Expert: DebiN - 1/11/2012

Question
I recently bought my HTC Thunderbolt and I am brand new to smartphones and all of their technology. I am with Verizon and I have limited amount of data I can use. My question is: how can I tell if I'm actually using data? Do I have a symbol at the top of my phone or is it only when I'm downloading, using an app, or on the internet that I will be accumulating data?
I've also heard about data widgets that I can put on my home screen that shows exactly how much data I have used and how much I have left. Can you recommend one of those to me? Thank you so much for your help.

Answer
Whenever you do anything with your phone where you access the internet or send MMS messages, or play a game that accesses the internet to play, you are using data. Downloading apps is using your data plan. If you are at home on WiFi, then it's not an issue, or at a location with WiFi, but if WiFi is not turned on and/or not available, you are using up your data plan. I would suggest that you start by making sure that WiFi is on and whenever WiFi is available, use it so as not to use up your limited data plan and also that you download a program that see how much data you are using. Any of them on the Android Marketplace will be fine. You should also be able to view how much data you are using on line with Verizon. They allow you to see your data usage there as well, but on your device through an application would be best. TruConnect is a new app that was just announced that you might want to try. It's $4.99 though. Here is a link to the online Android Marketplace. I looked up Data Usage Widget and found many. You can do the same from your Thunderbolt. https://market.android.com/search?q=data+usage+widget&c=apps. I hope this helps.