iPhone travel tips page

With my upcoming trip to Europe, I need to make sure I don’t come home to a $1,000 cell phone bill. I found the relevant page so you can view the tips I received in the email: http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/international/roaming/iphone-travel-tips.jsp

Additionally, at&t has a travel guide wizard that you can use to see international rates, wireless devices and carriers: http://www.wireless.att.com/travelguide/coverage/roaming/step1.jsp

Screenshot of at&t Travel Guide

Its good to know because the iPhone does not get coverage in Amsterdam at all but in France and Spain it does support voice and data (although upgrading to a Global data plan is highly recommended).

I selected France and spain and at the end of the wizard I the chart had a “Y” (which indicates it is supported) for both voice and data in both France and Spain.

The bottom of the page displayed the following message: “If your device is compatible with the destinations shown above, call 1-800-331-0500 to add international roaming”

You can click the “Details” link on the far right to get specific information about the country what services they support and some have an actual coverage map you can view.

One more thing when you go to to the details page there is some type of warning (that is incomplete) that states: “You may not be able to place calls to international destinations other than United States while roaming in this . Calls can be completed within the visited destination and back to the United States.”

So it sounds like when traveling internationally you can only make calls to the US and the area you are in (coverage area). So you may want to avoid trying to call any other countries while you are traveling internationally.

Hopefully this helps anyone getting ready to travel internationally with their iPhone.

Summary:

• it helps with the accuracy of the battery level on iPhone 3GS
• helps fix issue with 3rd party apps not opening

Official updates are as follows:

iPhone OS 3.1.3 Software Update

This update for iPhone and iPod touch contains bug fixes and improvements, including the following:

• Improves accuracy of reported battery level on
iPhone 3GS
• Resolves issue where third-party apps would not
launch in some instances
• Fixes bug that may cause an app to crash when
using the Japanese Kana keyboard

Products compatible with this software update:
• iPhone (all models)
• iPod touch (all models)

For feature descriptions and complete instructions, see the user guides for iPhone and iPod touch at:
<http://support.apple.com/manuals/iphone>
<http://support.apple.com/manuals/ipodtouch>

For more information about iPhone and iPod touch, go to:
<http://www.apple.com/iphone>
<http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch>

To troubleshoot your iPhone or iPod touch, or to view additional support information go to:
<http://www.apple.com/support/iphone>
<http://www.apple.com/support/ipodtouch>

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website:
<http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222>

Hopefully the case and invisible shield will come before or on the same day as my new iPhone 3GS because I am not going to use the phone until I have some protection on it. (My last phone cracked because I dropped it like 2 feet).

Looking forward to the “enhanced speeds” and video capability. We shall see how much better it is compared to my previous 3G phone. It sucks I had to upgrade now because I know a new iPhone is coming out soon, but I can’t wait that long without a phone.

When I eventually connected it to itunes, I received error code 28 which after reading many blog posts and information on the apple site is pretty much a code that lets you know you need to buy a new iPhone.

Since my iPhone is cracked I have been planning on upgrading anyway to the new 3GS, but I didn’t want to get into a new 2 year agreement with AT&T.

After just 2 days I am realizing how much I use my iPhone and how important it is to have it. I now wonder how I survived before with standard phones.

The new update claims to have fixed many issues and hopefully will return my iPhone back to its normal working status. Although my phone is still cracked, it still functions normally for the most part and I was told if I hold out until December there may be options for me to upgrade to the new iPhone 3Gs which would be sweet. Friends of mine have told me that the new iPhone 3GS is a lot quicker doing just about everything (from booting up, to opening apps, etc.)

Looking forward to eventually making the upgrade, but for now hopefully this software update will resolve the issues I was having. BTW – I am running the update now, and its taking several minutes, so don’t do it if you are in a rush.

I also got a notification in iTunes that there was an update to the carrier settings on my iPhone, I updated that as well (it only took a few seconds).

According to Apple’s support website: “Receiving a maliciously crafted SMS message may lead to an unexpected service interruption or arbitrary code execution”

The update fixes those issues. I just updated my iPhone you may want to do the same ASAP.

Another thing that was cool that during my 12 hour trip I could hear songs on the radio that I want or would remind me of other songs I would like to hear and as long as I got a cell phone signal I could download those songs on the fly right to my iPhone then play it through my car stereo. Pretty sweet stuff.

On the way down I was all hopped-up on the chilled Starbucks frappachinos (they come in the small weird shaped bottle) I had about 5 of those to keep me going. On the way back we stopped a bunch of times which helped and I had some cold coke’s in the cooler to keep the caffeine in my system to keep me focused.

I love golf but I think I played so much last week at Myrtle Beach that my back was extremely sore because after the ride it felt a little tweaked. Luckily I have 2 appointments set up this week at my chiropractor to get everything back in line.

Overall a great trip, and the drive isn’t that bad as long as you are prepared for it (the first year is rough)

AppleCare Protection Plan Sucks

After stopping in my local AT&T store I find out that the AppleCare Protection plan only covers software failures. So basically I paid this extra money for nothing. I guess its my fault for not reading the small print, but among the chaos of getting the iPhone 3G last year, I was just happy to get one.

AT&T iPhone Scam

So apparently, if you currently are an AT&T customer and you wish to upgrade to the new phone, you must wait until you can get upgrade pricing (in my case: until 12/19/09), and you must extend your contract for another 2 years. In my case I just want to buy a new phone, and I will suck it up and buy the phone at cost so I don’t have to extend my contract right… NO! Even if I want to buy a new I phone to replace my current one I cannot do so online. According to an Apple Rep, I need to actually go to an Apple Store or an AT&T store.

Now I understand AT&T’s motivation behind this, with rumors of a Verizon iPhone lurking on the horizon (Summer 2010), they are trying to lock as many customers in for as long of term as possible. But for Apple? Wow, that must have been quite an agreement you signed with AT&T. I just want to buy some hardware that you produce, lets see if the Apple guy was right when I visit the store on Sunday.

Poor AT&T

Maybe AT&T should have invested some money in… well how about its network for starters? I was a previous Verizon customer who never had problems. Now with AT&T I get dropped calls, echoing (hearing what I say being repeated while talking to someone else) and web surfing issues.

Don’t even let me get started on the whole MMS issue. All I am going to say is if I get another message telling me to go view a multimedia message by following some URL and entering some MSG ID that looks like some 9 digit hex looking randomly generated key along with a 10 digit password just to view one picture/video I am going to throw my phone through the closest AT&T store’s window.

Ok in all fairness, I will be fine with buying a new iPhone on Sunday (or whenever they are available in store) as long as I don’t have to extend my contract. We shall see…

GolfCard App GPS:

But what is really cool is what one of my coworkers showed me this morning. If you tap on the number of the hole (on the score card) it brings up a new menu where you can mark where you drive from and then mark again where you ball landed and it will give you distances to the flag and more. NOTE: there have been some reports that the GPS can be off by up to 40 yards (haven’t) verified this but figured I should mention it. Additionally you can click on the map and see a birds eye view of the green and the rest of the hole.

GolfCard App Areas To Improve:

The things I wish they would approve: I would like to have the ability to zoom in on the birds eye view using my fingers. Overall the app could be faster, I noticed some times it takes a long time to load can change views.

GolfCard App Overall

I really enjoy this app and I recommend it for any golfer, I can’t wait for more updates. I think $7.99 this app is a steal. Once they get the GPS issues sorted out, it will be incredible.

Note: I will try out the GPS functionality next time I play to see if I can confirm the