Data Roaming Off is Great Feature

A big thanks to Apple for turning my iphone into a useful business tool with the 1.1.1 upgrade.

It's great to know that today (I'm writing this from Shenzhen China) my iphone is more than just "The world's best ipod". Being able to turn off EDGE allows me to control those insane data roaming charges, but I appreciate that if I really need to use the service I can turn EDGE on, get what I need, and then turn it back off. One thing I did notice is that even with EDGE turned off the phone still shows the capital E next to the carrier logo at the top of the home page. I suppose this is just showing that EDGE is available if you want it. Of course I'll be happier when AT&T and Apple work out a blackberry style "unlimited" intl data plan, but I'm sure they're working on it.

I for one am extremly happy with Apple and AT&T in the way they have handled this issue, and I plan to give them my business well past my two year contract. They've earned it.

 

Yea, I know what you mean about saying that I actually like my iphone. I guess for me the third party apps just didn't give me anything I couldn't live without (although I do miss all those electronic ants that crawled around on the screen).

I'm not sure if this is just something that happens when you're roaming overseas, but when you have EDGE turned off on the iphone and you go to weather or email the phone will give you a message that says something like "overseas data charges can be very expensive, do you really want to activate EDGE?" I thought this was a nice touch. Also I have confirmed that if EDGE is not available then you don't get this message (and the capital E at the top of the home screen is not displayed) and the phone will say "update failed" or "error retrieving data".

It's fun to sit in a Starbucks over here and surf the web (with wifi). The Chinese go nuts when they see an iphone.

As for having an unlocked iphone it's really not that big a deal to me. I have an inexpensive Sony Ericsson GSM phone that I drop a prepaid China Mobile sim card in and "presto" I have a local phone number.