Annie wrote:
do you think ir better I get iphone?? Someone else told me when travelling she takes regular phone and get local chip and also takes ipod MINI which is light and can get net connection with that. I dont really need that at home.
IMHO if you are used to using a regular phone and use a laptop for internet connection you could find it more useful to change to an unlocked smartphone with a local prepaid SIM card to do the work of the regular phone and a laptop to keep in contact with your family. The other way to contact the family is to use the Ekit mentioned by Colin, local callback type cards are sold by tobacconists in France for French users and Spanish cards in Spain which is quite economical and easy to use, the easiest is still to use the increasingly plentiful wifi connections to contact the family through the smartphone by Skype, Viber, Tango, and other video chat apps.
If you have not committed to getting an iPhone you may find it better to use the many alternative Android smartphones sold in Australia for the Camino. The reasons are many: the alternative smartphones have unlocked GSM frequencies in use in Spain and France; you do not need a "bolt on" as they work as soon as you slip in a French or Spanish SIM; the cost of these smartphones (not the iPhones) are dropping rapidly and cost no more than a regular mobile; the alternative smartphones have interchangeable batteries which can be charged externally; there is no need to guard the phone whilst the spare battery (or batteries ... I carry four) are charging at leisure; with a bit of practice you can write messages and blogs very quickly using the intelligent predictive typing assistance; you can also do them by speaking and editing afterwards; the smartphones have normal memory cards for storing and transferring saved data such as photos, music, and videos.
The latest smartphones (not the iPhone yet) have 12 to 13 MP and HD video cameras, with the slip in slip out memory cards (they take 32 MB each now) you can take hours of videos and thousands of high quality pictures on one memory card. These pictures and videos can be zipped instantly and freely to family by Whatsapps and other social media apps, or to your data bank or to the cloud or to facebook without looking for a computer. The pictures can be edited in the phone before sending e.g to name a few basic ones: cropping will bring the subject nearer without the need for a zoom lens; dark pictures can be made lighter and vice versa; colour tone and other features can be transformed or enhanced.
Others have written on the multitude of using the smartphones for map reading and GPS, torch, alarm clock, music hearing and recording, to name a few.
There are thousands of other apps which are available for the Android and IOS, the problem is what to leave out. At the end of the day you can keep using the smartphone when you return home however much you love the normal mobile phone. BTW I am a 73 year old with a household full of children and grand-kids using a mix of the latest IOS and Android equipment, I have no preferences when I use them at home so am not biased.
Hope this helps you in phone selection, the advise on which SIM Card to select is very well covered by the other forum experts.
