By Brad Chacos on January 23, 2012 in
Even if Apple products don't tickle your taste buds, there's a good chance you've heard of Siri, the helpful voice-activated virtual assistant built into the iPhone 4S. Siri can keep track of your appointments, forecast weather, and even help you dump a dead body - but could her friendly nature carry a hidden cost? That's what some tech pundits trumpeted after a study claimed that iPhone 4S owners consume roughly three times as much data as iPhone 3G users. Will Siri's jib-jabbering cost you big in overage fees? Let's dig into some details and find out.
Examining Siri's data usage
Ars Technica's Jacqui Chang put Siri's data usage to the test two weeks after the iPhone 4S launched. Her findings cast claims of Siri's all-consuming thirst for data into doubt.
Chang asked Siri to complete six tasks that could be completed using data stored directly on the phone (such as "Set an alarm for 3 hours from now") and five more tasks that required Siri to look up information online (such as "How many movies has Kevin Bacon been in?"). In total, the tasks used 693.6 KB of data, or around 63 KB each, with local queries using about a third as much data as online queries.
If you average that out over a month, you can expect Siri to use roughly 20 MB of data, which is around one percent of the 2 GB data plans many smartphone owners carry, and just 10 percent of the 200 MB rock-bottom $15 data plan offered by AT&T. Plus, while those numbers are based off that 11 task average, Chang's impromptu office poll showed that the majority of her co-workers used Siri less than six times per day.
If Siri's not to blame, what is?
The CTO of Arieso, the network firm that released the study, has his own theory. Michael Flanagan pins a lot of the blame on the multi-device synchronization offered by Apple's iCloud and iMatch services, which enable you to access your music and videos on your iPhone, laptop, iPad and more.
"Say I download the latest "Archer" episode from iTunes to my laptop," Flanagan told PC World. "The next day it's been automatically downloaded to my iPhone. And if I take videos using the iPhone, it's automatically pushed to another device via iCloud. Together [the downloads and uploads] can account for the increases."
That argument makes a lot of sense; while iCloud is a feature of the iOS 5 operating system and not necessarily just the iPhone 4S, the iPhone 4S is the only iteration of the phone that shipped with the relatively new iOS 5 installed.
Don't underestimate the "Oooh, shiny" factor, either. The iPhone 4S is new, and people like to play with new things.
How can iPhone 4S users avoid overage fees?
You've obviously got nothing to worry about if you have Sprint's unlimited plan (or are grandfathered into AT&T or Verizon's now-discontinued unlimited plans). No matter which carrier you use, you can check your data usage by signing into your account on your provider's website. Most carriers provide an app that provides the same info at a glance. Stick to Wi-Fi if you find yourself nearing your cap. We have a blog post that explains how to track your data usage by carrier.
And if you find iCloud snarfing up data at ridiculous rates, remember that you can head into the iCloud portion of the iPhone's Settings menu and enable or disable synchronization for specific file types (photos, mail, contacts, etc.). Note that the Documents & Data option (and only the Documents & Data option) can be set to synchronize only when you're connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot. Data usage in a Wi-Fi hotspot doesn't count towards your mobile data plan.
Our Cell Phone Reviews section has more information on the iPhone 4S and a ton of other options. Do you own an iPhone 4S? How has your data usage changed? Are you using more than you used to?