Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Is anyone using BlindSquare for orientation? (self.Blind)
submitted by Sommiel
I am about to get a new iphone with BlindSquare installed on it.
I am wondering how much data it uses so I can plan for that in my phone plan. I don't use data for anything else now, but I will be getting a bar code reader program for shopping and such.
I am wondering how much data it uses so I can plan for that in my phone plan. I don't use data for anything else now, but I will be getting a bar code reader program for shopping and such.
KillerLag 2 points 6y ago
As everyone else said, it does use data, about 500 Megs-1 Gig, depending on a few factors. It is mostly a battery hog.
Don't forget, too, that is you use the iBeacon system, it needs to connect to the internet to look up the data. If you are connected to the building's wifi, then that isn't an issue, but your phone may not automatically connect to the building's wifi.
Don't forget, too, that is you use the iBeacon system, it needs to connect to the internet to look up the data. If you are connected to the building's wifi, then that isn't an issue, but your phone may not automatically connect to the building's wifi.
Sommiel [OP] 1 points 6y ago
Thanks!
fastfinge 1 points 6y ago
Depends on how much you use the app. But if all you're using is that and a barcode scanner, 1 gig of data should be more than enough. You might even be able to squeeze into 500 megs. But sometimes Apple uses data for notifications, grabbing emails, and doing other things you didn't intend in the background. So it's always better to have a little buffer. For me, it costs $0.15 for every meg I use over what's included in my plan. So it's cheaper to pay for extra data that I'm not going to use, than risk having an accident and getting a surprise bill.
TurtleKnife 1 points 6y ago
This may sound like a dumb question but what does blindsquare do?
Sommiel [OP] 1 points 6y ago
It's actually sort of cool... to find out where you are and which way you are going, you just shake your phone.
fastfinge 1 points 6y ago
It's $1.
Vaelian 1 points 6y ago
It doesn't consume much data, so you'll be fine with the cheapest plan, but it's a battery hog like any application that uses the GPS.
fastfinge 1 points 6y ago
Depends on what country the poster is in. In Canada, the cheapest plan comes with 5 megs of data. And that won't cut it! But then, Canadians pay the most expensive prices in the G20 for cell phones.
Vaelian 2 points 6y ago
Wow, 5MB, I can only think of one use case for that: people who are still using WAP browsers, and even for that it's a ridiculously small amount of data. Over here the cheapest plan comes with 200MB of data, which is more than enough for Blind Square (which uses roughly 2MB of data per hour).
fastfinge 1 points 6y ago
As I learned recently, Blindsquare actually uses a fair bit more if you use the voice control features they added in the latest major version. The voice recognition is not done on-device. I really wouldn't feel safe having an iPhone with much less than a gig of data. Especially because Apple has a nasty habit of doing things with data in the background, even if you have most apps switched off. Though that probably depends how much you get charged for over-use. It's about $0.15 per meg for me, so it winds up being cheaper having data I'm not going to use, than risking an accident and getting a surprise bill.
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