kimilseung

Did you turn on your GPS? (most people have it turned off because of very high battery drain) You probably want to have your phone connected to power for any navigation longer than local.

archie159

As said, turn on your GPS (normally it is very obvious in the quick settings)! If you are inside, it'll probably struggle to get a signal, but it'll work fine outside or in a car. If your phone is reasonably charged, turning on the GPS for your entire trip should be fine (it does use power, but not masses), but worth turning off when you don't need it. If you make a big change in your location (eg having taken a long haul flight) it might take a few minutes to find your new location, so be a bit patient when you turn it on after landing in the UK. It also helps if you can keep the phone reasonably still while it is first finding satellites - after that, movement will make no difference.

mission

Thanks guys....I'm going through my settings on my iphone...err where is the GPS settings....or do you guys mean switch on 'location services'?

archie159

I'm not an apple expert, but location services will be right. You might then have an option to select what technology it uses to determine location - probably a list of options including GPS, wifi, radio masts etc. It might use the terms "most accurate", "fairly accurate" etc. For using the satnav you need to have the GPS enabled (the most accurate method), but you can disable it if you are not navigating to save battery.

mission

Thanks ARCHIE.... I just found out in iphones when you click the 'location services' that by default enables the GPS.

mission

folks.......so I rang Du and they have the following roaming data packages


weekly - AED 200 and you get 2 GB data
monthly - AED 500 and you get 5 GB data


I am only going to be using my phone for google maps/internet browsing & whatsapp and i'll be in the UK for just under 2 weeks. Do you think the 5 GB data allowance will be more than enough for me?

Millhouse

yes.

I use around 2gb a month roaming (I roam in Dubai). 5gb will be plenty.

When using google maps for GPS, TURN OFF satellite imagery. It's consumes a lot of data and isn't needed. If using just the normal graphic type maps then the data usage is very low. I'd be surprised if you did more than 200mb on the maps.

Using the phone for GPS eats the battery- remember a car charger.

scrubbedexpat141

Yeah, 5gb will be loads. Remember in homes / hotels you can log on to wifi (which is needed because there is no phone or internet signal anywhere in the UK anyway).

Also, if you're concerned. Go to settings, then fourth one down 'Mobile Data'. Click into that.

Then you'll see the fourth block down is mobile data usage. If you scroll for ages to very very bottom of the screen, hit reset. That 'mobile data usage' will go to 0. This is where you can track your usage in the UK so you know if you're going over or not....might be worth checking the data roaming is turned on as well, I think it will need to be.

Finally - all those apps you scrolled past to reset the coutner....well have a skim through them. Any that don't need data or don't really need to be used when out and about, turn the data off. That way they won't update in background etc.

Millhouse

You can also get google to download a map into storage for the route you are travelling before you set off. If you do that on wifi then there is no additional data usage as you go.

mission

thanks MILLY and SCAMP, as always, very much appreciated.

mission

Folks just one quick question.....usually when I go abroad I switch off the 'mobile data option' to Roaming Off, so that the data function is only activated when there is wifi available.

I assume I will need to switch this option to ON to active roaming service package and OFF to 'mobile data' service?

Bahtatboy

I use GiffGaff when I'm back home. First time I used it I set up an account with a mobile phone number (online); now every time I go back I just buy a month's package on the day I leave here, swap sims in the plane and bob's yer uncle (with the same phone number). Although you'd need to get a GiffGaff sim first, which they'll post to anywhere in UK but probably not abroad...

IKnowNothing

Buy a Sim card from the vending machines at heathrow, use that instead, if you're bricking it about not receiving calls (no-one calls me these days, everything is messaged), then get a cheap AED50 Nokia from any number of places here before you fly.

IKnowNothing

Failing all that you could always buy a map?

kimilseung

Or get the free one with yesterday's Daily Mail