????Need data information please????

[Sparksde]

Hello,  I have recently just got my first smart phone: finally and to be quite honest I haven't a clue about data and how this works.  This is what I understand so far.  The amounts I use is tracked by my phone, and Verizon with a little of play between the two.  I have set the phone to stop at 1.9 of my current limit of 2 GB's.  But there is an option to do WI-FI which I have set up in my home and can do in my place of work and school.  What does that do?  Is it just a faster connection, does it lighten the load on my data, does it stop my "data" usage: while still having internet?

If someone can point me in the right direction to get this information or be kind enough to provide this elusive information I would be grateful. I did attempt to look for the answer but to no avail.

Does playing games use data if playing solo like angry birds, world of goo, field goal, cut the rope, etc.....  I really like the phone and the data but am clueless to the inter working of the plans and don't want to kill my data on things that just are a waste of the limit I do have. 

I also see many "app killers"  to turn off apps when they are not in use.  Should I use one of these to prevent data usage when I am sleeping or in school and do not need internet,

Thanks for taking the time to read and respond to those that do.

Also I have the Samsung Galaxy Nexus   Android version. 4.0.2

Message was edited by: danny sparks      Added phone information

[fed1234]

You should always use wifi if possible because it substitutes for your 3G, 4G cellular connection and eliminates the data buildup. Playing games and looking at videos are tremendous data hogs and certainly should be done over wifi if possible. I know there are data killer apps out there but I don't use them. You can stop apps running by going to settings>apps>running and just turn off those that you aren't using at the moment. They will turn back on whenever you choose to activate them.  

[AZSALUKI · Accepted solution]

i don't recommend the app killers. you can stop them by doing what fed1234 suggested if you really don't want them running. games don't always use data. if you play angry birds no data is used. however, if you play words with friends than you use data. the games that you play "online" are the ones that use data. words with friends sends the word you just played to your opponent so it's using data. angry birds is installed on your device and requires no data connection at all to play (you can play it on an airplane for example).

if you are concerned about data then here are a few tips:

set your email to only check periodically (i have mine pull every hour) rather than having emails "pushed" to your phone (which means it is constantly checking for them).

do not allow any apps to "update automatically." just go to the market once in a while (while on wifi) and manually update any of your apps that have updates available.

never stream music or videos when you aren't on wifi. these are the data hogs. you could blow through your allowed data just by streaming a couple movies, if you're not on wifi.

monitor your usage for a couple months and you will figure out how much you use on average. MANY users don't even come close to their allowed 2 gigs of data. also make sure it's 2 gigs. for a while, verizon had a promo going that gave you 4 gigs if you bought a 4g smartphone so check to make sure that you don't actually get 4 gigs.

fyi....i'm 6 days into my billing cycle and i have used .1 (one tenth) of a gig. i'm a fairly heavy user and rarely come close to 2 gigs. when i do, it's because i've been streaming music or video in my car during the month. and even then, if it's just music, i don't hit 2 gigs.