Don't take your iPhone overseas....

[Ping898]

....even if you keep it turned off....

http://theinquirer.net/?article=42235

A HUMAN called Jay Levy says he has been stung by Apple's iPhone pact with AT&T after he took an Iphone on a Mediterranean cruise.

They didn't use their phones, but when they got back they had a 54-page monthly bill of nearly $4,800 from AT&T Wireless. The problem was that their three Iphones were racking up a bill for data charges using foreign phone charges. The Iphone regularly updates e-mail, even while it's off, so that all the messages will be available when the user turns it on.
......


Normally it does not cost US users for domestic data transfers, but the Iphone's international plan in 29 countries, mostly in Europe, costs $24.99 for 20 megabytes. Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris points out in its terms and conditions that it will cost an arm an a leg to use an Iphone out of the US even if no services are intentionally used.

Nice to know they take care of you....this is why if you want to make sure your electronics are relly off, remove the battery....

 

[Twombles_62]

Glad that they made sure we knew that this guy was a HUMAN.

 

[Kacey]

Nice to know they take care of you....this is why if you want to make sure your electronics are relly off, remove the battery....

But... you can't take the battery out of an iPhone yourself... so I guess you should just leave it at home!

 

[mini_dez]

That sucks. iPhone is advertised as a music player as well as a phone. People want to take their music with them, why should they be forced to leave it at home in case you get charged for stuff you don't even want. And that's without mentioning the fact that it does it while switched off.

"Buy an iPhone and use it to listen to your music. Just, y'know, not in another country because we might have to repossess your house..."

 

[Dave Leverich]

The latest in terrorism:
People taking your iPhone and maiing it to China...

 

[TimoS]

Hmm, this I found confusing

The Iphone regularly updates e-mail, even while it's off

How does it do that if it is off?

 

[mini_dez]

Things are sort of never off. They need to have a tiny bit of power to keep the time correct and remember some important starting up information. It's why your computer probably has a seperate CMOS battery on the motherboard, to keep these settings when it's "off". I guess apple took it a bit further than that.
Either that or it's magic, I'm no expert

 

[TimoS]

Things are sort of never off. They need to have a tiny bit of power to keep the time correct and remember some important starting up information

True, but still the radio part should be switched off. My experience is from GSM and related networks and in there at least when the mobile is switched off, it is detached from the network, i.e. it can't be reached until you put it back on (and also it doesn't communicate with the network). Maybe the iPhone works differently and it doesn't power off totally. Either that or the article is mistaken

 

[mini_dez]

No arguement there, it should be switched off. A phone should not be contacting the network when it's switched off. In fact, it sort of flies in the face of all these "please turn off your phone" signs in hospitals and in planes where the wireless interference is meant to cause problems. The more I think about it the more I think the article is mistaken. Saying that, running up a huge bill on data charges without telling the user even when it's on is bad enough.

 

[rutherford]

This will probably be on Snopes soon.

The iPhone has a stand-by mode. There is an option to automatically connect to your email during stand-by mode. It's OFF by default.

You can also turn the phone completely off, by holding down the power button for a few seconds, just like every other mobile phone on the market.

These folks didn't turn off their phone, and they specifically enabled the option which resulted in their bill.

 

[TimoS]

These folks didn't turn off their phone, and they specifically enabled the option which resulted in their bill.

So in other words, their own stupidity resulted in the charges and iin their opinion it's the fault of AT&T and Apple? Guess it's easier than looking in the mirror

 

[Kreth]

The fact that they went with an iPhone doesn't exactly paint them as brilliant.

 

[Dave Leverich]

Naw, iPhones are gorgious. And they just dropped by $200, give them a year or so and we'll be seeing them all over. Assuming they get smart and allow all carriers that is ;p.

 

[Carol]

There's no way that amount of data was just e-mail.

From what I understand, the iPhone does not allow its users to download attachments from e-mail. If the data rate quoted applied to everywhere this fellow went, the fellow and his three iPhones downloaded more than 3.5 gigabytes worth of data!

Those three phones would have to have literally received about 150,000 - 250,000 simple mail messages during that cruise in order to account for that much bandwidth.

iPhone users typically like to download music, which is why they buy the iPhone to begin with, so they can listen to their collection. There are filesharing applications for the iPhone, however, that allow iPhone users to share and download files, such as music. I can understand three iPhones using up 3.5 gigabytes by swappin' tunes the whole way through the cruise.

Downloading tunes? Yup. I believe it. Surfing the web or otherwise using the data services? Yup, I believe it.

Just downloading simple e-mail? That doesn't add up to the data given.

 

[Dave Leverich]

3.5 gigs too, that'd be a good what... 8000 songs? Unless they sat in the room the entire time and didn't sleep, I don't see it being that either. Unless it counted them transfering songs back and forth but still, holy cow, seems impossible.
Maybe it was a minimum charge for each 'blip' of like 25 megs, 40 email checks would then be like 1 gig, etc etc. No clue though, that's crazy stuff.