AMA: Ask me anything about mobile devices, part 1

- I wanted to take some time to hear from you and answer questions you might have on IT fundamentals or computer literacy. So that's why we put together these Ask Me Anything episodes. My friend Erin is going to ask questions about stuff in this chapter from viewers like you. I also want to hear from you as well. My email is at the end of the episode. Ask Me Anything. - So recently, my mom was visiting. - Awesome. - During which she took lots of pictures of her new grandbaby. - Excellent. - And she also happened to get a text message from her cell phone provider saying she only had 10% of her data left for the month. So her initial reaction was to think that she was using more stuff on her phone than usual, taking lots of pictures, and that was eating up her data. How do I explain to her the difference between storage and data? - All right, so the question is the difference between storage and data usage. Storage means when you buy your device, it comes with a certain amount of capacity for storing files. With an iPhone, for example, or an iPad, it's a fixed amount, So whatever you bought is what you get, 16 gigabytes, 32 gigabytes, 64, whatever. With an Android device, many of them come with the microSD card slot, so you can actually add more capacity, but that's storage, that says how much stuff you can put on your device, whether that's, that takes into account all of the apps that you have, it takes into account all the pictures you have, all the movies you take, so that's storage, that stuff that's local to that device. Data usage is a very different thing. Data usage means how much information is flowing from the cell phone company to your device. So if you're streaming movies while you're cruising the two-day drive from her house to your house, that's data usage, right, because it's using the cell phone towers to stream data to your device. In most cell phone companies, what you pay for a certain amount of data usage each month. And so, what your mom was experiencing is the conflation, my 25-cent word of the day, that mixing the two terms up, because data usage sounds kind of similar. - [Erin] Right, and since she was traveling, she was using both of those... - Right, absolutely. - [Erin] At the same time. - One thing to note, when you're, most devices, when you connect to Wi-Fi, as opposed to the cellular network, you're not actually pushing your data usage. - Right. - So if you want to stream movies, you should always try to connect to Wi-Fi instead of using the cell phone. - Yes, OK. - OK. - I'll be able to explain it better next time. - Excellent. - Thank you. Next is Eva from Toledo, Ohio asks, I'm thinking about switching from my iPhone to Android. What do I need to consider? - Really, you're going to ditch your iPhone, no, I'm kidding. Both devices are awesome, and they have different uses. The iPhone is a very tight environment, what Apple says, this is what it's going to be like is what it's going to be like. With Android, it's not so much that way. Each different company that produces Android devices is able to customize the operating system. So what you get from LG, for example, is not the same as what you're going to get from Samsung, it's not the same as what you're going to get from Amazon. - OK. - So there'll be a little bit of a learning curve. - Yeah. - But, you know, from all the way back in Chapter One that all the computing devices work the same way so just by trying, you'll be able to figure out how to do stuff, so that's not a real huge issue. The bigger issue, though, is in your apps. Are there things that you like to do on your iPhone? - [Erin] Yeah. - Right, and apps that you've downloaded and purchased? Those apps are for the iPhone and iOS specifically. - Yeah. - So if you want to get the same functions on your Android device, you're going to have to buy the apps again, right, because you're actually buying a new app... - I see. - One that's designed specifically for Android, right. So the expense of spending two bucks on an app... - [Erin] Could add up. - It could add up, depending on how many apps you have. Now, this doesn't apply to your movies and pictures and sound files, all that stuff is very easily portable, so you should be good to go on multimedia stuff. - OK, just the apps, tricky. - Absolutely. - Mark from Scottsdale, Arizona wants to ask, do I need to know the OS make and model before I buy a new device? - I want to be like all blithe, and, no, whatever, it doesn't make any difference, and that's kind of true. Mobile device manufacturers know that their users have a ton of variation in the personal computing devices that they also have. And so, every Android device is going to plug into Windows, macOS, Chrome OS, it doesn't care. - Okay. - There's be utilities and tools to be able to support that mobile device, regardless of what operating system you plug into. With iOS devices, Apple knows they only have, what, 10% market share as far as personal computers, so they know that your iPhone is going to plug into a Mac or, much more likely, it's going to plug into a Windows PC. So they design copies of iTunes, for example, that runs beautifully on a Mac 'cause that's what it's designed for, and your phone will connect to that and be very happy on the Mac. But they also have copies of iTunes for Windows, and you plug it in, your phone connects right up there and looks and feels the same. So it doesn't really matter. Apple devices are in their own, here's my second 25-cent word of the day, they're in their own ecosystem. - [Erin] OK. - So Apple designed their devices to work really well together. - [Erin] Right. - So yeah, you'll get maybe the most seamless interaction going iOS and macOS, but it'll work with any... - [Erin] You can manage either way. - You can manage, absolutely. - [Erin] OK, I'm good. - Most of us do. - Yes, thank you, Scott. - Thank you, Erin, and thank you. My email will show up on the screen in just a second. Ask Me Anything. (upbeat music)