App of the Week - Review of the Netcounter App (01-03-2012)

[#1]

Recently we have seen an emergence of the Apps market. In the third quarter of 2011, more than 2.4 Billion Apps were downloaded. However are any of them any good?

This is your weekly guide to the innovative, creative and productive Apps on the Android Marketplace.

Netcounter Blog

Category: Tools

Price: Free

Size: 214kb

The amount of data used is something worth looking out for. It may not be much of a problem if you have an unlimited internet goodybag. However for others who pay the standard rate, it can become an issue if it ends up exceeding your affordable means. This App is designed to give accurate results on your data usage. For the geniuses amongst you, there is always the option to get your notepad out and do the calculations yourself. However, I would guess most of us would say ‘if there is an app for it, then why bother’.

The clever thing keeps a track of both the “cell” (WAP/Mobile internet) and Wi-Fi usage. Furthermore it doesn’t just work out your daily usage; it also works out your weekly, monthly and total usage. Some of you may be asking, ‘what makes this App better than all of its competitors?’ Firstly, the App is very accurate compared to others currently available. It keeps running in the background and re-starts itself to ensure accurate results. Secondly, it also allows you to set the start date and duration of the data collection. More importantly, you can set a usage limit and the App will give you an alert when you reach it. This might be handy if you do not plan to use over 20mb a day. However, the App will not switch the internet off itself. You would be required to turn it off yourself - I guess that’s not too bad. Surely we would all be annoyed if we lost out on the final minutes of a footy match or something else that is important to us.

A drawback which I noticed was that it can affect the battery life of your phone, especially when the internet is switched on. The App constantly runs on the phone’s background and your battery levels can drop to some extent. However, one may argue that this feature allows it to produce accurate results.

I have not come across many Apps which are so good at fulfilling their purpose. It certainly deserves a rating of 8 out of 10, if not better.

Snapshots

     

[#2]

it nice to have an app that dose that thank you .

[#3]

That's useful to know about I pay for pay and go data and I might try that app

[#4]

thanks

[#5]

thank you,will pass that on.

[#6]

thx looks tip top

[#7]

aPhoneLog (Advanced phone Log) miles better

[#8]

I use 3G Watchdog on Android which is very popular and highly rated on the Android Market.

The review suggests Netcounter is "very accurate compared to others currently available" so in that case may be better - but would be great to see some data to support this claim?

BTW The other features mentioned as key differentiators (programmable time 'window' and alarms) also exist in 3G Watchdog.

[#9]

This isn't really needed on Android 4 ICS. But in case I ever go back to 2.3 GB. This'll come in handy, thanks =)

[#10]

I use Onavo, which also gives data usage by ap. Measuring data usage is still important if you have unlimited internet as data usage = battery drain.

[#11]

@mastermikeywwt :  good point re. IceCreamSandwich...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoXmI6jdcF8 shows the new built-in data monitor in action so I suppose 3rd party apps will become less relevant - unless 3rd party app writers can find ways to make their apps somehow better than the inbuilt one s'pose.