usage

If you spend a lot of your time on the move, you probably spend a lot of that time on your smartphone. With a myriad of apps in the Android Market and other useful functions at your fingertips, it's sometimes too easy to run down your battery without realizing it. So how do you figure out which apps will limit your mobile time with your Android device by draining battery life? Follow these steps:

Step 1: Open the main settings area of your phone by pressing the Menu button and then choosing Settings.

Step 2: Scroll down in this … Read more

Net Usage Item is a free Firefox add-on that tracks Internet usage and displays it in Firefox's interface as a percentage and a progress bar. It can help users carefully monitor their access time or bandwidth, which can be critical to avoiding fees and penalties for exceeding your quota or subscription. The only trouble with it is that it probably doesn't support your ISP or even your country, unless you live in Australia, New Zealand, India, Belgium, Canada, Portugal, Poland, or Ukraine. Many Internet users enjoy unlimited access or even broadband and don't need to keep tabs … Read more

Every now and then it can be useful to track how a program or process is accessing the hard drive. There are times when troubleshooting when you may want to track what files get changed when application settings are adjusted, or which files are accessed when you load a particular feature. Apple provides the Activity Monitor utility that will show you the overall input and output rates of the hard drive, but this overview does not specify the files that are being accessed.

While there are numerous ways to monitor hard-drive activity and usage in OS X, I've found … Read more

If you own a smartphone, there's a good chance you're paying for more in services than you actually use. Because many of us are fearful of extra charges that can quickly add up, we choose a bigger voice and data plan than we actually come close to using. CNET senior editor Kent German has shared some tips to find a service plan that better suits your needs:

• Analyze the amount of time you spend talking on the phone every month over a period of time. Find the average. German says it's unlikely you're using all 700 … Read more

When Microsoft starts pointing to statistics that don't make it look so great, you can expect the company has a strong turnaround plan in place. Today's example: its share of browser usage.

Microsoft, while still the top browser maker, saw Internet Explorer slide as a fraction of worldwide usage from 57.1 percent in December 2010 to 56 percent in January, according to statistics from analytics firm Net Applications released today. That decline continues a years-long trend for the company, which first lost share to Mozilla's Firefox but now is losing it primarily to Google's Chrome … Read more

One of the biggest problems that consumers have faced with mobile phone billing in recent years is that there's really no way of independently measuring the amount of data that's being consumed by a mobile Web session. Consumers are at the mercy of the wireless carriers and have put their trust in these providers to accurately bill them.

Now, AT&T finds itself at the center of a class action lawsuit that alleges that the provider's bills "systematically overstate the amount of data used on each data transaction." Granted, the overstatement that's being … Read more

Funny thing about the iPad: once you have one you sort of lose interest in a lot of other tech gear. It does a lot, and does it pretty well. Here are five tech devices that better keep an eye on the rear view.

This list isn't our opinion; it's from Resolve Research's survey of iPad users and intenders.

Not everyone uses the Internet. It's hard to imagine, but they do have their "reasons" and here they are. Who knows, maybe you'll unplug after you watch this.

For a look at all the lousy excuses people give for not taking part in a big part of the human experience, check out the list from Pew Research.

November was a good month for Google's browser ambitions as Chrome won over a sizable new fraction of Web usage.

Chrome usage rose from 8.5 percent of worldwide Web usage in October to 9.3 percent in November, according to statistics released today by Net Applications, whose analytics software monitors Web traffic extensively.

Chrome claimed most of that share from Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which dropped in overall usage from 59.2 percent to 58.3 percent. Chrome's gains means Google has an easier time pursuing its agenda--adding new features for Web programmers, modifying Net communication protocols … Read more