WARNING!
NEW Apple iOS 9 default setting could increase
Cellular data plan overage costs
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Posted on 09/29/2015 5:40:33 PM PDT by dayglored
Thanks for the notice. I’m an Android guy but the wife is an Apple person. I had to update her phone to 9.0.1 (with her permission, of course) to find the mentioned default. Found it right away...switched to off.
I’m just glad I didn’t brick her phone.
You should consider the Cat S50c rugged smartphone.
Or not; whatever.
5G is on the way!
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I agree. The option should be there for them's that wants it. . . but off by default. I prefer it on, but I have a 15GB monthly plan for the family so it's not going to be a problem. Sometimes someone at Apple doesn't think the consequences of what seems like a good decision through. I think Steve Jobs would have vetoed the on-by-default option, though.
Why? I find that useful. It just took getting used to the change.
If you are on an iPad without a cellular radio, you won't see it, because it can't happen.
> Why? I find that useful. It just took getting used to the change.
I find it distracting, even after I tried to get used to it. My mind registers that the keyboard has flipped to something else, just like when it flips to the punctuation/numbers, and so it breaks my concentration and stride.
Looks like a case of "YMMV". I'm glad it's optional.
So am I. . . I was thinking I would want to turn it off until I got used to it.
I have 9.01 on both my iPhone and iPad and don’t find that setting on either.
Am I the only person who finds this feature useful? I’m on the road a lot, and my phone is constantly grabbing a weak Wi-Fi signal, slowing everything to a crawl until I figure out what is going on and switch it off. And then forget to switch it back on when I get home.
No, I find it useful too. The reason for the complaint that is the topic of the thread, is that the feature was:
Wantonly thick to construe it that way when the issue is pretty well explained.
Lots of people have seriously constrained data plans (2-6GB/month), and overage can be punitively expensive. Given that many hotspots don’t work well, Wi-Fi Assist is a great idea _IF_ you don’t have that kind of limitation _OR_ you’re not transferring much data. If you have such a limitation _and_ you’re moving a lot of data (on the presumption that you’re on Wi-Fi and not touching/affecting cellular data caps), such as by watching a movie thinking you’re using practically unlimited local network, Wi-Fi Assist may very well route that heavy data transfer to cellular and chew up your monthly allocation rather quick.
No need to “give up their feature-rich smartphones”, just need to use sensible settings to prevent excessive charges. Like going thru the Settings -> Cellular section and disabling cellular use for network-heavy apps (say, Netflix or Music), now one should turn off the default-on Wi-Fi Assist.
Defaulting it on was not one of Apple’s better moves. I expect it will default to off soon. Otherwise, it’s a great idea and nice option to have.
I’m trying to figure out the crying of folks on this - smartphones in general have done similar (all without the option to switch it on or off) for pretty much the entire history of smartphones -
I noticed through participating in the iOS9 beta program that the far reaches of my home, where the wifi signal can be a bit weak - i was seeing my iPhone switch to LTE (it clearly shows it at the top of the screen, so it isn’t a secret). This behavior was less obvious prior to iOS9 because it would churn away on a poor/faulty wifi signal a bit longer.
But as I said - smartphones have flipped to cellular data when wifi was unusable prior to iOS9. What this update by Apple DID do - is it made a much simpler avenue for users to turn OFF that function. I use to turn off cellular data when I wanted to prevent it from being used (forcing the iPhone to stay on wifi - and just time out or churn away when signal got bad).
So - Apple tweets the OS to be more sensitive to wifi issues to provide a better end-user experience, and also gives us a switch to turn the feature off (again - do other mobile OS developers provide similar?) - and people complain, and blame Apple for their high data use... sigh...
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