<p>I use an iPad with a keyboard for writing. I prefer it to my laptop or desktop for that, for listening to music with headphones - though I prefer my phone over the iPad for music by far. But I’m using Pages, Numbers, Keynote, etc., not Word or Excel or Powerpoint on the iPad. </p>
<p>But most kids use laptops abroad and I’d just use the one she has. If you have extra cash floating around, a MacBook Air is a lot lighter. </p>
<p>It isn’t difficult to transfer basic things to an iPad because all the Apple apps synch to iCloud. Music, books, etc. synch with iTunes, so also not a problem. Everything else I put in Dropbox. </p>
<p>The issue would be more things like needing Word form for papers. You can export to Word out of Pages and you can also create PDF’s, but you can’t actually use Word (thank heaven). BTW, in that regard, an indispensable site for me is [url=<a href=“http://compress.smallpdf.com%5Dthis%5B/url”>http://compress.smallpdf.com]this[/url</a>]. It compresses pdf’s beautifully: it uploads them and downloads a much smaller version without much loss in quality. </p>
<p>So yeah it can be done but most kids are pretty happy with their old, familiar laptops.</p>
<p>WT, since the stay abroad is one semester long, I would HIGHLY advise to take the MBP for the ride. And, if you own the iPad, it would not add much to the travel weight. Both items will serve purposes that might be more different than the expectations. </p>
<p>For instance, a simple action such as getting a flashdrive from another student to transfer notes might be easy on the MBP and not that convenient on the iPad, and this despite all the Cloud and other services available. Using Pages and Numbers is, by far, an acquired taste. </p>
<p>To put it simply, when traveling for about one WEEK to Europe, I made different decisions on different trips. Once I only used the iPad and came to regret it. I got stuck a couple of time without easy access to a printer. On other occasions, I was asked to share a document and the recipient was NOT interested in an email or cloud transfer. Please note that this was in the early days of the iPad in 2010, and things have improved for tablet users. </p>
<p>On the other hand, I enjoyed being able to acquire a cellular data chip for internet access access “on the road” and NOT having to look for free or paid hotspots. The cost of about 20 Euros for 2Gig was quite affordable. One bonus was that I could swap the chip and use it a small wifi router and use the net on all devices (MBP, Phone, iPad) and use Skype liberally. </p>
<p>Chances are that you will find a very generous prepaid cellular chip that could be used in a newer iPhone as a hotspot. </p>
<p>The question, however, about choosing between an iPad only and carrying the MBP or both is pretty easy. I would not spend months abroad with only the iPad.</p>
<p>Lergnom - who is behind that free PDF conversion site? I would never trust my documents to a site that offers “free” services even if they promise to remove your documents from their site. That would be a very easy way to collect a database of college homework answer sets, etc. BTW, one can easily “print” to PDF from Word - in either full size or compressed. No Adobe software is required for that, and there is no need to use any web based third party sites.</p>
<p>Thank you, Lergnom and Xiggi. I did not realize until today that the iPad doesn’t use Word (clearly not a Mac girl here!). I think D will take her Macbook Pro, and when she is traveling on the weekends she will probably rely on wifi cafes to be able to use her iphone to access directions and maps and things.</p>
<p>I actually remember traveling with travel guidebooks, and – <em>gasp</em> – paper maps. ;-)</p>
<p>WT, chances are high that the iPhone will accept a foreign SIM. Most companies have now realized that blocking the use overseas and forcing people to jailbreak their phones was a ludicrous policy. Before leaving, have your daughter check with your provider to ensure the phone is no longer blocked. </p>
<p>After that, you should start “pricing” a local chip. There are plenty of threads on CC about students abroad, and many discuss what chip/sim to get and the value of buying a cheap local phone. All in all, what you want to avoid is to maintain the US number at all times as the cost will be high. Swapping SIMS is very easy, and so are the methods of maintaining contact to that US number. In the past, I have forwarded my US number to GoogleTalk and received the voicemails in the form of a text message. </p>
<p>There are changes coming in Europe that should reduce the roaming fees and make travel outside the SIM country less expensive in terms of maintaining the phone and data services.</p>
<p>I don’t know about France but in the UK my kid had Verizon unlock her iPhone and she got a local sim. We can reach her in an emergency but it’s really for use there. And there is a lot of wifi in the UK, probably in France as well. It’s very easy to get Verizon to unlock an iPhone and they do it over the phone.</p>
<p>A suggestion is to get the messaging app Viber for her iPhone - assuming you have one too - and of course Skype, which I think is much easier to use on a phone than a laptop or desktop. </p>
<p>I have a google voice number but she doesn’t and it takes a little more digging to figure out how to use it. Skype and Viber work fine with no thought at all. A strength of Viber is the ease of texting photos. My kid sends me pictures and I send pictures of the animals, etc. back.</p>
<p>This is what I used to add “phone” capabilities to my iPad when abroad. Forwarded my iPhone number to Google Voice and let Talkatone do its magic. </p>
<p>And, as I said, I did add a SIM chip to my iPad or Mobile Router. As a result, there was 100 percent connectivity at a very low price. Between that setup and Skype, I was covered without having to rely on “free” wifi connections that can be unsafe and usually pretty slow. And, as a bonus, did not have to sit in public spaces that also tend to be loud, and … smelly!</p>
<p>This is slowly coming together for me! Her iPhone is a 4S, so I think it should work in Europe with a local SIM card (once unlocked). It would be nice for her to have a local data plan while in France, and only have to rely on potentially smelly wifi spots when traveling to other countries… ;-)</p>
<p>I believe the number at Verizon is 1-800-711-8300, which is global services support. That’s what I have in my notes. They were helpful. My kid has a 4S and that is what she did.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t use smallpdf for tax returns but most documents don’t matter. They say they delete files in an hour. As I assume you know, since people email things all the time, they are always at risk because email can be grabbed in many places along the way. For anyone who doesn’t understand, look at the long headers of any email message. </p>
<p>I don’t use talkatone because a friend did and I was emailed/spammed out of his contacts, which is annoying. I don’t know if the app still does that. All the “free” Google Voice apps have issues, from contact spamming to obtrusive ads.</p>
<p>Lergnom, thanks, I routinely deal with sensitive information, so I am pretty aware of the dangers lurking in the cyberspace. Yes, for most documents that probably would not matter, but it looks like a sure-fire way to collect school papers to be resold later. And “we delete everything in an hour” - that seems like pretty lame butt covering to me. ;)</p>
<p>Good for them. This said, I was done by 12:02 via the Apple Store App and express checkout on the iPhone. The website was crashing for me, but I was using the old iPad, and as we know, the Apple Store does not work on the original iPad because of a stupid update endless loop.</p>
<p>I still think Apple should have allowed pre-orders or, at least, updated the store at a different hour of the day. Not a big deal on the Left Coast, but those poor Easterners!</p>
<p>Fwiw, the AirPad falls short of expectations. Low memory crashes galore met the usual lack of responses from Cupertino. Stores are simply exchanging one iPad for another when issue is obviously IOS 7 and the ultra crappy Safari. The new Retina and battery usage are massively overrated by fanboys journalists. Cameras are POS. Storage costs are a ripoff. Each 16 gig should cost 20 bucks, not 100. </p>
<p>Apple better get to work on an iPad Air S as in S for satifactory before it becomes S as in Samsung Wannabe. There is nothing great about this one. It’s still a toy but cheap enough to keep and not worry about it too darn much. </p>