For many BlackBerry users, the new AT&T tiered data plans will save money. If you use your device entirely for email and don’t surf the web much, for example, you could cut your data costs in half. Still, as I mentioned yesterday, it might not be all good for you. Reuters blogger Felix Salmon expressed a similar sentiment, noting that his data usage fluctuates by the month, often but not always exceeding 200MB. If this is a concern for you, turning to Wi-Fi is one possible solution. Just in the nick of time Aerize has released an application that can help you out in using Wi-Fi in place of cellular data. 
The app acts on a simple premise. There are a few apps that run on your BlackBerry which can consume disproportionate levels of data. For example, you never know exactly how much data Google Maps consumes, but you can be sure that it uses more than your typical web browsing session. Ditto BlackBerry maps. If you’re on a tiered data plan with a low limit, a few sessions can push you over. But if you connect over Wi-Fi, you can spare that data usage. Aerize WiFiX comes preprogrammed for five popular BlackBerry applications: Google Maps, Google Mobile App, BlackBerry Maps, the now defunct Yahoo! Go, and WeatherEye. You can add any of your other apps to WiFiX, so you’ll make sure that your most data-intensive functions will run over Wi-Fi when possible. The only catch is that anything that runs over a secure server is ineligible. This is standard fare for Wi-Fi. For example, if you can’t set it to access your carrier billing or banking applications. If you’re on a low level data plan, or if you’re on a higher level data plan but use your device frequently within Wi-Fi range, this app can help you avoid overages and perhaps lower your data tier. Check out the free trial at aerize.com. You can get the full version of WiFiX for $5.
0 comments… add one now