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How to Keep in Touch While Traveling Abroad

Tech Talker: Quick and Dirty Tips to Navigate the Digital World

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In the past few months a lot of people in my life have ventured abroad, either to teach, live, or just visit. Keeping in touch with friends and family in different time zones is tough - let alone when you're trying to navigate foreign internet connections and phone plans!

That's why in this week's Tech Talker episode I'll be covering the best ways to keep in touch with friends and family abroad.

First let's cover the various ways we can use to keep in touch. There's email, instant messaging, social media, text messaging, phone calls, and video chats. All of these methods require some sort of connection to either the internet or a cell network (if you're using a phone). Depending on where you are in the world you may not have access to high speed internet or even mobile access.

How to Keep in Touch While Traveling Abroad

In places where you may not have a constant reliable internet connection, I recommend using a device such as a smartphone that you can load data onto ahead of time. One thing that I love about smartphones (particularly the iPhone or Google's Nexus) is that they have a built in GPS that works without data. This means you can preload a map and still utilize the GPS feature on your phone without a data connection. I explained how this works in my episode on how your smartphone communicates. This is great if you just need a map and your location when you don't have any data service.


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