Many smartphone apps are data hogs. News and weather apps like to update in the background constantly. Social media apps have a real internet addiction. The problem is more wireless plans are counting every little bit. If you're on a prepaid plan, especially, you'll want to monitor your mobile data usage, but there's also a neat trick that a reader emailed in which will stop your apps from draining your mobile data minutes altogether. It can come in handy if you travel internationally and want to avoid hefty data roaming charges.

All you need to do is change your mobile device's APN (Access Point Name) to a non-working APN and then your apps will only connect over Wi-Fi. Here's where/how to change the APN settings on iPhone or Android.

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It was a historic, very political week on the web, with Wednesday's largest online protest in history to stop SOPA and PIPA and then on Thursday the Department of Justice shut down file sharing and online hosting service Megaupload and arrested seven employees of the company, also seizing several assets. Then hacking group went on a tear attacking several sites including the DoJ's, Universal Music Group, and the Recording Industry Association of America. So, some thoughts.

Megaupload is one of the services I included in my roundup of how to send large files for free. It was one of the most-used services, and not just for pirated movies or music, but for people and companies sharing photos and large files. There are still alternatives like YouSendIt and MediaFire (see the article for a brief comparison).

The Megaupload drama does bring up again important concerns about storing your files in the cloud. It's really important to have an off-site backup, but you can't rely on it as your sole backup. In case the service goes down (not because of legal problems like this, per say, but maybe bankruptcy or even just temporary disruption), you need to have another backup elsewhere besides on your own computer.

The second issue is one of privacy. Make sure any sensitive data you're uploading is encrypted. TrueCrypt is a free program to password-protect your most important files and it's easy to use.

AT&T's new data plans, rolling out on Sunday, give wireless subscribers more bandwidth at a lower cost per GB, but it's also a forced higher bill for new customers.

Current subscribers can keep their current plans if they don't don't want to change. Those options are now $15 per month for 200MB of data or $25 per month for 2GB of data.

New customers or current subscribers who want to switch will have these options on Sunday, January 22: The new plans charge $5 more per month but add more data: $20 per month for 300MB of data and $30 per month for 3GB of data.

For mobile hotspot users, plans are also hiked: $30 a month for 3GB of data and $50 a month for 5GB. The $15 a month plan for 250MB won't change.

AT&T says in its blog the reason for the new data plans is to protect customers from overage charges. This, however, doesn't seem to vibe with AT&T's previous statements that the majority of users don't use over 2GB of data--reasoning the company has used before to get rid of its unlimited data plans and move to tiered pricing in the interest of "making the internet more affordable to more people". Sure.

Calculate how much data you need.

Data roaming rates are 500 to 1000 times more expensive than domestic rates, according to the European Commission (says Wikipedia), and after taking a look at the data roaming fees of the major US wireless carriers, I'm not really surprised that international data roaming is notorious for drawing incredibly high costs. I've previously noted some strategies for how to avoid data roaming charges and am in the midst of testing a new tip (should be up in the next couple of days) shared by a reader that can help you prevent your apps from trying to access data unless you're on a Wi-Fi network--useful if you're on a prepaid plan too.

Until then, if you're getting ready to travel abroad, take a look at this reminder of all the things that can trigger those data roaming fees (including sneaky things like Visual Voicemail), and what you can do to monitor your mobile data usage.

Stay tuned!.