Ipod Touch or Netbook?

[wanderlust402]

Has anyone ever rented an iphone? I found a site called iphonetrip that offers an iPhone rental with unlimited internet for $119 a week or a rental of an iPhone SIM card for $79 a week for use on cruise ships. Instead of using WIFI and connecting through the ship's internet, it goes over the cell phone data service. It isn't a great option for using as a phone as it would be $4.23 a minute, but with unlimited data I could see it being useful.

 

Anyone have any experience or thoughts on this one?

[kitty9]

Be very very careful with this whole unlimited data thing. One of the main complaints of the first edition of the iPhone was the huge charges using download time. I took my first iPhone on a cruise, and used it to access email, and came home to a huge bill. Others on this site have said they made the mistake of using the iPhone for accessing emails and came home to bills of over $2000. That's why every iPhone owner now knows to turn off Data Roaming, which the first iPhones did not have, in order to not get the huge bills. The problem is, you might have unlimited data, but that might be only for when you're not traveling. Remember, you're still connecting through the ship's satellites and there are charges for that.

 

Personally, I think renting an iPhone or using the ship's computers is a wash, cost wise. You're going to be paying someone, either the ship for computer use or the phone company for the rental and using the ship's satellites. The rental company can tell you that your usage is via the data service, but you're going to have to connect through the ship's satellites, and that's where the extra costs will come in.

 

As for using it as a phone, the company is ripping you off, big time. My iPhone charges for cruises in the Caribbean are about $2.49 a minute, so this company is really going to hit you with unnecessarily big per minute fees.

[abaci]

My second question was because with the iPod, you have to connect it to your computer, and I was wondering if it was the same process. So, if I have a number of movies from iTunes already on my Apple computer, I was wondering if I connected the iTouch to the desktop, would the movies transfer to the Touch. I don't have the 3G version of iTouch, just the regular one, with the wifi. So I'm guessing I could just to to iTunes via wifi and download movies just like I did with the apps.

 

 

Yup same process. Any movie in your ituns can be transfered like other iPod.

 

I think where you are getting confused is that the new iPod is 3rd Gen. (what some people refer to as the 3G) and not 3G as in the 3G network for phones. The lates iPod touch only uses wifi. You can not get a data plan like the iPhone. I have the "3rd gen" and one of my bros. has the 2nd gen. They both connect to the internet the same way and that is via wifi. The whole "3G" label w/ the latest iPod touch is confusing people as cell phones use a "3G" network. The correct term for the latest iPod touch is 3rd gen (generation) not what people incorrectly call 3G. Their is alot of new features on the 3rd gen iPod touch including 50% faster, but I won't get into that unless you want to know.

 

However the new Apple iPad (which someone told me is actually out now?) apperently will/does have built in wifi and a 3G card. Not sure what the data package cost will be if you want to use the 3G network. This will be the first iPod (except of course the iPhone) that uses a 3G network.

 

Hope that clears up your questions, but if not please ask.

[hmg]

We bought a netbook specifically for travel and have used it many times in many locations. For some reason it would not work on Equinox. Every time I tried to log on it sent me right back to the sign on page. The person working in the internet cafe could not figure it out. Connecting with a cord also didn't work. I tried it several times during our trip. When we left the ship and tried it out in the airport lounge and it was fine. Anyone with ideas? We'll be travelling again and I'd really like the convenience of having the netbook.