Video Speed Trap Lurks in New iPad

If any of you have purchased a new iPad have you been caught by the video stream trap?  Due to the incredible downloading speed and picture users are blowing through their gigabyte allotments in hours rather than days.


Here is a story regarding this very subject in the WSJ

• Brandon Wells got the new iPad last Friday, started wirelessly streaming March Madness games the next day and by Saturday night was out of gas.  Two hours of college basketball—which he viewed mounted to his car dashboard and live at tournament games—had burned through his monthly wireless data allotment of two gigabytes.
• Now, to keep surfing the Web or watch more NCAA hoops over Verizon Wireless's 4G network, Mr. Wells will have to pay an extra $10 for every gigabyte above his current $30 subscription.
• "It's kind of a Catch-22," says Mr. Wells, a 31-year-old Web developer who decided to pony up for another gigabyte. "It streams really fast video, but by streaming really fast video you tend to watch more video, and that's not always best."
• That means something has to give: Either consumers will have to get used to paying more or wireless carriers will come under pressure to change their pricing models.
• Verizon declined to comment on its pricing strategy, but said customers can pick higher-use plans or they can go easier on their data allotments by shifting to Wi-Fi networks when they are available.
• Albert Park, a 24-year-old working at a start-up in Austin, Texas, tapped into the Wi-Fi network at a local café on Sunday to watch some YouTube videos on his iPad. The network turned out to be too slow for an uninterrupted stream, so Mr. Park switched to the high-speed mobile network operated by his service provider, AT&T Inc 
• For the next hour, Mr. Park watched concert videos and other clips and browsed social-media sites. On Tuesday, five days after getting the new iPad, he found he was already two-thirds of the way through his monthly allotment of 3 gigabytes of wireless data."I'll probably avoid watching videos outside my home," Mr. Park concluded.

•  What many consumers may not realize is the new iPad's faster LTE connection means they will use more data even if they don't change their 3G surfing habits. Take regular video: Verizon estimates that streaming it over an LTE connection runs through 650 megabytes an hour. That's double the amount of data used streaming the same video over a 3G link, because the fatter pipe lets more data through.
• On top of that, the new iPad's sharper screen will encourage some users to view videos in high-definition, which uses 2 gigabytes an hour on a 4G connection, according to Verizon.