Marco Arment on the perils of using an LTE connection on a MacBook:

With LTE, you can burn through a 5 GB data cap in an hour if you’re downloading big video files, and it would be easy to burn through the cap in just a few days if you’re streaming HD video — which, in 2013, is commonplace. And most people’s data plans have far less than 5 GB/month today. (At least they’re cheaper.)

I was hoping Mountain Lion would add some APIs suggesting cellular data considerations, but it didn’t happen. Maybe 10.9 will.

This is really just one example of why OS X needs to become more connection-type-aware. I create a lot of video data in ScreenFlow. Every ounce of data on my computer either flows through Dropbox or Backblaze. With increasingly regularity, I'll head off to the coffee shop not thinking about the fact that, say, Backblaze, is in the middle of a 500 MB upload—or the possibility that someone I'm collaborating with just put 1 GB of video data in a shared Dropbox folder.

"In the old days" when I tethered to a 3G connection, it didn't matter as much. 3G's slowness—not to mention its unlimitedness—prevented me from eating my monthly data allowance in the time it takes to enjoy a cup of cappuccino. My Verizon LTE upload speeds are routinely faster than my home Wi-Fi upload speeds. The damage is usually done before I even think to manually pause syncing.

Not only would I like to see LTE antennas soon included in MacBooks, I'd like to see either Apple or third party developers begin to address this problem by allowing me to prohibit services like Dropbox and Backblaze from running unless I'm on specific networks.