Going to Europe with Macbook

Stop by the Apple Store and buy the Apple World Travel Adapter set. A link to the online store is below. Alternately, you could purchase a travel adapter plug set from Walmart or travel shop. Basically, all that is is a set of adapters that convert the European plug to a two prong plug which you can plug the MB adapter into. The MB adapter will take care of the voltage conversion. It's your choice. Hope you have a good trip.

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/6144003/wo/KBFDL iGSRWNy2mjdAgP1HE8xgdJ/17.0.19.1.0.8.25.7.11.1.3

As far as security is concerned you should have the MB out and in a state ready to boot if they ask. The metal detector won't hurt it.

938/3384

Hi AbsolutDCI,

No voltage or frequency problem, the PSU is International 100-240 Volt, so the only adapter you need is the one that fits in the wall plug.

Security:
The metal-detector doesn't damage anything, no problem.
The most problematic in some cases, is that you may find yourself spending like 30 seconds to one minute without seeing your laptop, while you are showing your shoes or something charming like that, you know, like 10 meters away in the crowd...

Bon voyage!
Axl

Nice time to be in France! All you will need is a US to European (two round prong) adapter. If you want you can use an adapter from Apple's World Travel Kit although that's rather expensive especially for the one plug adapter.

As for security, just be prepared to take it out for individual scanning and possibly to turn it on. I normally carry my PowerBook in a sleeve (in sleep mode) which I can just pull out and stick in a tray. The scanners will not damage your MacBook.

Seriously, I hated taking my old iBook out of my bag and dropping it in the bin to be checked. I try not to walk ahead until it goes into the machine, so i put it ahead of my other things. Now with the MacBook I'm going to be even more cautious. :S

Ditto. I ALWAYS wait unit I can go through the metal detector before passing my stuff through for scanning. It's just way too easy these days for someone to fly by and grab something from the table at the other end of the scanner.

Pretty much everyone else has answered the question, but I just wanted to add how well Macs do for a traveler. With my old iBook I traveled all through Afghanistan for nine months without trouble. If there is power, your Mac will work! The iBook was also used in Germany, Uzbekistan, Serbia, and Bulgaria with no problems.

My PowerBook just spend about 11 months in Iraq in various cities with no troubles as well. It has been from Korea, Germany, Ireland, Kuwait, and Qatar. Just be sure to buy the travel adapter kits the other posters brought up!

I was able to connect to just about any network while at these different places. The only problem I had was at the international airport in Korea with the WIFI connection. I think this was just from the version of Safari I was using and not OS X. It is always good to have a backup browser just in case (I have IE and firefox in addition to Safari just to be safe).

PowerBook G4 12 1.33GHz and iBook G3 12 600MHz Mac OS X (10.4.6)

I just got back from the Philippines and I would recommend the Shinza Zero Shock sleeve. I just left the notebook in the sleeve and put it thru the machine. It adds quite a bit of protection in addition to your carry case.

The airport security will usually have you take your laptop out of the sleeve and will run it through the scanner. Sometimes they will use some type of explosive detective on the other side of the scanner. I guess they can make you turn the computer on, but I have not seen this done for a while and I am not sure if it done anymore.

You will not have to worry about and damage coming to the laptop from the scanning and explosive detection. I usually carry mine in a sleeve inside my carryone backpack.