If you are a business professional, than you use your iPhone for more than simply keeping in touch with your friends and family, in many cases your iPhone is your link to the business world.  Whether you are keeping track of your stocks, checking your e-mail or conducting conference calls while on your way to a business meeting, your iPhone is literally your key to keeping connected with your professional life.  However, if you are like most business professionals, than you travel the globe in order to keep your business active and profitable.  There are many concerns that people have with cell phones are whether or not you will be able to use your phone when you are in a different country, especially if you are visiting for an extended period of time.

Like most cell phones, the iPhone works with a particular cell phone carrier, and in this case you have your service through AT&T/Cingular.  Many business professionals want the security in knowing that their cell phone service will not be disrupted simply because they travel from country to country.  Since the iPhone is serviced by AT&T/Cingular, you will not have to worry about loosing service, or features, because the iPhone uses the GSM system.  GSM is an acronym that stands for Global System for Mobile communication, thus allowing you to use your cell phone in many different countries.  Actually, there are over one hundred countries around the world that use GSM, thus allowing you to keep using your iPhone without any hindrance to cell service.

Many business travelers go to Europe and Asia, and since their iPhone uses GSM, they are able to have excellent service throughout both of these locations.  However, there are some precautions that you will want to take before you leave the country with your iPhone.  If you have ever traveled throughout the world and used your cell phone, you were probably surprised by extremely high charges for phone and data use.

This is because your number is an American telephone number, thus every call you make within another country is looked upon by your carrier as an international call.  If you are overseas for quite some time, than it is easy to accumulate several hundred dollars worth of fees and roaming charges, this is why you will
want to alter you calling plan if you travel overseas frequently.

AT&T/Cingular has really great international calling plans that are very cost effective.  Thus you are able to still travel throughout the world without having to worry about roaming and international call fees.  Also, if you use data on your iPhone, which most of you do, you will want to make sure that you have an international data plan as well.  The worst homecoming surprise you can get is opening your cell phone bill only to find several hundred dollars worth of extra charges and fees.  However, if you plan ahead and make sure that you obtain a new service plan that includes international cell phone use, you will not have to worry about extremely high charges.

Perhaps one of the most aggravating aspects of having a cell phone is when you miss a telephone call.  There are many reasons why you can miss a phone call, however, when you miss a very important call due to your ringer’s low volume, this is extremely aggravating.  If you own an iPhone, than you may have missed many phone calls due to the low ringer volume, which is very surprising.  When you have a cell phone as high-tech as the iPhone, than you expect it to be able to properly notify you when you have a phone call, however, due to the iPhone’s lower than normal ringer volume many people are missing phone calls.  But what can you do about the iPhone’s low ringer volume?

Many people who have an iPhone think that the reason why the ringer volume is so low is because of the iPhone’s small speakers.  And this makes sense because the smaller the speakers are, the lower the volume, right?  While this may seem to be a great reason why the iPhone’s volume is so low, it may not be the actual cause.  The main cause for a ringer volume that is extremely low may be due to the actual audio levels in your phone.  Many people have found that with their iPhone, the stock ringers have such a low volume.  In order to fix this, you may have to find new ringtones other than those that are already on your iPhone.

The main cause for the ringtones being so quite is the fact that they are made of a low frequency.  Thus, if you want to be able to have a louder ringtone, than you will need to find a ringtone that is made of a higher frequency.  This may sound difficult, but you can find a higher frequency ringtone by simply turning to your computer.  If you are a MAC owner, than you will be able to go into the application Garage Band and find a new ringtone within this location.  Perhaps the best ringtone from Garage Band is the “Cell Phone Ringing” sound clip.

However, putting a new ringtone onto your iPhone requires a little work on your part.  In order to put this clip onto your iPhone, than you will need to run iFunstastic, which is for individuals that have an Intel-MAC, or if you are using a Windows PC than you will want to run the application iPhoneRingToneMaker or iBrickr.  These applications will install the ringtones from your computer to your iPhone, thus giving you the ability to have a ringtone that is clearly audible.

The key to having a successful ringtone is picking one that is naturally loud by default.  This will increase the sound volume that is being release, and thus you will never miss another phone call because you didn’t hear it.  When you have an iPhone, you want to enjoy every aspect of it, however, if the volume of the iPhone is lower than desired, than you will not be able to enjoy your iPhone to its fullest.