I have an iPhone 4 and keep it updated with the latest OS and all that.
We might be taking a trip, river boat cruise actually, next Spring or early Summer.
Will my GPS location and mapping service work in Europe? Don’t really care about making phone calls as such, so I guess I’m asking about the data service. It would be nice to be able to follow our location on the mapping application.
I do know that the street maps of the countries appear on the phone, but are they loaded, or coming over the data service? The latter I think.
Will I be compatible with any WiFi spots to send and receive email?
It will be compatible with WiFi, but check rates with your carrier before you get a bill for both kidneys, one eyeball, half of your spouse’s liver and your firstborn’s sexy bits.
Can you use the GPS now to look at streets on those specific countries? If so, then it’s loaded and you’ll be able to do the same in Europe.
I’m from Europe and was in the US and Canada this summer. One of my friends had an android phone which he only used for wifi (when available) because using data through his sim card would cost him an arm and a leg. Within Holland he pays a fixed price for all the data he wants, but as soon as he leaves the country it becomes very expensive. You should also make sure all the automatic updating/mail checking is switched off…
You can buy a data plan for Europe. We did this last Fall. I don’t remember the cost but it was arranged something like X dollars for Y MB of data per month. We signed up for one month. I think you can get it prorated for a shorter trip (ours was about a week). Call AT&T and find out. My husband used it for work email.
If you are using the standard “Maps” app for your street searching, you are fetching data (and a fair quantity at that) over the internet: either wifi or 3g. If you have purchased a map app and set (like garmin, etc., then the data is on the iPhone. So unless you are positive, I wouldn’t depend on the iPhone for maps.
WiFi hotspots are not as common as a U.S. big city, but there are lots of internet cafes, or computer-use companies. Now, I have had a problem with getting my own computers/iPhone onto their networks. It is usually much more efficient to just use their computers, then going through the rigamarole of an iPhone.
AT&T does have international plans but they are primarily for texting. Other than that it is still expensive for what you can do.
Now, the up side. Many cities have maps or other apps in the App Store that are essentially a tourist map (which often will work with the GPS to give you your location) and often a public transportation map and these are really great.
The short of it- don’t depend on the iPhone for anything important and it will cost you if you do.
My honest advice is to leave the phone at home. You can get a data package, and they will prorate it after the fact, but even with the package it’s going to be expensive and you will need to be very careful about the phone using data when you don’t want it to. I don’t personally think it’s worth the phone bill for the limited use you are going to get out of the phone.
If we do go, we’ll be on a river cruise ship, so don’t really need it for navigation. I just thought it would be neat to follow along on the iPhone map application. I particularly like the photo overlay feature.
Not sure about the iPhone but my Android phone allows me to turn off the data access so that I won’t run up a huge bill when outside the US. That way it’s just a normal cell phone. I would be surprised if the iPhone does not offer that option.
I believe it does have that ability. It also has an airplane mode that disables cell and data transmissions with one setting. I guess that would work too.