To iphone or not to iphone

Let's talk tech. With the news of our rapidly approaching travel date, It's up to me to handle all of the tech stuff for the trip. Going to a foreign country other than Canada or Mexico has it's issues. First of all there's the power difference. I ordered two voltage converters - including the prong adapters to change a U.S. plug to a European plug. I also ordered a surge protector for the notebook computer. Most notebooks are dual voltage so a converter isn't necessary - just a prong adapter. I bought a surge protector just in case. Of course the power supply for our notebook has decided to go bad so I had to order a new one. Have you ever tried to order a power supply for a notebook? Don't even bother with Best Buy. They're pretty much like the zit faced kids on The Simpsons that are always working at the fast food places. They have no clue. I also ordered an external battery for the iphone/ipod. There's no way either one will last on those long flights.

Which leads me to my big issue of the day - the iphone. Should I take it or leave it here? Here's the deal: Making calls on at&t international package is a "fair" $3.99 to $4.99 a minute. Data is even more of rip off(.50 a text message for example). I've been reading stories today of unknowing souls racking up $1000,$2000 and even $3000 phone bills. Unless you turn off many of the iphone's data features it will constantly try to access the internet. And doing that overseas even with "a data plan" is still painful. So I guess I'll have to shut off all 3g network access and turn my iphone into an ipod touch(not a bad option actually). Greed. It's pure greed. Fair use is one thing. I don't think I would mind paying a reasonable amount to access a foreign network. But let's face it, it's just digital bits. Why is it so much more expensive over there? And for that matter, why is it so expensive over here too? Shame on you at&t.

I looked into "unlocking" my iphone which would let me use a local Russian phone carrier. Hmmm? Maybe next trip. I'm not sure I want to do that just yet. The cheapest way would be to find a used unlocked world band phone then buy the sim card in Russia. Again maybe next trip. I'm looking into that now. And there's always cell phone rentals both here and in Russia. I think for our first trip we're going to use skype(take that at&t!), a prepaid calling card and our other phone(emergencies only - the rates I wrote about earlier apply). The iphone will stay behind. In it's place, the industry workhorse ipod 5g will be going for our in flight music listening and movie viewing.

I also ordered some new SD cards for the cameras. SD cards do have a limited number of read/write cycles and I don't want to be caught if one decides to fail.

So I think I have the tech area covered - I hope. It still seems like there's so much left to do. It kind of goes in waves - sometimes I feel comfortable and ready to go and other times I worry about making sure we've thought of everything. The good news is that if we did forget something there's always a second trip.