How to Limit Data Usage on Tethered Chromebooks

By
When I tried tethering my Chromebook to my Android phone I noticed it constantly used cellular data. Not much, but it adds up quickly.

Chrome Unboxed explains why and how to limit data usage. The reason is Chrome OS synchronizes account data and offline Google Drive files, which may be many and large. Turning off these options significantly reduces data usage.

Popular posts from this blog

An Intel 8080 Assembly Suite in Python

By
Image
A blog post I stumbled upon made me start a new project, crank out lots of Python code, slip down a rabbit hole of arcane and fascinating corners of retrocomputing, and overflow with fun. The project is Suite8080 , a suite of Intel 8080 Assembly cross-development tools comprising an assembler and a disassembler. I developed it in Python entirely with Replit . At over 1,500 lines of code , it’s my second and largest Python project after Spacestills , a NASA TV still image viewer of about 340 lines of code. A hello world Intel 8080 program running in the z80pack CP/M emulator on Crostini Linux. I assembled the program with asm80, the Suite8080 assembler. Why did I write software for a half-century old CPU? This is the story of how I got started with Suite8080, how I developed it, the challenges I faced, and what I learned. Let’s start before the beginning. Background I’m a hobby programmer and a Python beginner, not a professional developer. To practice with the language, I finally set o...
Read more

How to Limit Data Usage on Tethered Android Devices

By
Image
Buying an affordable Wi-Fi Android tablet with no cellular data option is a way of getting it for even cheaper. It’s what I did with my Lenovo Tab E7 . The few times I need to use the device on the go, tethering to my Pixel 2 XL is straightforward to set up and use. But Android devices exchange a lot of data even when sitting idle. How to keep data usage under control? By tweaking the tablet’s account synchronization settings I can cut down on cellular data usage by two-thirds . Measuring data usage The first step is to get an idea of how much cellular traffic tethering generates, and how much I can save by playing with the system settings. I did two simple tests to estimate the amount of data usage to expect from the tablet while tethered to the Pixel 2 XL, which has a 4G Vodafone cellular data plan. In the Android settings of the phone, under Settings > Network & internet > Mobile network , a chart tracks how many MB of data have been used. In the tests I compar...
Read more

Lenovo Tab E7 Tablet: First Impressions

By
Image
I bought a Lenovo Tab E7 Android tablet. It was sort of an impulse buy after seeing the device on display at a consumer electronics store and realizing how cheap it is. A buying decision made easier by some Amazon credit I had around. I got the 16 GB version for €74.99 at Amazon. But there are other reasons I wanted a tablet. The home screen of my Lenovo Tab E7 tablet. Why I got a tablet I owned and loved the Nexus 7 tablets, both the original 2012 and the 2013 version. When later getting the massive Nexus 6 phablet with its beautiful large screen, I began using the Nexus 7 less and less. When Google stopped providing system updates, I sold the remaining unit I still had. Since then tablets have apparently gone out of favor with Android users. And manufacturers significantly cut down on the development and production of new models. But I have always loved the slate form factor, particularly 7” tablets . These tablets are small enough to be compact, but with a larg...
Read more