During the announcement of Ice Cream Sandwich today, Google breezed over a massive new feature they"re bringing to the platform. Potentially one of the most groundbreaking ones, too.
The OS has a new built in tracker that allows you to keep track of your data usage over a month, and predicts how much you will use. Additionally, it predicts your future usage, and lets you drill down and see which applications used data when. This changes everything for people who couldn"t afford to use data at all before.
Carriers have been known for slapping customers with massive bills for data overages, and with smartphones it"s hard to know how much data you"ve actually used. With this new feature, that stops now. You can drill down into what applications used your data when, and tell the phone to stop letting those applications use data.
You can set your mobile data limit on the OS itself, and discover which applications are using all your data. This is probably one of the most innovative features the platform brings to light.
The users can now fight back against big bills, and protect themselves (without having to root their phone!).