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Sleeping iPhones Send Phantom Data
Stoobalou writes with a story that got started earlier this month when iPhone users in the US and the UK noticed that their phones seemed to be sending large data bursts via 3G overnight. (Providers are ending unlimited contracts, so iPhone users are paying more attention to how much data they are using.) The discussions began on MacOSRumors and an Apple discussion forum. Thinq.co.uk makes this guess as to what is going on, but doesn't offer much in the way of substantiation: "The simple fact of the matter is — as far as we can tell — that the iPhone's push notifications and other small transfers of data are totted up throughout the day and the total for all of those notifications is added up after dark and sent to your airtime provider while your phone is sleeping. If these tiny amounts of data were individually listed your bill would probably be the size of a telephone directory. The reason it is using the 3G network rather than Wi-Fi is that all iPhones up to and including the 3Gs turn off Wi-Fi push functionality while the phone is in sleep mode, in order to preserve battery life. The iPhone 4, incidentally, has better power management so will not need to do this."
iPhones are dreaming!
Do iPhones dream of non-walled Androids?
Living With a Nerd
Combine this news with the timing of the AT&T 2GB cap announcement with the release of iPhone 4, and well, it smells like a forced upgrade.
My blog
So, they are trying to save less than 0.0000002 Cents in battery power by using a network that usually bills 1 dollar /sec (at least in europe) when your plan does not take account of data services?
they are thinking too much different for my tastes.
Wait, so the data I pull down during the day via wifi gets added to my 3g total at night? That doesn't make sense. Is it just the report that gets sent at night instead? Otherwise it seems pretty useless to grab data via wifi, if it's just getting added to the 3g bill.
The headline is contradicted in the summary. It should read: Sleeping iPhones Appear To Send Phantom Data.
Turns out they don’t, it’s just a total of use from the entire day that accumulated a lot of tiny data transfers made by the iPhone’s system which are too numerous and trivial to itemize on the bill.
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
The iPad (even non-3G) and the Touch also have the ability to stay logged into a WiFi network in very low power mode and so can get push data over WiFi. And I can't imagine these were forced by AT&T.
Besides, what if you are in an AT&T dead zone (of course we all know these are mythical ;) and you get a FaceTime(TM) call or try to Find My iPhone? Wouldn't you like it to get through on WiFi even though you can't get a push over 3G to your phone?
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
It's not a few bucks in my bill that I care. I worry about my phone sending out data surreptitiously in the middle of the night. What the hell is it sending?
I don't usually bash Apple users. As much as I don't like Apple's practices, and as much as I'd like to see everyone using Free Software, it beats using windows. But this time, this guys scared the fuck out of me. They catch their phone sneaking out data in the middle of the night, and none of them is truly worried about it. They are sort of wondering "Oh, what could it be?". It doesn't matter what it is. Apple has no right to phone home without specific user authorization. The way Apple and Microsoft users have accepted the fact that they don't really own their devices, and that their corporate overlords can control their phone/computer is scary, to say the least.
WTF am I doing replying to an AC at 5 A.M on a Friday night?
I have automatic notifications turned off and a few other settings and yet my 3GS battery will go down more than half during the day without any usage. Come on, an iPad has 30 days standby - and while I understand a phone always has to be listening, it seems awfully short.
Each time I voice my concerns about Apple products, I get mod'ed down to "troll". I'm not knocking Apple products to be a dweeb, I knock them because I see very serious flaws in how the Business of Apple is run. I don't have many qualms about the tech (it isn't to my taste, but that isn't a technical flaw), but if I pay bucks for a electronic device, I fail to see how having Steve Jobs be the gatekeeper of what I can run on that platform as a positive. I fail to see how having no choice in carrier (absent "jail breaking" the phone - what an odd turn of phrase to use on a device *I own*) is a positive. I fail to see how having Big Brother Apple dictate my choices and setting my limits is a positive. I wouldn't let a company dictate what I can load on my Linux or Windows boxes.
If you disagree, that's fine. I'd much rather have someone comment than just get rated "Troll".
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
Seriously, I'd mod you down if I hadn't already posted in here.
Stop with the pariah attitude. If you post tangentially related (at best) stuff about how you don't like Apple repeatedly, you'll get modded down, period. Add something to the discussion besides (hey, did you know Apple is still censoring apps!) and you might be treated differently.
Just because you want to say it a lot doesn't mean people want to hear it everywhere.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
The "tallying small data usage" theory is garbage... however I'm not surprised your iPhone is spying on you and reporting back to it's mothership (aka Apple)
Next?
I live in a fringe area. While I get a good number of bars with Edge, 3G is hit or miss. I work in town where 3G reception is good though so I usually keep 3G on. That said, I have noticed that some evenings my battery drains almost completely while just sitting on my dresser. It's not every night so I chalked it up to reception. However, this makes more sense if it's trying to transmit data with a crappy signal.
for me as I don't get a good 3G signal at my house!
Go AT&T!
I like microcars
I'm not sure how true this is, but if I'm on 3G my battery life drains at an alarming rate during high data transfer, audio streaming etc... When Im on WIFI my battery lasts substantially longer.
Anyone else notice this too?
"(Providers are ending unlimited contracts, so iPhone users are paying more attention to how much data they are using.)"
AT$T is ending unlimited contracts.... those of us on sprint or verizon or whatever arent having this problem.
But then, we arent using iphones are we?
For the right price. To the right people, your future for a competitive advantage to get ahead in life is bleak at best.
Unless you do some SERIOUS ass kissing and hand over your human rights, you human dignity.
Two ways it will happen.
A; Bold & blatant, the we reserve the right to use our data to suit our (companies) interests.
B; Opps looks like our data base was hacked, comprising hundreds of thousands of users sensitive information.
Welcome to the Machine.
Putting it in airplane mode will just delay the data transfer, the problem here is maintaining a connection and exchanging data when the user is not aware.
The way I'm reading this makes it seem like they buried the lead. The iPhones are using 3G bandwidth overnight to report on how much 3G bandwidth they used during the day? That's stupid! That's stupid like 8 different ways. What if I wrap it in EM-proof material overnight? What if I take out the battery? Is the data for how much bandwidth I use lost? Does it queue it all up? Can it be combined that way on purpose into one transmission? What if I use a ton of bandwidth and never turn it back on until my billing cycle ends for that month? Why does the phone record the bandwidth and transmit it later and not the cell tower it's on? Can the data be faked so it looks like you used less bandwidth? Ugh typical awful, thoughtless Apple design.
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
All of the crap and tap dancing about data caps comes down to one thing. Phone calls.
ATT is very very worried about SKYPE. Data caps allow them to still be in the minutes selling business. If these things become pure data machines, then they eventually lose.
The way I'm reading this makes it seem like they buried the lead. The iPhones are using 3G bandwidth overnight to report on how much 3G bandwidth they used during the day? That's stupid! That's stupid like 8 different ways.
If they were it would be.
Instead it's a matter of when data usage is reported on your bill - nothing more.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Voice service is only a side effect of iPhone ownership because the carriers do not offer data-only plans. I'm not sure anyone buys an iPhone because they want a phone.
Yes, they do. For one, data card users have data-only plans. If you have a used iPhone (no longer subject to a voice plan contract), you can use it with a data-only plan.
The iPad also has a data-only plan, which can be used on an iPhone.
All I know is that I had an Iphone when it came out, I had one for about 2 years, and I had serious doubts about what was going on as far as inside the phone when it was idle. The last straw was, which was why I stopped using the iphone, is that I would be sitting there, the phone is just idle, not plugged in, and then all of a sudden, the fucking thing reboots, and then I get it back on, and all the settings have changed, they fucking remotely upgraded the OS without my knowledge or approval. They also changed various system settings, reset some others, and uninstalled some applications for me. I look at the Iphone as a computer, not a phone. To me, doing the things that Steve Jobs does with my Iphone in most states falls under criminal hacking and computer trespass laws. So, take for it what you want, but the next time I ever get a Unix-based OS running on my phone, it will be with a grsecurity.net patch on top of the OS before I turn the thing on, and I run sniffers on it to log all inbound/outbound traffic so I can know for sure what is happening. With the Iphone, stuff is happening, you have no control of it. I have compared it to a little Steve Jobs in my back pocket, who tells me what I can and can't do, and plays with my settings whenever he wants to. I really got sick of it, honestly. It's not only an invasion of privacy, its also borderline hacking. I'm surprised he hasn't been arrested yet.
no jobs is just getting user info using a backdoor data channel.
We've noticed that our comparatively-ancient Nokia 2610 (prepaid AT&T) does this as well - we noticed because both our car stereo and our PC's speakers pick up transmissions from AT&T phones.
Thing is, we observed it transmitting even when it's turned off...
"But telecoms providers send out millions of automatically-generated bills every month and to expect their never to be a mistake is hopeful to say the least." If that was an intentional mistake, it's brilliant. Unfortunately, it's probably just bad editing.
My only other dreams are to be invisible in a chocolate factory and to date a celebrity.
how is babby formed?
Because Apple "Just Works". For varying values of "Just Works".
This is a perfect example of the emperors clothes as it applies to Apple. Actually suggesting that someone put the phone in Airplane mode is crazy. Unless they are using it for an alarm clock, having the phone sit turned on with no passive functions possible, and no one to initiate an active function, Airplane mode is just an inefficient form of "OFF". Suggesting that someone turn their phone off every night so that they don't get charged exorbitant fees for some unknown, and certainly unneeded function is no better than telling someone they would be better off running Window Me as their primary OS over whatever they currently have installed.
A phone that must be turned off every night is kludgy and broken, providing a terrible user experience.
Holy crap, 3-30 MB for push notifications over a day? What the heck is it sending? I always thought push notifications were simple numbers or pre-loaded mini-icons?
"The iPhone 4, incidentally, has better power management"
Whaaat?? Is this supposed to mean that an earlier version did not have optimal power management, i.e. something non-perfect came out of One Infinite Loop? :-P
You can catch it in the act.
I just turned off WiFi and 3G, forcing my iPhone onto AT&T's 850 MHz 2G network.
Now any data transmitted triggers a very audible BRAPPPA-BRAP-BUZZ! through the speakers.
Turn up the volume and go to bed.
On EDGE it will take a long time upload all that data. It will be quite obvious if this is really happening.
Also, use cheap speakers, fancy ones might be shielded. I didn't even plug them into the phone.
-j
The link in the summary is to Mac Rumors, not to Mac OS Rumors, which is an unrelated site.
Telephony sessions are typically billed at the end of the session. Phone calls are billed when they are disconnected, SMS's when they are delivered, etc.
GPRS sessions (not individual sockets, the entire IP tunnel) are also typically billed when they are torn down too. This means that on some platforms data sessions can go unbilled for a long, long time. I've heard of months-long Blackberry sessions.
Now, the iPhone doesn't fully close down GPRS sessions when it goes idle, we saw that story a while ago. It does a fast disconnect, leaving the session running and hoping to reconnect to it later. What may be happening is that these sessions time out in the middle of the night, when the phone goes idle for long enough, resulting in a middle of the night charge for data from the entire day.
These long running sessions are being noticed by carriers, and they are starting to request mid-session commits, where the bill isn't updated at the end of the session, but at set intervals.
Could this be some form of passive tracking by default?
Could a clandestine service have asked the telco and Apple to make phones more trackable out of the box?
Sloppy younger people would just think not making a call is 'off' but the phone is still seen on the network?
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
I have Little Snitch installed, and every website I've designed with iWeb phones home to mac.com before a page will load, even when the site is not hosted at mac.com.
If you block mac.com with Little Snitch, you cannot navigate to your domain. Somehow the code in the sites generated by iWeb is passing some kind of information to Apple's servers and tracking every access by every user to every website ever designed with iWeb.
This cannot be accidental or an oversight, because this must generate huge amounts of traffic to Apple's servers, and this traffic costs them money and bandwidth to receive & transmit. They must be doing something with all that traffic data.
Ask Me About... The 80's!
If you look at detailed power consumption data, you will see that wifi is way, way more efficient than cellular. Thus, either Apple made a huge mistake in power conservation programming, Apple and AT&T are intentionally inflating 3G data usage or this theory is completely wrong.
brings the trolls out
it's not just iphones. it's ALL PHONES FROM ATT.
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/18/another-iphone-mystery-explained/
Fortunately, this one has a happy ending. AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel tells me:
“What your readers are seeing is a routine update of the daily data activity on their devices—whether the iPhone or other handsets—to ensure billing accuracy. Customers are not charged for any data usage as part of this routine update
Now wait a minute: The iPhone is doing processing and transmitting when its lights out - ON my phone, with my network time, and electrical services?
Q: Where in the ATT Wireless contract do they get to use my phone for their billing processing for FREE?
Let's think about this: Assuming 3.5 million iPhones are calling home every night - and that it takes $2.50 worth of services - shouldn't users be given the option of selling that service time to ATT with a 20% profit margin?
That's one heck of a lot of distributed compute power guys. Either ATT pays for it - or the user should get a tax break for allowing ATT to use their phone for ATT business purposes.
Theft of services is theft of services.
Gentle readers, rev your engines!
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