jamesbrock

I have a TrueMove H iSim in my iPhone, and these are the speeds I'm getting in Lamai:

Test against: Bangkok

Last Result:

Download Speed: 6280 kbps (785.0 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 2286 kbps (285.8 KB/sec transfer rate)

Latency: 150 ms

31 December 2011 15:35:28

Test against: Bangkok

Last Result:

Download Speed: 6545 kbps (818.1 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 2918 kbps (364.8 KB/sec transfer rate)

Latency: 174 ms

01 January 2012 18:19:58

Pretty happy with those speeds! They're much better than I am getting with my Wi-Fi at home; indeed, even better than I was getting with Telstra NextG in Australia...

That I'm not sure of. Even if technically so, I'm sure the staff here would not know that it is so.

I agree that, like many other things in Thailand, it's harder than it needs to be; so we just continue to shop around until we find someone competent in their own job...

I guess we both made the wrong impressions - but that's what happens in the absence of body language and vocal tonality...

I've said all I need to on the subject; any more would be flogging a dead horse (although I am still curious about those ODD & EVEN day no parking signs). I'll keep an eye out for your bull bars as I'm trundling down the road at 30 km/h, sober, and wearing a helmet.

Just received my iPhone 4s from the online Apple Store. The new camera and optics are far better than iPhone 4, particularly in low light. I snapped a few pics using both and there is no comparison. the iPhone 4 always had a lot of noise in low light pics, and that is hugely improved with the new optics.

I wasn't sure whether I would use Siri much, but now that I have it, it's worth the price of admission for me. While Siri doesn't do location based searches in Thailand [yet?], it saves loads of time and multiple taps when you need to call someone, send a text, or set an appointment in your calendar. It's also a great time waster right now, although I am sure the novelty will wear off. You can ask Siri silly questions and the replies are fun. Ask her "what are you wearing", and she comes back with "Aluminosilicate glass and stainless steel. Nice, huh?". Say that famous line from 2001 "Siri, open the pod bay doors" and you get "I'm sorry [your name]. I'm afraid I can't do that. Are you happy now?". There is a whole site of Siri-isms here: http://sirisays.org/

One other thing I have discovered is the the speaker sound quality is better and much louder. I listen to internet radio sometimes and that is a nice bonus.

Anyway, this of it this way: you can sell your iPhone 4, then use that money against the price of an iPhone 4s so that the delta is a lot less than 20K baht.

dam_n, that's not what I needed to hear!

True, that, about selling the 4. I was thinking I'd just give it to the missus, but I just bought her a new Nokia that she seems happy with... Food for thought...

i use that road all the time never seen cars go down it just bikes?

You do see the odd car going the wrong way but few and far between. As for the people saying the junction outside the Outback is a deathtrap, it was much much worse when it was 2 way and the Outback was called Lugano club.

Johnno

Not the junction outside the Outback, but the one at the other end of that street turning onto the ring road. Turning both ways is dangerous, but turning right is even moreso.

Back on topic though - I'm seriously trying to resist the 4S, but my resolve is waning! The improvement over the 4 that I'm really interested in is the new camera and optics - but is that really worth twenty-odd thousand baht??

I guess we'll see when I get to Bangkok in 11 days...

I went back to the TrueMove shop again today - this time armed with the picture of the correct SIM - and was told that, not only do they not have this SIM, but that no shop on the island of Samui has it! Oh well, I'll be in Bangkok in 11 days; I can be patient...

I can buy one for you and mail it to you, if you cannot wait. If you want, PM me your mailing address. The SIM is only 99 baht, and postage can't be more than that?

Thanks for your very generous offer, but I'm sure the wait will do me good. I don't need it, I just want it...

My Thai colleagues queued for them from DTAC and after 2 weeks would do anything to get rid of them.

Fairly heavy business users and the battery is gone by lunchtime just using them as a phone. One of them complained to Apple just few days back asking them to take his 4S away and give him a 4...not sure how hes getting on.

I will stick with the 4 for now. I can do without Siri......battery life much more important

Interesting - seems to be a problem with this model, despite the fact that the built in battery is actually bigger than the one in the 4.

Tell 'em to turn off notifications. Then at least they can still use it as a phone and battery life improves dramatically.

According to this site, the problem seems to be that the phone never enters standby:

http://www.gottabemo...e-in-5-minutes/

I am sure they'll fix this in software in the not too distant future. It's kind of disappointing regardless ...

I noticed when you open an app it keeps it "open" sort of like when you open a program in windows and then just minimize it but it's still running in the background. To see which apps are currently running on your iphone you can double click the home button and it'll open up the application toolbar. Then you can shut down apps you aren't currently using. This cut down on my battery use by a lot.

Plus for god's sakes turn down the brightness and optimize your settings. A lot of people are just using it as is from the box and complaining because they haven't tweaked it yet. I think the Iphone 4s is unforgiving in this way..if you haven't optimized your settings turning off wireless when you're not using it etc.. it will drain your battery like none other.

Partially correct wintermule; it depends on what type of app it is, but most apps in the 'multitasking' dock are not actually running. Generally, when you close an app, it closes completely but its last state is saved into memory, so they only impact your phone by using up extra memory. It is not using any CPU cycles, and, thus, none of your battery.

Some apps do use specific multitasking APIs which will result in battery drain. These APIs provide services through the OS, so it still isn't really the app that is using up resources, but they have instructed the OS to maintain some service which will use CPU cycles or other subsystem and therefore use battery. These will include any VOIP apps that can receive calls (OS keeps a VOIP connection open), any app the maintains location awareness when closed (GPS, Google Latitude, etc), apps that continue to stream and/or play music in the background, apps that use background task completion (i.e. uploading videos, but the process terminates when the task is complete) and, of course, local and push notifications (though as nickster mentioned, these OS services are always running unless disabled in Settings).

So, if you have apps like Safari, Maps, or say Samsung Remote still 'running', they won't result in additional battery drain; however, if you leave Skype or Latitude or LastFM running, then you will see additional battery drain. I've found VOIP apps like Skype really tend to suck the battery when they are left running in the background, while music stream apps are not extremely draining.

Your other suggestions regarding screen brightness and Wi-Fi were spot on the mark though. If gkinbkk's Thai colleagues are fairly heavy business users, then likely they'll be breaking a few golden rules of battery preservation:

• Bluetooth continuously searches for devices when it is turned on, so turn it off if it is not required.
  
• Wi-Fi does the same, so turn it off if you won't be needing it for a while. Ditto with Asking to Join Networks.
  
• The screen takes massive amounts of power, so lower the brightness, turn on auto brightness, and always lock the screen when the device is not in use.
  
• Vibrate also uses a lot of power, so turn it off (I have mine set to only vibrate when the phone is in silent mode).
  
• Turn off Location Services on all but the very few apps that really need it (e.g. Maps).
  
• Push email such as iCloud or Microsoft Exchange use masses of power, so turn it off if you do not need emails as soon as they are sent; and fetch emails less often.
  
• Push notifications also use a lot of power. Turn them off, or limiting the number of apps allowed to use them.
  
• Turn off unnecessary sounds, such as the keyboard clicks, lock sound, and camera click.
  

Sorry to go so off topic, but I hope this helps!

I bought a TrueMove H pre-paid Smartphone SIM today for 99 baht. They are widely available, at least in many counter-shops in MBK. I looked at a few shops before I found a number I wanted.

I haven't activated the SIM, but will follow up with details when I do. I am leaning towards the default plan, and layering on the 1 GB/349 baht mobile broadband plan.

I went back to the TrueMove shop again today - this time armed with the picture of the correct SIM - and was told that, not only do they not have this SIM, but that no shop on the island of Samui has it! Oh well, I'll be in Bangkok in 11 days; I can be patient...

I have just checked the manual, and there are indeed file types, codecs, and even frame rates of otherwise compatible filetypes that aren't compatible, so I'll defer to Darrel's superior knowledge on the matter.

Maybe if I add the word 'common' to my erroneous statement above, it will stand up to scrutiny.

i use that road all the time never seen cars go down it just bikes?

Yep, it's only the occasional mistaken tourist that tries to go down the "wrong" way in a car. Same with the previous claim of bikes parked on both sides of the road, it only happens very occasionally that one sees bikes on the wrong side - but maybe it only happens on 'Even' days and they're the only ones doing it right?!?

at least if you run them over then u r not wrong. i just drive through barging them all out the way. as they say in Thailand Up 2 you.

Drive the wrong way but they already know they are wrong so at there own risk.

problem is that to go just a short distance down the road to do it the legal way would mean riding all the way round the ring road. people being tight with gas and the ring road being dangerous there probably is not much difference dager wise.

i have very occasionally drive a moped the wrong way down the road

I can say for a fact that "being tight with gas" is not an issue in my case, nor is the fact that the ring road is dangerous; the fact that the Had Lamai 1/ring road intersection is one of the most dangerous in Samui (especially for right-turners) is the major contributing factor in my choice to ride the "wrong" way. Perhaps if 'they' installed traffic light at this intersection, we wouldn't be so averse to using it.

I am confused. I don't go to Lamai often so I really do not understand.

Is it a one way street or isn't it?

I am not flaming here, but I am trying to work out what the average tourist sees and does. Is it clearly signposted as one way or not? How do they react? It is all well and good us 'locals' saying it works fine, but that is because we have experience of the system. But what about the tourist who doesn't? They must make up a large percentage of the traffic.

Thankfully it would seem that whilst the situation is confusing, or frustrating, at least it doesn't appear to be too dangerous. But is that luck or judgement?

Confusingly, it is apparently still legally one way; however, entering Had Lamai 1 from the ring road, there is NO notification of such a law AT ALL, the fist drivers or riders see, is the 'permanent' sign near the concrete block turning left at the Outback bar intersection.

Even more confusingly, as of right now, one of the five movable a-frame signs (which are placed on the footpath from the Had Lamai 1 (Outback Bar) intersection to as far as the boxing stadium) is facing the wrong way - so, the first sign riders & drivers see - today - coming the "right" way is a No Entry sign at the boxing stadium!

And even more confusingly than that: on the back of these a-frame signs is another remnant of a long-forgotten law which no one posting in this thread has mentioned yet - the no standing on the right side road (coming the "right" way) on ODD days, and no standing on the left side of the road (again, coming the "right" way) on EVEN days law. In fact, there are more of these signs on the road than there are signs advising on the one way 'law', and most of them are permanent! Not only this, but the signs on each side of the road are facing the opposite way! i.e the ODD day No Standing signs are facing the drivers coming from the bridge, and the EVEN day No Standing signs are facing the drivers coming from the Outback Bar...

Can anyone explain which set of signs became redundant first? Or was the original intention of the Lamai one way system that it alternated directions each day?

Perhaps not putting a smiley after my post was a big mistake.Running people off the road is not on my agenda.It was a response to the big bullbars.

Good to hear! Apologies for taking the post at face value - I am relatively new here! (TVF and LoS)

When I was researching buying a TV a couple years ago, I found most of the USB-equipped models at the time would NOT play the .avi downloaded TV programs I had on a USB stick I carried with me.

ISTR at the time that it was suggested to buy a TV (or DVD-player) that had the ability to be updated as new codecs came along. Is that still valid advice? Are there TVs/DVD-players that can keep up with the ever-evolving codecs?

I ended up buying a Samsung LCD TV with no USB plus the cheapest DVD player I could find (~B800?) that would play my USB .avi files. Now that I have a decent LCD screen for my computer, I watch my TV shows on it.

As I and kkerry inferred above, the current crop of Samsung TV's can play (decode) all file types. In the past week, I have tried over a hundred different files, in all formats, and my TV has played them all. It has internet connectivity, so I assume the firmware update also updates the codecs.

Some of the comments here are beyond belief.Want to see what reaction you will have if you loose someone from an accident , by someone driving the wrong way.

If someone jumps of a bridge you don't have to follow suit just because they did. True about most people leave their brains in neutral when they get here.

Yes, some of the comments here are beyond belief. Especially the one by the OP about his "heavy set of bull bars on the front of the Toyota", and one by a moderator inferring that he intentionally runs people off the road if they opt for personal safety over an non-enforced, long forgotten 'law'! Even your comment about losing someone from an accident while doing this screams of ignorance. Have you ever lived in Lamai? Have you ever been down this road? Do you realise the authorities know this has been going on for years, but do nothing about it because it actually works? Do you realise the only dangers the locals face when doing this are the self-righteous buffoons in their four-wheel drives who think they own all roads they happen to drive upon? I'm guessing the answers to these questions are 'no'.

I'm sure none of these drivers EVER speed, drink-drive, overtake on blind corners, or - another of my favourites - turn left against a red light...

Do people realise that when they leave us "very little if any room" and tell us we "are going the wrong way down a ONE WAY STREET!", we just laugh at them, and call them names that can't be posted here? It's people with attitudes like this that causes the very problems that are being complained about! (And who has a fairly heavy set of bull bars fitted to the front of your vehicle when the most likely thing you'll ever come into contact with is a fellow human who is riding a motorbike??) Here's a tip: lift your right foot ever so slightly, and turn that big round thing in front of you about 5 degrees - it won't kill you to go a little slower and be a little more accommodating to other road users.

As insertmembernamehere wrote, anyone who advocates the one-way system does not spend much time in Lamai, nor have they had to turn right out of Had Lamai 1 onto the ring road. This intersection is an accident waiting to happen and I, like most Lamai locals, avoid it like the plague; it in itself is proof of how badly the concept of the one way system was thought out, why the locals rejected it, and why the authorities have all but accepted that rejection. All we need now is for the out-of-towners to stop being so self-righteous and accept that this is how it is in Lamai - if they don't like it, and can't adapt to the situation, stay away. We'll all be a lot safer.

I agree wholeheartedly with insertmembernamehere and Mr lamai.

When I first moved to Lamai four months ago and was directed the wrong way, I protested but was told the rule was "not for motorbikes". Not knowing any better, I accepted this as just another Thai quirk, and have been happily riding with everyone else up and down said roads every day since. It wasn't until reading this thread that I realise that it may not be an official exception!

Despite this revelation, apart from the odd occasion where we get some arrogant out-of-towner who can't bear to share a road, or some tourist who can't read the all but redundant one way signs, it actually works. The taxis, songthaews, delivery vehicles, resort mini-vans and others who use this road daily can accept it without having an aneurism, and there certainly aren't any more idiots doing it than there are going the 'right' way!

Ah, maybe that's what I'm doing wrong! Asking for a micro-SIM (while waving my iPhone 4 around) and not an iPhone SIM... Silly me!

Yesterday I went to the TrueMove shop in Chaweng to try to get a pre-paid H micro-sim. The sales girl - who spoke decent english - first tried to give me a pre-paid iSIM; when I asked if that was for data only, she told me that you cannot make voice calls, or send SMS or MMS on pre-paid. Wait, what? Yes, if I wanted to use my iPhone as a phone, I'd have to go onto a post-paid plan.

Do these people get commissions for signing up customers onto post-paid plans?

She called a guy over, and pulled out this brochure, which clearly shows voice, SMS, & MMS availability, but she told me it was a misprint. He agreed, and confirmed that I had to go on a post-paid plan. Rather than attempting to teach them their job, and the ins & outs of the products they're supposed to be knowledgable in, I thanked them for their time and walked out.

Looks like I'll be ordering one on the TrueMove website...

I bought a fairly swish Samsung 55in LED recently. List price 73K, I got it for 63K thanks to a Visa 10% off promo (just pay with your Visa ATM card and get 10% off, doesn't apply to cash purchases, where's the logic in that?) with various freebies such as 6 (!) pairs of 3D glasses, fancy QWERTY remote, a rather good Samsung digital camera.

I think the picture is significantly better than that on the regular LCDs I looked at in the shop. The ventilation grilles at the top dont even get warm in use. It also has a large number of advanced user settings with which to adjust the picture from a special test disk, which I happen to have. The end result on DVD/HD from my PC via HDMI is very good indeed.

Shame the most entertaining channel on Sophon cable is Bloomberg.

Sounds like you got a Series 8 - very swish indeed!

(Sorry about the multiple posts - I keep getting an error, when trying to do a MultiQuote, about the number of opening and closing quote tags not matching...)

Guys... don't fall for the marketing buzz. The so-called LED TVs *are* LCD screens. Only with LED backlighting instead of the classical neon lights. So far screens whose pixels really are made of LEDs (and therefore do not need backlighting) exist only in small sizes (for smartphones), at least out of labs. They're called AMOLED.

So what are the advantages of a "LED" over a LCD ?

As far as I know :

- somewhat brighter image (not a huge difference though)

- thinner screens

- more uniform backlighting (might not be true for all kinds of LED-backlit screens though, depends on the exact technology used, there are several different ones: LED bars, LED back panel etc.)

- longer lifetime for backlighting

Don't take this as authoritative though. I'm sure Google knows more about this than I do ;-)

Here's what seems to be a good summary: http://reviews.cnet....ou-need-to-know

Most of us haven't fallen for the hype, but have done research and actually gone out and compared the technologies. Perhaps you should not fall for the stuff you read on the internet, and actually go out and do the same. Have you stopped to think that "so called LED Tv's" are only called LED TV's to differentiate them from traditional non-backlit LCD screens, and not as some evil ploy to dupe consumers into thinking they're getting some improved technology - which in fact they are...

They could be called 'curved yellow fruit TV's' for all it's worth - the difference in picture between LCD and (in Samsung's case) Edge-Lit LCD LED screen actually quite huge; and, as mentioned above, the difference in blacks between so called LED screens and Plasma panels is massive.

Most of the newer models offer the USB playback option. But you want to be able to play the format you download so probably best to load and try at store to be sure. You may also want to jot down a few model numbers and then go home to search internet for English language specs and compare with what you viewed before making up your mind.

Yes, a mate bought a high-spec LG Plasma, which had multiple USB ports; however, upon setup, we discovered that it would not play back any files already on the hard drive, only files it saved to the hard drive itself (such as using the PVR function).

My Series 6 Samsung has thus far played all the file types that I have tried, including AVI's, MPEG's & MKV's. I'm not sure if the Series 4's & 5's do the same.

I got a Samsung from Tesco for 19k (52"). Same price in Big C Extra as well. Wish I would have bought it there actually as with the Big C card you would get a stack of coupons. Tesco got me 290 baht in coupons 5 months later. Big C should pay for a shopping trip.

Yeah, I forgot to mention: I bought mine from HomePro in Chaweng, and they also gave me 1500 baht in vouchers, a Nesco Mii Robot vacuum cleaner, and a 4' bath mat(!) - I did purchase a 6' Sealy Zenith mattress in the same trip, so they were literally throwing stuff at me!

Yes, it sucks that the US is still stuck in locking all their devices up because they are so afraid of losing their cash cow. But I was looking in Best Buy and there is a Rockfish adapter set that has a USB cable. I am wondering if I buy a USB female/male plug and the wife buys one of the phone USB devices that can be used for internet if that would work for the wi/fi. Maybe I'll ask the Best Buy guy since we bought it there anyway.

If you're talking about the Rocketfish 3G Mobile Hotspot (RF-MFH2), yes, that's what I mean by a 3G Wi-Fi Router; however, it's not listed as a supported device on TrueMove's website, so I cannot guarantee that it'll work.

I bought a 40" Samsung last week, after doing lots of research on geeky forums, and am pretty rapt with it. The 51" you saw would most likely have been a Series 4 Plasma - a good enough TV for most purposes, but for various reasons, I wanted at least a Series 6. I was undecided on what screen type I wanted (Plasma, LCD, or LED), as they all have their benefits.

I ended up getting a UA40D6600WR 40" LED 3D TV, and I can honestly say I have never seen a better picture on a TV! I picked the LED over the Plasma due to the rendering of blacks, which, on the equivalent model Plasma, looked murky green as opposed to the rich pure black of the LED. I wasn't particularly interested in getting a 3D TV, but all the higher spec TV's are 3D nowadays, so if you want a Full-HD TV with 'smart' features (mine has built in Wi-Fi), you'll end up with a 3D TV anyhow.

For an indication of the different series that Samsung produces, I used the Australian Samsung site (because the Thai site doesn't have an English option, however the tech specs of the TV's are in English); as with the UK, the models are slightly different - for example, the UA40D6600 on the Australian market comes with an 'Extended PVR' and a built in Digital Tuner, whereas the one for the Thai market has neither.

I paid 37,990 baht for mine; it came with two pairs of Active 3D glasses, and they threw in a BD-D6500 3D Blu-Ray player (which retails for around 8950 baht). Now, if only I could find some Blu-Ray movies here on Samui...

Of course the 'Wi-Fi' iPads have no SIM slot, that's what the 'Wi-Fi + 3G' iPads are for. Where you purchased it is irrelevant in regards to whether it has a SIM slot.

Of course the US ones have no sim card slot...

On no, you got an iPad that doesn't take a SIM? Must be Verizon.

I believe the US carriers lock-down the tethering feature on the iphone anyway. I had an iphone for several years when I was in the US and never noticed the option to set it up as a personal hotspot until I got my unlocked phone from apple when they started offering them late last year.

In short I don't think there is much you can do without a smartphone that can share out its 3G connection.

...although I will have my android phone with me.

No, he got an iPad that is Wi-Fi only. Wi-Fi + 3G iPads are available for Verizon customers.

The OP has an Android phone, so your statement about US carriers locking down the tethering feature is irrelevant, as well as wrong. (AT&T began to allow tethering with the release of iOS 4.3 in March 2010, and Verizon have always allowed it on their version of the iPhone. Both carriers charge extra for the service.)

If he buys one of the hundreds of 3G Wi-Fi routers available, such as the ZTE MF30 3G Wireless WiFi Router (which is supported by TrueMove), there is lots he can do without a smartphone.

Nope. Apple doesn't put generic interface ports on their mobile devices. That keeps you going back to them for their proprietary connectors and peripheral devices/services. This is what people often complain about while they refer to Apple products as existing within a walled garden.

You mean, 'this is what Windows users often complain about'. It's this so-called walled garden that keeps Apple products running so smoothly, safely, and securely...