nokia Express.
Lets take a look at how it works:
- Open Wi-Fi section which is under Settings.
- Even if it’s not open and if Data Sense is available on your phone, you should see the traditional pin used for mapping labeled as “find nearby Wi-Fi (map with Data Sense)”
- Tap on it and this will open the Bing Maps and you should be able to see more pins with Wi-Fi on them. If not, try zoom and pan.
- You can select any of them to find out its name, price, security and directions. Tap on directions and navigate to the Wi-Fi zone, a feature handy when you want to get free internet on the go.
That said, this feature is part of Data Sense and in countries like US and UK where many cellular network have their own Wi-Fi spot for their users, this feature is definitely handy. Even then it can be used to find out Wi-Fi hotspot.
Data Sense & What it tells you about data consumption:
Even without having a carrier support, Data Sense is an excellent inbuilt data tracker for your Windows Phone. It can be used to set data limits, find out data consumption on app level, lets you lower down consumption when your data allotment goes low and so on.
Data Sense is installed as an app on your Windows Phone, so look in your app list to find it. Once you find, launch and you should have two screens here. One section gives you an overview while second gives you app level details on data consumption. Total consumed data can be seen on the level of Cellular and Wi-Fi followed by app details i.e. You can view how much data an app consumed over Wi-Fi and over cellular network. Below is a quick demo:
Setting up Limits: This is fairly easy to set up. Choose when your data reset takes place (monthly, one time, unlimited or none specified), reset date, monthly data limit in terms of MB or GB. After you save your setting, you may choose to Restrict Background data when you are near your limit. Think of this as a battery saver function.
