International Cell Phone Update

I have an iPhone and went to the Apple store to ask about international service. Don’t waste your time going there. They know a lot, but this falls under your local service provider.

So, next I went to the AT&T store and they were very helpful. Most important…they said they do not cover service on a cruise ship or close to the ship! Cruise ships have their own satellites (or whatever they use!) and it costs a lot more.

AT&T charges $5.99 for the World Traveler Plan plus phoning in Greece is an extra $1.29 per minute. The big expense of using smart phones overseas is the data roaming charges. Be sure to turn off data roaming to avoid these unexpected charges.

AT&T users can pay $25 per phone for up to 20MB of data. Data roaming is anything that can be updated on your phone, such as texting, email, internet service, apps that update i.e. weather, time, money exchange rates, GPS, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Any app that you already have downloaded that has static/stored information to access (camera, language translator, etc.) will not use data roaming. Neither will your iPod or downloaded podcasts on your iPhone.

To see just how much 20MB is for your phone, (if you have AT&T service) go to www.wireless.att.com/global and click the Data Calculator.

The rule: Check with YOUR phone service provider to find exactly what they offer for your phone.

Tip for using iPod on your iPhone: Turn on the airplane mode in Settings. You will not need to purchase any special international plan to use your iPod only.

Tips for making an iPhone battery last longer:
1. Lower screen brightness (Settings>Brightness).
2. Push email: Turn off the Push feature and set it to Manually instead (Settings>Mail, Contacts, Calendars>Fetch New Data). The iPhone checks for email only when you actually open the email app.
3. GPS checks: In Settings>General>Location Services, you’ll see a list of all the apps on your phone that are using your phone’s location feature to know where you are. You can probably turn most of them off and save battery. And that is all data roaming too.
4. Notifications: Similarly in Settings>Notifications, you see a list of apps that are allowed to display pop-up notifications (those blue text bubbles that look like text messages). Turn off the ones you don’t need.
5. Background apps: Quit all apps that are still open and not being used. Double-press the Home button to open the multitasking app switcher. Hold your finger down on any icon until they all start wiggling. Tap the little X close boxes to manually quit open apps.