http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Apple...5.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=2&asset=&ccode= "Apple will also sell a version with data plans from AT&T Inc. in the U.S.: $14.99 per month for 250 megabytes of data, or $29.99 for unlimited usage. Neither will require a long-term service contract." If I want to put a streaming chart program on it, how much data do I need? I will use IPAD for trading when I am on the travel, may use it to check email , weather, and map sometimes as well.
250mb on a device like that is not very much. Reset the counter on your smartphone or laptop and see how quickly you get to 250mb. The 250mb plan is for people who will mostly use wifi and very rarely fall back to 3G.
I'm surprised the unlimited plan isn't a 5 GB plan as with most wireless computer card plans. Also, judging from my iPhone, 3g is too slow for streaming data. It is much slower than even wifi. It might be worth waiting for the next version of the iTampex ..... er I mean the iPad and 4g.
What data do you stream? 3g givey you up to 7.6 mbit down with the latest software (on the tower), 3.6 without (or something in that area). Even taking out 75% as ovrehead etc. - that is plenty of bandwidth for a handfull of symbols
Just going by what I see on my iPhone. Wifi is too slow and irregular for streaming data unless it is from one of the new super netgear routers combined with their super wifi adapter. And, wifi is significantly faster on my iPhone than when on 3g. Deduction is that 3g is not fast enough for streaming data to be reliable enough for trading. (day trading)
250MB, divided by 22 market days, divided by 7 hours/market day, divided by 60 minutes/hr, divided by 60 seconds/minute => 500 bytes/second. If you're looking at minute-bars or longer, you're almost certainly going to be fine. But trying to do ticks on 3G is a recipe for disaster, for a number of technical reasons.