Get Real-Time Data Usage Tracking on Your iPhone With DataMan Pro [Review and Giveaway] [Winners Announced]

Keeping track of your data consumption is becoming an increasingly important habit for smartphone users. Carriers have started enforcing tiered data plans, and data consumption is becoming more expensive for those that use their devices heavily.

AT&T recently announced that it would begin throttling unlimited data customers in October, so everyone will need to be monitoring their data consumption soon. On the iPhone, there’s an excellent app for real-time data tracking called DataMan Pro

One of the main reasons you need an app like DataMan is that carrier data alerts are subject to delays. Carriers don’t really provide real-time data usage tracking, and it can usually take hours or possibly days to get alerts for overages and usage reports.

Instead of going through your carrier, DataMan Pro monitors data usage from your iPhone directly, therefore, DataMan’s stats are always up to date. When you reach a data threshold on an iPhone using DataMan Pro, you are immediately notified — and that saves you overage charges.

If you’re one of the many with a limited data plan, DataMan is an essential tool for keeping track of your data consumption. The app is incredibly customizable and polished. And who doesn’t like an app that’s designed to save you money?

Once you customize your billing cycle, data allowance, and alert thresholds, DataMan Pro does the rest of the work. You’ll get usage reports for the day, week, and month. You can also easily see the unused data on your current bill cycle. If you reach a certain usage threshold, DataMan Pro will immediately notify you via a push notification.

You can Geotag in DataMan Pro to see where you used your data — this feature can be particularly helpful for those that travel.

Another cool thing about DataMan Pro is that you can turn off the iPhone’s Location Services and DataMan will still track your data usage. Unlike many similar apps, DataMan Pro does not rely on Location Services to track your usage every 10 minutes. This allows you to save battery and turn Location Services off if you so desire.

DataMan will work on any carrier, as the app monitors data consumption from the iPhone itself. No login is required with your carrier.

DataMan and DataMan Pro are both available in the App Store, with DataMan Pro offering several features that make it a compelling $1.99 upgrade from the free version.

With DataMan Pro, you can export your usage statistics with iTunes File Sharing. The exported CSV file can be used for comparison with your carrier bill from a desktop computer. You can also set a persistent alarm to sound when your monthly allowance is exceeded. Finally, the most compelling feature of DataMan Pro is that it gives you access to your daily usage reports. You can easily visualize your usage patterns from a handy chart.

If you’re still skeptical, I recommend downloading the free version of DataMan to give it a try. If you like it, make the $1.99 purchase for DataMan Pro to get the full package.

We hope you like this app, because we have 4 free copies of DataMan Pro to giveaway!

To win your very own copy of DataMan Pro, leave a witty comment below with why you need the app. We’ll be emailing the 4 winners Sunday morning.

The developer of DataMan Pro wanted us to relate this message concerning a minor bug:

“We just confirmed a bug with location services. If location services is turned on for DataMan, it is stopping DataMan from recording your usage every 10 minutes. As a temporary solution, please turn off location services for DataMan in iOS Settings > Location Services > DataMan.”

An update has been pushed for approval in the App Store to fix this bug, and the folks at DataMan suspect that it will go live in the App Store very soon.

UPDATE: Winners have been selected and contacted.