What phone was the biggest game changer?

Many of us, in a particular age bracket, have a concrete memory of that moment in time where phones became a bit more than phones.

A moment where we weren’t using those handheld devices exclusively for calling anymore. We were using them for taking pictures, listening to music, instant messaging, emailing and playing games.

Where once cell phone ownership was a badge of honor, now not owning one is almost unimaginable.

Reduce Instagram data usage

In a line-up of apps accused of wasting your mobile data, I bet you’d probably never consider your old friend Instagram. I mean, how could it be guilty? It’s just pictures, right? Hundreds of pictures of brunch, with some filters on it. Pictures, and sometimes video. Streaming video that plays without your permission…

You hear the shatter without realizing the mug was slipping out of your hand. Coffee spills everywhere.

How could you have been so foolish? Instagram was Kaiser Soze all along. What once appeared as an innocent looking app with a bum leg, now confidently strides out of your workplace and into a limousine, taking your precious megabytes along for the ride.

Luckily, this week’s Ting Tip exposes the one secret Instagram never bothered telling you – it has a mode to control cellular data usage. Just flip on the “Use Less Data” switch and videos will no longer automatically preload over your mobile network, saving you money in the process if you’re with a pay-for-what-you-use provider like Ting.

Read on for our step-by-step instructions on how to reduce Instagram data usage.

A phone plan with data for around $16 plus tax each month. It’s not a pipe dream. It doesn’t mean giving up your smartphone. In fact, it requires having a smartphone.

With Ting Mobile, the $16 phone bill is within reach. If you’re smart about how you use your phone (and smart about choosing a cell phone service) your phone bill doesn’t need to come with a side of sticker shock. Whether you love iPhone or whether you’re in the Android camp, following are some easy ways to take complete control of your phone bill.

This phone hack works due to Ting’s flexible pricing model where you pay for minutes, messages and mobile data separately. With this “a la carte” approach to pricing, you can use free and freely available services to meet all your smartphone needs without ever paying for a voice minute or a text message. Use Wi-Fi whenever it’s available and jump on mobile data when it’s not.

Clean up your inbox and mass unsubscribe with Unroll.me

Got a scary high inbox count? Find yourself flooded with alerts, newsletters and offers? Managing subscriptions is easier than ever with Unroll.me | Android | iOS | , a productivity app for Android and iOS.

Unroll.me helps you wrangle your email subscriptions and keep your email feeling fresher than ever.

If you’re looking at that iPhone X price tag while turning your pockets inside out in protest, we get it. As far as phones go, the $1000 plus range feels gratuitous at best.

But if you’re using a battered iPhone 5C and thinking, I’m in need of an upgrade now, don’t worry. There are more budget-friendly iPhone options that will get you all the flash of the latest iPhone, for less.

Instead of asking how to get more data without paying, learn how to do more with less

You may be asking yourself “how do I get more data on my phone?” and, judging by the searches that bring people to this particular article, you are. In a similar vein, “how to get more data without paying” is a common question.

Rather than trying to figure out how to get more data on your phone, though, a better approach is how to do more with the data you have. While it’s possible to have a smartphone without a data plan, a little mobile data makes the smartphone experience that much better.

That said, don’t listen to carriers that want you to sign on long-term for so-called “unlimited” data, though: Instead, learn how to do more with less using the simple and easily implemented tips below.