Using a Smartphone Abroad?

[Hacienda71]

Has anyone used their smartphone on the continent? I am off to France for a few days and quite fancied using my HTC Desire for Satnav using google maps and Endomondo for when I am cycling, but I am now getting a bit paranoid about having the data switched on when o2 are qoting £6 per mb. Pretty sure I use a few megs everyday.

 

[smokeysmoo]

I've never used mine due to fear of costs. I always make sure everything possible is turned off like gps and wifi etc just in case it picks up a wifi hotspot and does something crazy.

My mate got hit for around 400 quid for checking his emails and loaded a few internet pages. Apparently everytime you check your emails it loads your entire inbox and not just the latest messages, so this ends up eating into your allowances quite heavily.

I do have to say that I don't know how correct any of this is, but just in case I've always avoided using my iPhone as anything more than a phone and a media player.

 

[rualexander]

Used my Moto Defy in Normandy in June but didn't use the internet on it unless somewhere to connect via wi-fi. So couldn't really use google maps etc.
However you can get mapping that is held on the phone and can use the gps to give your location without connecting to the phone signal. For example you can get the whole of France at 1:100,000 for £40, or half of France for £25 from Viewranger.

 

[Red Light]

Get a Tmobile PAYG SIM card, load it up with £10 and then buy a 50MB Euro broadband booster. Its the cheapest deal short of buying a data SIM locally.

P.S. Check your phone is unlocked and will accept another providers SIM first.

 

[Hacienda71]

Red Light that sounds good I will try that. Thanks guys.

 

[rh100]

Download an app called gvsig and download the open source maps to the sd card,just be selective and the more detail you pick the more data it downloads. Be sure to be on WiFi when downloadingvthe maps before you go. Save a bomb on using maps abroad, a touch more fiddly than Google maps but loads cheaper.

Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using Tapatalk

 

[Manonabike]

Hacienda71, I'm in a similar dilemma.....I'm off to Cherburg in a couple of weeks and I'd like to test my smartphone, HTC Desire. I figured out that I can download the maps of the area I want to visit through my wifi at home and use them with GPS while in France. GPS is free so no problem there..... but make sure you disable your data 3g and 4g if you have it while you are in france......

To pre download the google maps follow this procedure:

Run Google Maps
Press menu
Go to more
Select labs
enable "precache map area"
then

do a map search of the area you wish to download

The Map will be shown with the name..... press the arrowhead

Select precatch Map Area (last one in the list)

That will download around 10 miles around in all directions

if you need more maps just navigate to the area you wish to download and you know what to do next

Save your money and buy yourself a big memory card instead

 

[rh100]

That sounds good, forgot you could cache google maps now. However, I would be cautious about it still trying to use data when using the maps, I guess you could turn off the data connection on the phone as the safest bet whilst using the cached maps. Definitely worth getting a decent size memory card, should be quicker as well using a local cache.