Catch-up TV, high-definition movies and even little YouTube clips can use data, If you’re on a broadband account with a monthly data allowance and stream a lot, it's easy to accidentally go over your allowance. For BT Broadband users, it’s easy to keep track of your usage.
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But what’s using all that data? Streaming figures are approximate and vary, as a basic rule, fast-moving sports and action take up a bit more of your data than slow-moving video like soap operas and cookery shows. Films are often bigger in terms of data than TV programmes, because they’re streamed at a higher quality.
The BBC’s iPlayer is the most popular catch-up and streaming service in the UK. An hour of TV will take up about 644MB of your monthly data allowance if you’re watching in standard definition, and it’s the same on the ITV Hub, All4 and My5.
BT's Superfast Fibre Essential plan comes with 30GB of data, so if you stream an hour of catch-up TV a day, you would use around 20GB of your allowance in a month.
A high definition download or video stream uses more data. This won’t be a problem with the ITV Hub, All4 or My5, because they don’t have high definition options for online streaming over the web.
If you’re using the BBC iPlayer, Netflix or Amazon Prime Video, you can choose to stream in HD or standard definition. Choose the later and not only could this help to stretch out your download limit, it lets more than one person watch video at the same time.
Netflix statesstreaming an episode of The Crown in HD uses up to 3GB, so to reduce the amount of data used, swap to a lower-quality stream.
Ultra HD (or 4K) looks stunning, but the good news is that tech improvements mean that 4K and Ultra HD only use about double the data to show four times the detail on your TV screen. Even so, you’ll only get a taste of the good stuff before you run out of data without an unlimited broadband plan.
It takes about 10GB to watch an entire Ultra HD football match on the BBC iPlayer, and that’s without extra time. Even an hour with Better Call Saul on Netflix will cost you 7GB an hour according to Netflix.
Video-sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo offer a range of video quality for different devices, from a smartphone screen to an Ultra HD TV. This makes it hard to point at one figure for how much data you will use, but they’re generally less than streaming from Netflix or BBC iPlayer.
A basic YouTube video stream will take about 429MB of data, but it won’t look too great on a big TV. On the other hand, you can easily watch a lot of video through Facebook and other websites, where it starts playing automatically.
The good news for BT TV subscribers is that you can watch a lot of TV and films without worrying about your usage allowance, especially on your TV if you've taken a BT TV subscription of 12 month of more.
BT TV channels and anything you watch on demand from the BT Player is excluded from your allowance. This includes viewing on your YouView box, your computer, smartphone, or a tablet via the BT TV app over wi-fi. If you have a YouView box and BT Broadband, then watching the free catch-up services or Netflix will not affect your broadband usage – provided it’s on the YouView box.
If you use watch live TV on the BT TV app on your smartphone over 3G/4G you will use data - around 100Mb for 10 minutes, so use wi-fi or ensure you have enough data.
And finally, if you’ve had a BT TV subscription for at least 12 months – even if it’s now finished – then any on-demand or catch-up TV programmes you watch will be excluded from your allowance.
Playing online games uses up a lot less data than TV, but people tend to spend a lot more time playing them than they do watching TV. It also hard to pin down specific figures for games' data usage, because some games need to share a lot more data than others.
As a rule of thumb, allow about 43MB for an hour of online gaming. If that’s all you do in a month, you could spend 300 hours raining hot metal in World of Tanks – that's 12-and-a-half days!
If you’re worried that you're using too much data, you can stay on top of your usage online or even through your smartphone. Just log in to your account at www.bt.com/mybt or download the free My BT app from iTunes or Google Play.
You can see how much data you’ve used this month, check if you’ve made any phone calls outside your calling plan, and if you have BT TV you can see what TV shows and movies you’ve rented. If a bill needs paying, you can pay it securely online or through the My BT app.
How do you play pigeon games on android. With so many talks about parental control on limiting kids’ screen time, I realized, I as a parent, spend a lot time on smartphone and tablet. Screen time becomes an integral part of my life, such as getting directions to places; keeping connected with family and friends; taking photos whenever and wherever. Many times it is hard to get off the phone. Every time I told myself to just do ONE thing, but ended up several things. I meant just to check one email that I was waiting for, then I saw a Facebook update from a friend, and then a funny video in my Facebook feed, then remembered I need send a friend happy birthday message, then needed to check out the place the friend went for her birthday, … Before I knew it, it’d been over an hour, and it was meant to be just a quick check of one email.
Do you have similar experience with the screen time? It is becoming a syndrome, Smartphone Addiction. It is not that we want to spend endless time on the screen, but why do we still do? What is an effective way to stop this Smartphone Addiction so we don’t spend so much time on screen?
A friend of mine told me he uses a timer for himself and for kids. But you still have to start the timer, which not necessarily happens every time when we start using the phone. It will be a great help if some thing is right there and reminds us every time when we spend a set amount time on the screen. I did some search and found these smartphone addiction apps that can help monitor and control screen time.
Net Nanny is a Parental Control program works on both Android and iOS, as well as computers. It definitely has time limit features. In addition, it also has features to filter out inappropriate content for kids. It is subscription based. You pay each year, and the amount is based on the number of devices you want it on.
OurPact is similar to Net Nanny. It works on mobile devices only. In addition to control screen time, it can also set restrictions on apps and texts. There are 3 price tiers, only the premium package has time limit feature, but it is still pretty reasonable at $5 per month.
ScreenTime is another parental control app that works on both Android and iOS. For $4 a month, you can set time limit on each device, and monitor web and search history.
BreakFree works for both iOS and Android. Like the other apps mentioned above, it monitors the time on screen or on one particular app, and when the time is over the limit, it sends warnings. You can also set downtime to have no internet connections, auto text reply, etc. It is also a good tool for parental control for kids devices.
unGlue is a relatively new program in the market. It has similar functions as those mentioned above. The nice thing about unGlue is you don’t need download the program on each device, and you can set individualized time limit for each child’d device. It is available for both iOS and Android.
Flipd is an Android app that lets you turn off your phone while the app will send out auto-replies to people who contact you during the off time. As parents, you can remotely turn off your child’s phone, but you need set it up first.
App Detox is an Android app that help you limit the usage of particular apps, say one game app. It will send warning messages when you spend more time than the limit you set for yourself.
Offtime is an Android app allowing you to block selected text or calls, and restrict your access to internet and apps.
Moment is an iOS app that automatically tracks how much you and your family use iPhone and iPad each day. You can set daily screen time limits for each member in the family, you can also set a screen free time like dinner time.
Dinner Mode is similar to Flipd, but it is for iOS. You set the phone off and don’t have to worry about missing anything. Although it is called dinner mode, you can set the time for anytime of the day.
bSocial is an interesting app that offers screen time based on the time you spend off screen.
How do you control screen time? Any tips?
Looking for parental control apps to monitor kids screen time? There is a simple setting option in iPhone and iPad to control screen time.
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