iPhone airplane mode to avoid roaming charges
 

Hi all
I have decided to use my iPhone like an iPod when I travel to NYC in a weeks time. I plan to make no phone calls or send texts. I would only check and receive emails or use Skype if I have wifi access. But I have a few questions though:

If I put my phone in airplane mode and I have international roaming OFF does this also ensure that cellular data is OFF - or do I need to manually do this? I just want to be sure that I won't be getting any nasty surprises.

I know I can turn wifi ON when in Airplane mode so then I will be able to access free wifi networks when I'm in the city and, if I'm lucky on the plane (though I'm flying United so highly doubt it :p).

I guess I'm a bit confused about the difference between cellular data and roaming data - do both switch OFF when Airplane mode is ON?

So with that in mind; in Airplane mode with wifi ON will my iPhone be able to pick up the change in timezone? When I arrive in NY I would like the phone to tell me the correct time and date (I am travelling from Australia)

Does Airplane mode interfere with GPS? - say for example if I wanted to use a map app like NewYork2go.

Also, can I use iMessage via wifi?

thanks heaps for your advice!

iPhone airplane mode to avoid roaming charges
 

Turning your phone to airplane mode will shut off all external communication but as you said you can turn on wifi when necessary. If you manually turn off data roaming, you should not be able to access data networks that are not your home carrier in Australia. thus you should not get any data charges. I did this when traveling in SE Asia and got no charges.

For time zone, you probably have to manually change this, and then change it back when you return to Australia.

My understanding and experience is that the GPS will still work, but won't be very accurate as a lot of that functionality is based on cell tower triangulation. This will be especially true in NYC where the tall buildings will interfere with the GPS signal that gets to the already weak iPhone internal GPS antenna. You could turn off data roaming and leave the phone service active, and this should help as long as the map data is preloaded on the phone.

iMessage will work over wifi.

Location should be quite accurate as long as you have WiFi on (even if not connected to a network), as the iPhone uses wifi to triangulate position in addition to GPS. You don't need to be on a cellular network for location services.

Turning data roaming off will avoid any international roaming charges, though calls and texts may still be able to come through. If you really want to be sure you can just pop out the SIM and it will work just like a wifi-only ipod touch.

Thanks for that.

Airplane mode it is!

Wifi can serve as a substitute for cellular signals in determining location. Most mobile devices, Apple included, can determine where you are based on the wifi networks that your phone sees (although your phone wouldn't need to be connected to those networks). This doesn't work everywhere in the world, but it shouldn't be an issue in New York. Once your location is estimated via wifi, GPS can pin down something more accurate.

Back before I bought the $100 T-Mobile sim, which is valid for 365 days, I just turned off data roaming and was never charged for data (Vodafone Australia) I could still connect to local carrier to make/receive calls, but no data.

I would seriously look into getting a local sim if you would like to use data. $3 per day with T-Mobile works great for me. Travelgear in AU sells them in advance. Plus yor time zone will auto update, there are cheaper 30 day expire plans.

Then again, New York Manhatten Island is not that big, I use Transit Maps for most city's, Exit Strategy (not free) is great for the Subway as 1 exit might be a block or two away from where you need to be.

If your are visiting the Statue, you can get T-Mobile reception around the front of her for posting photo's, Empire State Building, nada from the top.

I've seen the comment before, but when I traveled to Europe with an iPhone 4, airplane mode would not let wifi turn on. I just had to turn cellular data off. How are people getting wifi to turn on while in Airplane Mode?

Airplane mode does not allow wifi

Wirelessly posted (most likely from a Qantas Pub: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 9.0; Windows Phone OS 7.5; Trident/5.0; IEMobile/9.0; NOKIA; Lumia 800; vodafone))

Flight mode on the Nokia Lumia 800 allows you to separately turn on WiFi and BT. :)
One of the reasons I dizzed the IP 4.

wifi mode works fine when the iphone is in airplane mode. Turn on airplane mode, wifi will be off, turn it on.


http://distilleryimage1.instagram.co...38140d8c_7.jpg


-David

Wifi and Airplane Mode might be something that only works in newer iOS versions - 4 or 5.

Turn on airplane mode, it will turn WiFi off by default, then you have to turn WiFi back on. That's it!

GPS will work in clear sky but A-GPS (assisted GPS using 3g/internet) will be disable. Your pictures also won't have geolocation tags in airplane mode. One option is to just disable international data roaming then disable cellular data: Settings > General > Network. Airplane mode is a killswitch for everything if you want to be super safe though.

Here's what I have done when traveling internationally from the US: Turn off data roaming in settings before leaving (e.g., after boarding plane). Turn on airplane mode. Upon arrival turn off airplane mode briefly, allowing phone to register with network--that sets the phone to the local time. Then turn airplane mode back on, and turn on wifi for use as desired. You can skip turning off airplane mode upon arrival if you don't care about resetting the clock to the local time.

Thanks for the replies. Drewguy, thanks I will try that trick.

+1 for the airplane Mode and wifi ON - it works fine!

Maybe this should be a new post question but I'll try and ask here. Does anyone know how iMessage works? I can't seem to work it out. Can I send iMessages to friends and family at home without incurring a fee? Obviously they need to have an iPhone with iOS 5 installed.

I've been reading up about it and it seems the more I read the more I become confused (use email address, turn OFF SMS etc...)