Fox Sports app consumes 75 GB of mobile data in a very short period of time.

Recently a person found their mobile phone had chewed up around 241 GB of data on their Telstra plan. They woke up to find 141 messages from Telstra indicating they'd exceeded their 60GB of data. Each message was to indicate they were getting another 1 GB for $10. Nearly $2,000 of excess data.

This happened on April 1st and no, it wasn't an April fools joke.

Whilst it wasn't possible to identify all the apps which used the data, since many of the unused apps were deleted to clean up their system, the one app that stood out was Fox Sports. The Fox Sports app had reported it had used 75 GB of data. Of the 75 GB, 74 GB was used in the background.

There's a couple of issue here.

1. Make sure you check how much data your apps are using. If you're using an Android based mobile you can usually check the data usage per app.

2. You would think Telstra would have some limit on the amount of addition 1GB purchases that automatically apply before a person has to manually intervene. It appears this isn't the case. Bill shock is potentially a huge problem.

3. The data usage on a 4G network which can run at up to 150 Mbps can consume theoretically 15 MB per second. In one minute that's 900 MB or nearly a GB. Just one minute to consume nearly a GB. In an hour that's 48 GB.

4. How could the Fox Sports app possibly consume 75 GB of data in a matter of hours? This data usage was overnight and noticed in the morning. Something appears to be seriously wrong.

The person has now removed all unwanted apps just in case any of the apps were causing a problem. It is always be possible a malicious app had hijacked the mobile phone and given others access to Fox Sports and other apps. Without further information and in the short time available to check the mobile phone what actually happened was hard to ascertain.

What is important is to be aware that with Telstra you can end up with bill shook with excess data being automatically charged up to tens if not hundreds of gigabytes.

With the Fox Sports app turn the ability to run the app in the background off. If you don't know something is running it could be very costly.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Aerial map of development of Melbourne since 1985.

I found the map on the news.com.au site very interesting. The map shows an aerial view of Melbourne over time since 1985. If you slide the slider quickly you can see the changes more easily.

For example I didn't recall that Albert Park Lake was drained in 1993, but the map clearly shows the emptied Albert Park Lake, most likely because it become a large area of dry land.

Whilst the expansion of housing can be seen, what is far easier to see are the large white areas which are a large roofs of commercial buildings. For example the area near Tullamarine Airport.

The growth along Sydney Road and High whilst less obvious, shows the development of apartments along the major roads.

Here's a link to the article. Scroll down to the map and click on the button or slide the slider.

http://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/australian-economy/melbourne-population-to-soar-past-sydney-within-decade/news-story/e88a537f61de7b74c2897d102a40cc10

Kelvin Eldridge

Petrol prices in Melbourne have started to rise to 154.9.

I noticed this morning a number of petrol stations have raised their prices to 154.9. With the gate price of petrol now around the 128 region, it was expected this latest increase would push the peak price of unleaded petrol up to around the 154.9 price.

It's probably time to soon fill up.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.PetrolPricesMelbourne.com.au

UPDATE: 2:36 pm Thursday 19, April 2018
A number of Woolworths Petrol stations which already had 154.9 as the price for unleaded have further increased their prices to 156.9. This is unusual. Usually if the peak price varies it may drop a little rather than go higher.

Coles online versus Woolworths online grocery shopping. Major difference.

There's a major difference between shopping online between Coles and Woolworths.

Do you know what it is?

The difference can make a very considerable difference to how much you pay for your groceries.

The major difference is Coles online charges more for groceries that you purchase online that don't fall into a special category such as a weekly special or an "every day price". This could be the majority of the grocery items you purchase.

On the other hand, Woolworths charges the same online as it does in-store.

You still need to compare prices between Coles and Woolworths to work out which is better value for your money, but if you're buying online, chances are Woolworths may be cheaper for most products as it doesn't increase the prices online compared to buying in-store. For example, I recently did a quick price check on a few items. These grocery items didn't have any special promotions.

McCain Chicken Parmagiana

Coles
online $7.47
in-store $7.00

Woolworths
online $7.00
in-store $7.00

Peters Original Vanilla Ice Cream 4l

Coles
online  $10.45
in-store $9.50

Woolworths
online $9.50
in-store $9.50

Kellogg's Crunchy Nut 670g

Coles
online $8.25
in-store $7.50

Woolworths
online  $7.49
in-store $7.49

Milo 750g

Coles
online $10.73
in-store $9.75

Woolworths
online $9.75
in-store $9.75

As you can see from the above prices, for items that don't fall into a special sales type category, Coles priced the items above online at up to 10% more, whereas for Woolworths there was no price difference. That can make a noticeable difference to the total price.

Keep in mind both Coles and Woolworths charge for delivery. However with Woolworths you can place and order and pick up the order at the nominated store later. I hope to test this service in the future.

One handy outcome that came out of this review is if you want to review prices, you can be in Coles and look up the price on the Woolworths site and know you're comparing in-store prices. You can't be in Woolworths to do this since Coles prices online are the same as their in-store prices.

An unusual observation I made was that some products in Coles and Woolworths do not having matching sizes such as vegemite, so it may not be possible to crosscheck the price of some items. In the past I've found this to be a retail strategy in parts of the computer industry that makes it harder for people to price match. It makes me wonder if this same strategy is being used in the grocery sector.

When comparing products another thing that does make it harder is even though there is considerable overlap between the range Coles and Woolworths have, even on the small price check I performed, a number of items were not in both stores.

I hope others find this information useful.

Kelvin Eldridge
www,JustLocal.com.au