: the culprit unmasked :

An Investigation

Something or someone has been hogging my cellular data. No sooner does the billing cycle begin than, ding, the text messages start pouring in — ‘You’ve used 75% of your 3GB; you’ve used 90% of your 3GB; we’ve added 1GB of data and charged your account.’

Oh, yeah? I want to know where you’re sending it.

Thus my investigation was launched. I had a list of likely suspects and WordPress was at the top. Google was up there with them. So I avoided both of them like a dark alley. The text messages kept on coming, though. A call to AT&T blamed my phone, ¹ which I did not fall for.  I decided to try turning off cellular data overnight, which didn’t help a whole lot. As a last resort, I turned it off altogether, except to check email or make a quick visit on the Internet.

It was a serendipitous move, turning it off.

Not only was I able to avoid a data overage, the invasive and bothersome prompts  from iTunes ² stopped. They quit demanding I sign in with my apple id. Hallelujah and yay. Angry Birds stopped freezing, as well. Who knew cellular data was such a troublemaker? I didn’t. And, there it was, my first clue. A break in the case.

Long story short, the villain turned out to be none other than Angry Birds. All those videos and commercials they make you endure? They’re brought to you by … cellular data. Duh, right? Thousands and thousands of megabytes every game, which add up to gigabytes and costly overages over time. I was paying to be bombarded with advertising.

The moral of our story here? When you turn on Angry Birds, turn off cellular data. Live happily, and frugally ever after. The end.

copyright © 2015 publikworks

¹ Have you ever noticed how AT&T always blames the customer or the equipment? It’s never them or their puny, inadequate network. In the old days, before smartphones, every issue was caused by water. And you. It was your fault, you got the phone the wet — somehow.

² More than twenty years with a Mac, never a problem. They’re pushing me with the iPhone, though, really pushing me with their constant,unrelenting demands for information. Back off already.