LetsTalk.com Blog

NFL Games: So many ways to follow from your Sprint phone

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:08:42 PDT

Loyal football followers are probably already watching Monday night pre-season games on the big screen. However, Sprint users have the opportunity to be a little bit more connected to the latest NFL updates this season with the company's NFL Mobile Live application. Basically, this application lets users listen to the live radio broadcasts of every NFL game throughout the 2008 regular season. Users can also watch all eight of the Thursday Night Football telecasts carried by NFL Network live beginning on November 6th. Additionally, users can follow their NFL.Fantasy teams and even have their favorite team's latest information and quick links to live broadcasts for that team on game days to appear first on the log-on screen.

What's the best part about this application? It's included as part of Sprint's Everything Plans or part of the $15 a month Data Pack service, so there's no special subscription fee. Interested? Check out nfl.com/mobile or sprint.com/nfl for more information.

Cell phones In action: Palm Centro

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:08:28 PDT

If you're interested in getting a smartphone, but have been intimidated by the idea of one, check out the Palm Centro. It's got all the power of a smartphone with an operating system that's intuitive and easy to use out-of-the-box. To show you what I mean, watch the video below to get a better idea.

Deal of the Week

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:08:22 PDT

This week's deal comes from LetsTalk.com's Merchandising Manager, Michael Cera.

What is it?The BlackBerry Curve 8330 from Sprint is the smallest, lightest QWERTY BlackBerry to date. It features the very popular trackball navigation for easier use. This Curve also support BlackBerry Media Player and Stereo Bluetooth headset capabilities so you can listen to music from your BlackBerry through your home stereo. The 2-megapixel camera has a 5x zoom and flash that will take crisp and clear images. There is also a microSD expansion slot capable of expanding up to 8GB for storage of music, video, games, and many more applications. With the Curve, you can spell check your e-mails, get directions with TeleNav Maps, and even travel in over 125 countries with global voice and data roaming. The ultimate smartphone and technology package are all in one device with the BlackBerry Curve.

How much?The BlackBerry Curve 8330 is available for free after a $100 mail-in rebate from Sprint with a new two-year Sprint Everything or Simply Everything service plan.

Why is it such a good deal? BlackBerry's reputation and the technology embedded in this device are only a fraction of what you get with the Curve.

Verizon Wireless' new service offers a little more control over cell phone usage

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:08:19 PDT

Ever wonder what you can expect to see on you cell phone bill at the end of the month - especially if you're on a family plan? If you have Verizon Wireless, you may not have to wonder any longer. The company's new service, which costs $4.99 a month for each subscriber line allows you to set limits on cell phone usage per line on your account right from the My Verizon web site. Some of the features you can limit are as follows:

Set thresholds for voice minutes
Set specific limits for text, picture, instant and video messaging as part of pay-as-you-go or message bundle plans
Set time of day restrictions for data use and messaging
Create lists of “trusted” and “blocked” numbers (calls to 911 will always be allowed to connect)
Employ content filters

Q&A: Checking for unused Sprint minutes and phone compatibility issues

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 08:08:34 PDT

In this installment of Questions and Answers, we give advice on how to check remaining Sprint minutes from your cell phone and compatibility issues. Got a question you want answered? Submit your question here. Got something to add to the answers below? Leave a comment.

I have a Nextel Motorola ic502 cell phone which is an, but I have nTelos service, how can I use it with my existing service? –Todd

The good news is that the Motorola ic502 will technically work on the nTelos service. However, you’ll need to check directly with nTelos to see if they can program it to work with their service. If it will work with the service, we should note you will not be able to use the Nextel Direct Connect feature.

What number do I dial from my cell phone to check the minutes that I have used on my Sprint cell phone? -Thanks

If you want to check out the amount of minutes you’ve used in your plan for the current monthly billing cycle and find out how many you have left in that cycle, simply dial *4 from the phone application and press send. You’ll get all the information you need.

Leaked Sprint Roadmap through Q2 2009?

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 06:08:24 PDT

This post comes from LetsTalk.com Merchandising Manager Michael Cera.

Another Sprint Roadmap here. This one was found at Boy Genius while searching for more about Sprint’s presence in the news today. Sprint has made some drastic changes in the recent past and it seems like they are going to be doing the same into the near future and through Q1 and Q2 of 2009 with some new and very exciting handsets.

For starters, one of the more exciting devices they will have coming out most likely in Q4 is the BlackBerry 8350i. This is a BlackBerry Direct Connect device that is based off the BlackBerry Curve design. There is an internal antenna, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, Nextel Direct Connect, and a 2MP camera that is optional (they have one with it and one without so you can choose). This will be an awesome cell phone for those looking to keep their direct connect capabilities, but want to step further into the 21st century.

Some of the other cell phone releases mentioned in the Boy Genius blog post consist of the Motorola i950 that will be first, then the Motorola i576 and i776, which are reported to launch in early Q4. There is not much about the i950, but the i576 and i776 will both be built to military specifications and will have Direct Connect, Bluetooth, and GPS capabilities. In early Q1 of 2009, we will see the Motorola Monolith, which is a sure-type device (two alphabet letters per key) that is similar to the Motorola V8, and a Sanyo handset that will be an iDEN/GSM device. Further into 2009, most likely in Q2, there is rumored to be a Samsung slider with music capabilities, the Immersion by Motorola built to military specs, and the Sanyo Pro410. This is going to be a great end to a good year and an excellent beginning to a new one.

Note: We have no confirmation of the dates or products mentioned in the Boy Genius blog post, however, when and if these products become available through LetsTalk.com we’ll be sure to let you know.

How do you want your Olympic news delivered to your cell phone?

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 06:08:17 PDT

The 2008 Olympics will be going on over the next couple weeks, so we decided to ask Bloggers around the Internet for their thoughts on how to best use your cell phone to follow the events. Our final post comes from David Mould. To read more from him, check out his Orient Expression blog.

It's an exciting time for mobile media coverage of the Olympics. For the first time there are a plethora of tools and a real saturation of online access that will allow the closest coverage of an Olympics yet.

It will be interesting to see how the coverage to your phone will be achieved.

Points to consider:

There are three dimensions to the Olympics;

Event: common and less common events that followers take an active interest in; and
Country: national pride in supporting your country as it climbs the medal table; and
Athlete: following your favorite athlete on their Olympic journey

2. Choice of channel will be controlled by timezone, technology choice and cost

The biggest problem with the ESPN Mobile business model was that the concentration was on American Sport, for Americans in America. Why would I choose to watch my baseball team on a mobile phone when I could watch it at home on cable or over IPTV? Now with the Olympics being played out half way around the world the sport on your handset model would work due to the time shift required between the event happening and where the average American will be at that time, i.e. at work
Will people choose to watch an event on their handset or simply receive updates? a great service would be a mobile offering of the Yahoo Service that allows me to program my TiVo from the Web. Combine this with watch lists and reminders so I can get an update as say the decathlon progresses so I can record the next coverage to watch later.
The main driver for uptake will always be cost. In countries where "all you can eat" mobile internet plans are less common any service needs to be cost effective to be value added to the consumer.

The biggest winner in this will be micro blog services, Twitter, Jaiku etc. They all have phone based interfaces and I can see several channels springing up to cover the three dimensions.

The USA Team channel
The Fencing or Modern Hepthalon channel
The Hem Bunting channel

These will become used as typically Olympic coverage is controlled by popular choice (Track and Field, Football) and skewed by broadcasting country (UK follows UK athletes, as do USA, Australia and New Zealand). This leaves minor events and minor countries with little to no coverage.

And one for the kids.... what about the JingJing or BeiBei Twitter channel?

Fring and the Olympics - a perfect match?

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 07:08:56 PDT

The 2008 Olympics will be going on over the next couple weeks, so we decided to ask Bloggers around the Internet for their thoughts on how to best use your cell phone to follow the events. Our next post comes from Joseph Hunkins. To read more from him, check out his Joe Duck blog.

Will NBC cover everything?

NBC has promised to cover all the events via online or broadcast media - a remarkable event in and of itself and I think unprecedented in Olympic history. Although there is more to the Olympics than just the actual sporting events NBC is also planning to cover opening ceremonies and certainly will do many of the athlete profiles that are fun to watch, so as a fan of some of the more obscure sports like Table Tennis I'm very excited to be able to follow things in a way I have never done before.

What do you think of Yahoo's mobile services for following the Olympics?

I have a feeling Yahoo's been so overwhelmed with corporate challenges that their mobile Olympics will be underwhelming. So far Yahoo's offering a few unimpressive links with old news at their mobile Olympics online spot:
http://beijinggames.netbiscuits.com/?refer=e00214

Fring is the really intriguing Web 2.0 player at the Olympics, and I'm anxious to see what they put out. From the Fring site we learn they've assembled a team of "reporters" who are now applying for this this:

We will happily provide the fring Olympics commentators with a 3.5G mobile phone with GPS, camera, local SIM card and (almost) unlimited data plan. In return, the fring commentator will regularly micro-blog with quick updates & pictures (the winner, the loser, the cutest flag-bearer, the poor girl who lost her swimsuit, the poor guy who dropped the baton in the 4×100 meter final… you get the idea). If you’re a real sports enthusiast you may focus more on the records; if you’re more of a night owl, we may all live vicariously through your night-time escapades in the Olympic village - pics & videos most welcome!

My guess is that Fring will be weak on the sports but much more interesting than NBC on the night life, especially if the Fring reporters get clever about getting out pictures and stories from Olympic Village and other Beijing nightlife venues. Celebrity spotting is a lot easier if there are legions of smartphones in the house, so look to Fring for the stuff you can't get elsewhere.

In terms of mainstream sports coverage I'm guessing it'll be NBC all the way. Veteran sportscasters will offer more insight than a microblogger standing at the finish line, and NBC appears primed to deliver great reports from dozens of venues.

NBC has paid handsomely for the privilege of coverage and despite some early reports of broadcast delays and minor commercialism features I think this will be the first Olympics to basically be "open sourced" in the sense that bloggers and TV and onliners of all stripes will be able to link to and discuss the NBC online clips. I'm hoping Fringe also comes through with great stuff and also hoping regular twitter and blogger folks will provide a stream of real time interesting stories - but as a blogger I know if I was heading back to Beijing for the Olympics I probably would assume NBC's "got it covered" and I would not blog as enthusiastically as I do for events where I know I'm providing a unique point of view. Microblogging and blogging can compete with regular media, but I think we'll see in Beijing they can't compete with mega-media. At least not yet.

Nice Article About Mobile Olympics:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_olympics_go_mobile.php

Fring blog

5 Ways to follow the 2008 Olympics via your cell phone

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:08:14 PDT

The 2008 Olympics will be going on over the next couple weeks, so we decided to ask Bloggers around the Internet for their thoughts on how to best use your cell phone to follow the events. Our first post comes from David Cassel. To read more from him, check out his Blorge.com blog.

NBC paid over $600 million for exclusive rights to cover the Olympics — and they're not ignoring cell phone users. NBC is promising steady mobile alerts through NBCOlympics.com. I don't know if it's cell phone-ready, but NBC also has an online video site [requiring "Windows Media Center"] with a whopping 2,200 hours of live and interactive video (also available through NBC Olympics.com.) "Watch full length events" the site urges — even offering the downloading of video for repeat viewing offline. But the site's already drawing mixed reviews, so remember: they're not the only site for Olympics news.

ESPN Mobile has created a dedicated Olympics page, where they're promising a medal tracker, athlete information, news, recaps, and analysis. Meanwhile, ESPN.com has a complete schedule of all the events, and even created "Olympic Central." And yes, they'll be offering their own original reporting from China. ("ESPN forced to work Beijing's backstreets," read one headline.) ESPN reporters will interact with the athletes (without cameras), and they'll be allowed to use video highlights for news recaps — but only after they've aired on NBC.

But the Twitter feeds could become especially significant this year — bypassing the restrictions created by NBC's exclusive rights and the tight controls of the Chinese government. (Last month the Chinese police stopped interrupted a live interview on the great wall of China.) One San Francisco blog did a great job of collecting Twitter comments about the protests when the Olympics torch passed through San Francisco. A web site called Global Voices Online is already offering Twitter updates with Olympic news story (and the blogger at 2008 Games Beijing.com is promising the same)/ England's Sky News even boasts that they now have a news crew of 22 stationed in China, and they're all contributing to a group blog and Twitter feed. ("Can anyone in the UK remind me what the sun looks like? I've not seen it for Beijing's smog for the past week.") Will the smog affect the athletes? This is the kind of controversy that Twitter is made for.

Fring has even tried to assemble a massive network of amateur correspondents. In June they offered to provided a free 3.5G mobile phone with GPS, a camera, a local SIM card and nearly unlimited data to bloggers who'd provide grass roots Olympics coverage. ("...the winner, the loser, the cutest flag-bearer, the poor girl who lost her swimsuit, the poor guy who dropped the baton in the 4×100 meter final...you get the idea.") And CBS is trying something similar, offering free uploads of photos and videos to CBS Olympics . It's a very original idea — and there's always a chance that they'll capture that viral Olympics video moment that the bigger networks overlooked. And either way, it's a pretty exciting experiment.

Yahoo's Mobile site also has a dedicated page of Olympics news (including photos) — though there's no guarantee how complete its coverage will be. (ABC News's mobile site hasn't even created an Olympics category yet.) In fact, bloggers have already begun culling the best options for mobile Olympic news, suggesting customized event alerts through Google News or Plusmo's Beijing Olympics widget. Of course, top mobile news sites will be offering news updates, including the AFP and Reuters, but one commenter was more interested in the schedules and medal results being offered by GetJar.com.

And another reminded mobile Olympics fans not to overlook obvious source — Beijing's official mobile web site.

Deal of the Week

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 07:08:11 PDT

This week's deal comes from LetsTalk.com's Merchandising Manager, Gary Kishida.

What is it? The Nokia 5310 XpressMusic for T-Mobile is an awesome cell phone for music lovers that comes in three different colors: orange, purple, and red. A two-stage stereo headset is included to use with the 3.5mm headphone jack (that can be used to listen to music using headphones that you might use for an MP3 player). It offers up to 18 hours of music playback, with memory for up to 3,000 songs on an optional 4GB microSD card. The handheld also comes preloaded with two exclusive new hits - one from rock sensation Panic! At The Disco and one from Phantom Planet.

How much? The Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is free out the door with a new two-year T-Mobile service contract. Plus, you make $50.

Why is it such a good deal? This is one of our best selling T-Mobile phones and also comes with a 1GB memory card included in the box free.

Cell phones In action: Verizon Wireless' LG Voyager

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 08:08:15 PDT

I like to call the LG Voyager for Verizon Wireless the SUV of cell phones because it's a tad bigger than your average handset, but it's fully loaded with all the luxuries you never knew you wanted. To show you what I mean, watch the video below to get a better idea of why this cell phone has everything you might need.

13 Cool Things you might not know you could do with your cell phone

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 08:08:34 PDT

This week we asked bloggers around the Internet for ideas on how a cell phone can help while on vacation or help plan a vacation. Our final post comes from Matt Jansen, to read more from Matt check out his metaViper blog.

As mobile phones continue to add features on top of their core calling functionality, more and more they're resembling fully functional mobile computers. Smartphones are the beginning, but some devices like Apple's iPhone and Sprint's Instinct are stretching into new territory. And that evolution is great for vacationers because it means that the same access to information and applications that's available at home follows them everywhere.

But which of the comforts of home are most relevant to someone on vacation? Certainly a lot of that depends on the individual but I'm willing to bet that there are some frequent requests, the most obvious probably being good phone coverage and Internet access.

Can anyone even remember when you had to be at home or work to make a phone call?

Cell phone carriers are offer a variety of packages that include Internet access. With AT&T it costs about $130 per month for an unlimited data plan, and Sprint is making waves with its $100 plan that includes unlimited data plus unlimited access to most of its other services.

Here are some other services that might be useful while on vacation, organized by task:

Check E-mail
- Gmail mobile, provides a simplified mobile web site and a downloadable application.
- Yahoo Go essentially provides a portal interface for your phone, including e-mail and flexible widgets for other content.
- Teleflip takes a different approach by converting e-mails you specify into text messages sent to your phone. Great for people without a data plan.
Look for good restaurants
- Google SMS is the popular first choice for finding local restaurants or any other sort of business. Text message a query and receive results back in a few minutes.
- Google 411 allows you to do the same thing using your voice and it's still free.
Look up prices
- Amazon's TextBuyIt , if you've got a good keyword, UPC or ISBN text it to Amazon for a response back on price and the option to purchase via a phone call.
Take and send pictures to friends back home
- Lots of phones provide the ability to take pictures and e-mail them out to friends and family. Just memorize where that camera button is.
- Flickr also offers the ability to upload files to its service via e-mail or through a series of third party partners.
Record video of special moments
- Videos are usually pretty easy to e-mail as well.
- YouTube allows you to upload videos using MMS.
Create a daily log of activities to remember the good times
- Jott can help with this by allowing you to voice dictate your narrative and translating the audio to text.
Access to emergency services
- Almost every mobile phone provides 911 access even when a service plan isn't active. Outside of the United States things get a bit more complex.
Geotag where you went while you were traveling
- Some phones like the Sony Ericsson allow you to mark a location on the map and create a log entry which could then link up with a site like EveryTrail. iPhone 2.0 also incorporates this feature.
Find other single people for dating, especially since you're in unfamiliar territory
- Install an application like MobiLuck to wirelessly link up with other users nearby looking for love. Of course, eye contact can work wonders too.
Check your bank account to see how much fun money is left
- Most major banks offer mobile banking, it usually requires a data plan and Internet access.
Calculate tips
- Many phones offer an installed application that will allow you to customize tip percentages and provide the tip total plus the grand total.
Listen to music
- Sprint and AT&T both have integrated with Pandora Mobile, so your tunes travel easier than ever.
Watch the news
- This is easy with the Simply Everything plan with Sprint, which offers unlimited access to various mobile TV channels. It requires a separate fee with AT&T.

Can Windows Mobile Live Search be your vacation concierge?

Thu, 7 Aug 2008 07:08:37 PDT

This week we asked bloggers around the Internet for ideas on how a cell phone can help while on vacation or help plan a vacation. Our first post comes from Bill Burke, to read more from Bill check out his Wireless Speech blog.

Windows Live Mobile Search is by far the handiest and most full-featured traveler's assistant. It's available for free download to Windows 5.0 & 6.0 Smart Phones, Blackberry devices and Pocket PC's - and it's hands free (speech recognition enabled)! The service also uses Global Positioning System (GPS) data on GPS-enabled phones, to provide location-aware local search for customers.

In Microsoft's last release of Live Search for Windows Mobile they built in a very forward looking feature:
Allowing users to send feedback directly to the engineering team.
Many requests were for new functionality.

Here's what's built in now:

Weather By far the most often-requested feature: get current weather conditions, and a four-day forecast by clicking the Weather icon.

Bluetooth headset support:
Now you can use the speech recognition feature with your Bluetooth headset (available on select devices).

Map a contact:
Open up a contact, press Menu, and then press Show On Map to view that Contact's location on a map!

Delete a recent location:
Simple, yet effective. Click the label showing your current location
to display the list of recent locations, scroll to the item you want to delete,
press Menu, and then press Delete.

These were the most common asked-for features;
but Microsoft received additional requests for custom, personalized content.

Consequentially, Microsoft built a way for users to access even more relevant content, on the go.

Web search:
Search the Web, news, images, and more just by clicking the Web icon.

Increased traffic coverage :
Piggy-backing on great work done by Live Search Maps, view up-to-the-minute
traffic info for more cities, like Indianapolis, Oklahoma City or Memphis.

Collections:
Looking for wireless restaurants in Orlando Florida?
Or maybe you wish to find a bicycle paths in New York City?
Mobile search can definitely help. Users can search community-generated content such as..
Virtual Earth Collections and/or Google KML and find what they are looking for.

--> But; there are more services offered:

Find businesses and restaurants

Search by business name

(Anthony’s Grill)
Or search by type of business

(Sushi restaurant)
Narrow listings by city, neighborhood, or street

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Get traffic, movie times, weather, and more

Get links to maps, driving directions, and traffic
Find movie show times and get tickets
Hear current weather and forecasts
Access travel resources

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Free 411 Services

Call 1-800-CALL-411 for free from any phone
Connect directly to businesses for free
Share listings with friends
Receive text messages of listings

There are, of course, other similar applications; but to date, none work as well, especially
with the incredible speech recognition accuracy Live Mobile Search offers the everyday user!

Check out the demonstration video below.. It's more than impressive!
|| Live Search for Windows Mobile -- Now with Speech! ||

8 Ways cell phones can help you make the most of a vacation

Wed, 6 Aug 2008 10:08:15 PDT

This week we asked bloggers around the Internet for ideas on how a cell phone can help while on vacation or help plan a vacation. Our first post comes from David Cassel, to read more from David check out Blorge.com blog.

I remember when Stonebriar Country Club in Texas bragged they had the first Bluetooth-enabled golf course. (Tee times could be reserved straight from the bar, and they even talked about an application that would beam golf scores to the clubhouse from the 18th hole.) But sometimes on vacation, the biggest concern about your cell phone is how to keeping it working! Here's some cell phone tips to make sure that you and your cell phone have a wonderful vacation.

Several cities now have some great phone services available. TalkingStreet used to provide walking tours of Boston, New York, and Washington D.C. narrated by celebrities like Larry King. Many other services also offer cell phone tours -- so do some research before you head out!

A surprisingly handy new service called "SlyDial" allows you to leave a voicemail message -- without setting off a ringtone. This is a nice way to avoid interrupting someone on vacation -- or to avoid interrupting yours, if you want to pass on a message without getting drawn into a conversation!)

If you're traveling in Europe, always bring an adapter for their wall sockets. But more important than that -- make sure your cell phone is compatible with their carriers. And if not, here's a great piece of advice. Buy a cheap alternate cell phone, just for the trip! Some resorts will even rent you a phone for the length of your stay. Just be sure you to check the per-minute charges!

Don't forget that you can use your cell phone to find cheap gas. (For example, sites like MobileGasPrices.com and Triple A's Gasfinder.)

My friend lost her charger on vacation -- and had to interrupt her frolicking to hunt for a cell phone accessory store. Vacations are a great time to buy a spare charger. If you lose one on the trip, you'll have a backup. (And if you make it home with both -- you'll have a backup!

Plan Ahead. Enter all the crucial phone numbers in your address book ahead of time. (And you might even add bookmarks places you want to visit, in case you need to review their hours of operations or find driving directions.) And don't forget the obvious: maps.

Make room for photos! If you're taking cell phone photos, free up some storage space! Download those old photos off your phone -- to make room for some new ones!

Know When to Unplug Some people forward their work number to their cell phone during vacations -- but other people make a point not to! When Air France announced they were letting passengers make in-flight phone calls for a three-month trial period, one crank passenger complained "It's an invasion! Let us alone!" In fact, last summer Forbes even ran a list of cell phone-free locations to eliminate the temptation to receive work calls when travelers are supposed to be relaxing. (Topping the list: Death Valley -- as well as Yakutat, Alaska) And whatever you do, if you're going to your daughter's wedding -- be sure to turn your cell phone off.

Unless you're planning on letting your friends listen in over the speakerphone...

Cell phones and vacations

Tue, 5 Aug 2008 11:08:11 PDT

This week we've asked bloggers around the Internet about cell phones and vacation plans. Seeing as I just got back from vacation, I thought I'd start it off with my own blog post on the topic. Typically, when I hit the road I usually have a couple of cell phones with me for different reasons. This time, I only took one cell phone because I was going on vacation. Though I knew there was a lot I could do with the cell phone I had with me (I had the LG Voyager, which I was reviewing) such as get directions, stream music stored on the cell phone over the stereo, go online to find a restaurant in a nearby area, check my e-mail, hook it up to a Bluetooth headset so I could take calls while driving - I ended up not doing any of those things.

In fact, I did fairly little, but found it extremely helpful to have for simpler reasons. I actually used the cell phone to call ahead to try and get a room at a hotel, snap pictures (see below) to send via mms to friends, and that's about it. Not too cutting edge when you think about all the ways in which a cell phone can help you out on vacation. Although, this week we'll see a lot of cool things you can do with cell phones to help you either plan or make the most of a vacation it's always good to have one with you since you'll never know what you might need it for, however, check your plan first that you'll be covered wherever you roam. No one wants to see unexpected charges when they get home. Check out the pics - I must admit taking pictures on the fly with the cell phone probably helped me catch more moments than expected.