Charging the Iphone in Europe

I don't see any reason why you would not be able to charge the phone with a normal converter maybe someone else can chime in. You can also use a regular USB cable and charge from your laptop.

When I was there, I bought a charger that takes a USB cable and charged my blackberry and iPod.

cowartj,

First, before taking your iPhone outside of the U.S., I would suggest checking AT&T's web page to determine which international rates will apply. International roaming can be expensive, and is based upon the physical location of the tower you are connected to. In areas near borders of countries, be sure to check the rates for both countries.
http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/international/

The Apple USB Adapter has converters that were designed for it. You pull off the current plug, and replace it with one of the ones from the world traveller kit.
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?productLearnMore=M87 94G/B

Hope this helps,

Nathan C.

What do you mean by 'converter'?? For use in Europe, can you a) just plug it in to an outlet adapter (like I can with my laptop wiith the euro plug adapting to my USA AC) or b) must you buy some kind of heavy transformer 'converter'? AM heading there in two weeks so it would be good to know and the user guide says nothing about it

I took my iPhone to Europe for three weeks. First, I got a the AT&T World Traveler package for an additional $5.99 a line (no need to sign a one-year contract). Then I bought the Apple World Travel Adapter Kit for $39.00, which gave me the plug adapter I wanted with a host of other ones I did not need. Save yourself some money and gp to a travel store or to Radio Shack and buy the plug adapters for the country or countries you will visit. I brought the USB charger and fitted the adapter over the plug and simply plugged it into an outlet.

When you are in Europe, turn off the automatic email checking, do not use the browser, weather, You Tube, stocks or anything that will use bandwith or else you will be charged $.0195 per KB; it adds up quickly. My wife brought her iPhone and did the same. When we needed to communicate we did not use the phone but the SMS. A call costs $.90 a minute on each phone (with the World Traveler option). SMS costs $.50 to send and $.15 to receive per message, so you can usually get away with a $.65 charge unless there is need for more conversation. I think we totalled about $30 per phone plus the $11.98 for the World Traveler on each. When the additional taxes and fees applied and a few accidental activations of bandwith features ( e.g. I showed the phone to a friend and he hit the stocks button) and I think we got away with about $90 of extra charges.

You don't need a converter.... It's good from 100v-240v. All you need is a cheap prong adapter for the country you are in or if you are staying in hotels, the bathrooms usually have a flat blade plug in like in the States. I think all the Apple products have multi voltage, I have iPods, computers, and the iPhone and use them all over with just an adaptor for the prongs.

As Nathan C also indicated above in his post - all you need is the plug adapter for the country you are visiting.

Unfortunately in certain areas of the world countries next to each other will have different adaptor requirements.

When I did a lot of traveling internationally, I bought a very inexpensive International plug adapter kit which covered, I believe, every country in the world. Before a trip, I would check on each country that I would be visiting and take along one or more adapters, depending upon the situation.

mikeab 🙂

mikeab,

One advantage to the plug adapter linked above is it works with for the power adapter for the Apple USB Adapter for iPhone and iPod, MacBook, MacBook Pro, PowerBook, iBook G4, etc.

Thank you,

Nathan C.

I recently traveled to Ireland and was able to charge my iPhone in the rental car using a standard US car adaptor, however it fit rather loosely, so I had to keep checking to be sure the charger was making a connection to the car's power outlet. It seemed as though the outlet was not deep enough to firmly accept the US adaptor, but it still worked.

I also had no problem charging in the hotels and B&Bs I stayed in using a power adaptor for the wall outlet. I used one by Kensington which includes retractable prongs for different types of outlets worldwide, as well as an interchangable USB adaptor so the use of Apple's power brick was unnecessary.

Regarding International rates and service plans, I also signed up for AT&T's World Traveler plan for $5.99 for the month, and cancelled the option when I returned home. Calls will be billed at $0.99 per minute. SMS messages will cost $0.50 each, as someone else mentioned, however AT&T has a $9.99/month international SMS text option which includes 100 text messages, then bills at $0.20 per text when you exceed 100 messages. AT&T failed to tell me about this option when I inquired about international packages before leaving on my trip, so I ended up with the $0.50/text deal. I spoke to an AT&T rep about other questions after returning, and that's when I discovered this text package. I was told that on my next bill I'd see the text package added and my SMS messages prorated for that period. I was pleased that they did that.

I have to say, AT&T's reps are woefully underinformed about international rates and plans for the iPhone. It's probably due to the newness of the phone, but it's been very frustrating speaking to several different reps and getting different answers from each of them. One of the them told me the Edge network would not be available in Ireland unless I signed up for a one-year agreement with a $25/month international data plan, which I declined. But I discovered that the network did in fact work for me, albeit with the $0.02 per kB fee. The jury is actually still out on that fee, because the last rep I spoke to said I wouldn't be charged for any data use because the iPhone comes with an unlimited data package, regardless of whether I'm in the States or overseas, or whether my account details show the usage as part of the unlimited data or the pay-per-use data. We'll see. Just be sure you've checked with them about all the possible fees and plans associated with all the different features of the iPhone, because AT&T keeps them separate, i.e. phone calls, SMS messages, and internet data. With that said, I found my iPhone indispensible on my trip and was really glad I'd gotten it.

Of course now I've got another issue in that iPhoto won't recognize the phone anymore, so I'm stuck with over 900 photos that I don't know what to do with! Sorry if this got off topic, but any suggestions would be great...

Dan

Dan -

With all due respect for your beautiful writeup, this thread was discussing the electrical outlets and the use of international plugs.

It was not intended for the writeup that you provided.

mikeab 🙂

The other alternative, if you have access to someone's PC in Europe, is to just take your USB cable with you and plug it into a PC there. You won't be syncing, but charging should work.

-Peter