I’ve previously used the 3G data on my first-generation iPad only when traveling, and instead relied on Wi-Fi--it saves me from paying a monthly charge if I cancel right away, then just use the month of data I paid for. To cancel, or just to check how much data you’re using, you have to sign in to your account in Settings > Cellular Data > View Account. (Make a keyboard shortcut for your email address in Settings > General > Keyboard to save some keystrokes logging in.)
My first few days with the new iPad, I left LTE on, Wi-Fi off, and sipped 220MB without really doing much at all--mail, Instapaper, some light web-surfing, a bunch of Draw Something. Then 12 days into the billing period, I got serious. I downloaded 12 apps in 4 minutes over LTE. You can’t download any iTunes or App Store purchases over 50MB without Wi-Fi, which really restricted my choices. No Infinity Blade, naturally, but also no Pages, iMovie, iPhoto, Numbers, Keynote, GarageBand, iPhoto, or even iBooks. But the 12 assorted apps I did grab took me up to 600MB, a 380MB jump.
Next, I threw a couple dozen more apps onto it via iTunes, and then I downloaded the 60 available on the iPad. That took an additional 102MB of data.
I gobbled 240MB more streaming a 21-minute episode of Parks & Recreation via Netflix. Next I grabbed the ABC Player app (36MB) and streamed a 51-minute (with commercials) episode of Once Upon a Time, taking up 380MB. A 21-minute episode of Modern Family was 200MB. I uploaded 17 photos to Dropbox (12MB). Then I downloaded 4 issues of Tap! magazine, for 1.1GB. That’s when I saw the “20 percent remaining” warning, which also went to my email. Since I hadn’t synced any music, I redownloaded 12 tracks (one Amber Rubarth album) previously bought on iTunes, which threw up a 10 percent data warning, taking 335MB. I turned on Photo Stream expecting to use my last 275MB on syncing images, but Photo Stream only uses Wi-Fi, which is smart. So I downloaded Rdio and burned the last 266MB on five hours of streaming music, at 52MB an hour.
