iPhone GPS while travelling - yet another thread

[stofferdk]

Dear macrumors

I am going for a trip through Europe, and I need the GPS on my phone for the lonely planet Apps. We got a standalone unit also though.

Now -

1) How do I get the GPS to work in airplane mode? I tried a trick mentioned on the forums: turning wifi on while in airplane mode. No luck though. The GPS always says it can't get a lock

2) The time it takes for my phone to find out it can't get a lock. Is thar hos long it will take when I get it to work? I mean assisted its instant - but this is just unbearable.


Any thoughts?

 

[edindtn]

I will be taking an iPhone to Europe soon as well. It seems to me that you can leave cellular service ON so that the iPhone can know which towers it is near, and triangulation will be available to the location algorithm on the iPhone.

If you do not turn on data roaming you can't use internet or check e-mail of course, but you also won't incur any data charges. As long as you don't make any cell phone calls, you can't be charged for that either. So I don't see why you need to switch to airplane mode. Am I wrong?

 

[stofferdk]

Then I have to delete my APN settings though,.. bit of a mess that you can't simply turn data off, like you can turn 3G off

 

[shotts56]

Yes you can. Just turn off Data Roaming. Or am I missing something ?

 

[nehunte]

You really don't want to have the phone's radio turned on if you can help it. If somebody were to call you while you're over there, it'll suck. Even if you don't answer, you'll get charged for the voicemail time. So if you never answer your phone, and you get charged for every voicemail that is left on your phone, you won't be a happy camper. International rates are insane if you don't have some sort of international plan.

 

[edindtn]

You really don't want to have the phone's radio turned on if you can help it. If somebody were to call you while you're over there, it'll suck. Even if you don't answer, you'll get charged for the voicemail time. So if you never answer your phone, and you get charged for every voicemail that is left on your phone, you won't be a happy camper. International rates are insane if you don't have some sort of international plan.

That may be true but if you don't listen to the voicemail until you land at JFK, then you won't be charged the international rate, right? (But who can resist finding out why someone is calling you?)