I’ve just got back from a much-needed vacation. Prior to leaving,  I had heard the horror stories about iPhone users getting massive bills after accidentally leaving data roaming on while traveling overseas, so I phoned AT&T Customer Support. After all, the cruise we were taking had ports of call mainly in Canada. According to Customer Support, I could make or receive calls on the cruise ship itself, but that would cost me $2.49 per minute. Even if I received a call and didn’t answer it, I would still get charged. The same applied for Visual Voicemail. Onshore in Canada, it would cost less to make a call : 79c a minute, but data roaming was still expensive.

I took my iPhone with me anyway, as it is a cellphone after all. In the packing space allotted for my gadgets I also took a few handheld gaming consoles, including a Sony PSP (an underrated device, according to PC World) and a Nintendo DS. Of course I took my main handheld computer, an aging Palm Tungsten C, as well as its designated replacement.

I really missed having the full functionality of the iPhone. Since most of the cruise was spent out of the US, I didn’t turn it on often, and when I did, data roaming was off, and it was in “flight mode”. Wi-Fi was available in the public lounges of the cruise ship, but that was not cheap either.

The first thing I did after getting back from vacation was to turn on the iPhone with all data services activated.