KittenKong

22 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

I transfer all my iPhone photos onto it and have photos going back a lot of years from cameras also, all put into folders with place names and dates etc. If I lost those I would be devastated.

Time to transfer them over to a hard drive me thinks .

The time to do that was years ago. All these devices will fail at some point: it is just a question of when. You need at least two full backups for important data, one of which can be on the cloud. Phones and tablets have automatic settings for this to happen either to OneDrive or GoogleDrive or Apple's iCloud.

22 hours ago, Randybee said:

1.  Is there any particular model that has features that would make it a better choice than others for my purpose?

 

2. What about screen size? Several years ago a looked into getting Smart Phone for use in examining Excel Spreadsheets. The screen was way too small for this purpose and it concerns me that a screen that is too small may present problems in navigation. What size device have you had success with?

 

3. Are there any apps that I should have loaded at the store? Maybe there are some apps that I shouldn’t have them load as this device is to be used only for navigation. I will not be using this for telephone calls.

 

4. Is there some way to charge this device while underway or should I purchase some back up batteries? It would make sense to me if I could use the cigarette lighter in the car for charging. Is there a separate device for this?

1 No

2 Up to you. My 5.5in screen works for me but I dont actually look at it when driving. I rely on the voice instructions.

3 Phones are sold as-is. All extra apps are installed later by you on the Play Store.

4 You just need a car USB adaptor. Mine cost about 100B at Tesco. Most recent cars have USB sockets built-in.

22 hours ago, Randybee said:

A.        It appears that all modern Smart Phone and tablet devices have two systems. One is the Wi-Fi system which is accessed thru a SIM card. The other system is the GPS system that is built into all modern phone and tablet devices.

 

B.         There are to two ways to use the Google map system.

 

a.       First, you can access Google Maps in real time via your WiFi connection. This would allow the GPS feature built into your phone to provide driving instructions “on the fly” from the data provided by the WiFi (real time). This seems to be the most common way that Thai people use it. My professor friend drives around with the tablet on her lap.

 

b.      Secondly, you could download the Google Maps into your device (a good reason to have large capacity GB on your smart phone device) and then have the downloaded map be used by the built in GPS to give you specific instructions. In this case a WiFi connection would not be necessary if you were within the downloaded area

 

The choice of SIM card for WiFi seems to be a matter of personal preference (possibly coverage and price being the determining factors. However, they all seem to providing the same service.

A. You dont need a SIM card at all for wifi. But if you want mobile data (ie in your car) then you will need a SIM card and a data package from your provider. They all do them.

B. The third option is to use something other than Google Maps, like I do. My GPS app will work without any data connection at all as the maps for entire countries are pre-downloaded. Having mobile data does give me instant traffic updates though. Google Maps will only allow downloads of specific areas, and they are for short term use.

If you are concerned about screen sizes and SIM cards, you could just buy an Android tablet as it will do the same job, as your friend knows.

6 hours ago, BurgerGung said:

Thai gf buying "life insurance" for her Dad

The time to worry about this is when she buys insurance on your life.

On 7/19/2019 at 11:47 AM, scubascuba3 said:

You can't beat Googlemaps,

GoogleMaps is OK and the price is right, but it certainly is not the best on Android. For me the best is my 3-year TomTom GO subscription which cost me about 1400B for unlimited use of world-wide maps. It also comes with a linked website that lets you plan/adjust routes and then sync them with your device. Live traffic updates are also included along with camera locations.

6 hours ago, manarak said:

I have:

- Passport with 1-year extension

- Work permit

- Original driver's licenses (car and motorcycle)

 

do I need anything else? I believe a medical certificate isn't required anymore?

I did mine recently and I didn't need a medical certificate but I did need a residence certificate. I think that with your work permit you don't need that.

On 7/18/2019 at 8:49 AM, ezzra said:

Cost of living aside, yes PH is cheaper than TH but have been visiting the PH for 40 years now and never felt safe there as far as mugging, which i have experienced in Angeles city walking back to my hotel had a very expensive gold necklace ripped of my neck,

There are hundreds of reports of exactly the same thing happening in Pattaya, and in many US and European cities for that matter.

Don't cleaning ladies do that sort of thing? They do in my building.

10 hours ago, oporhatch said:

if the gateway out into the world from Thailand is the slow down or ISP throttling

yesterday I witnessed a reduction in mbps of 30% to 90mbps between 18:30 and 21:00  (which I know is peak time )

However at this point my IPTV services started to Buffer.....did not do a testmy.net test -  however the 30% reduction and busy time probably caused the buffering. 

Surely that 90mbps speed test must be to a server within Thailand? 90mbps is more than enough for any IPTV streaming service that I have ever heard of so you should not be having any buffering issues with that much bandwidth, unless the IPTV server is outside Thailand in which case you should do a speed test to that country to see what you are really getting internationally.

10 hours ago, Peterw42 said:

I get what you are saying but how do they save money ? One person at full speed or one person at half speed still uses the same amount of data, it just takes longer. 

If I have a whole lot of data at one end of a cable and users at the other end, I cant see how slowing the data down will cost less.

They pay for a set amount of international bandwidth and they dont want to pay more. If there are many users then the only way to serve them all is to throttle the individual bandwidth for each. So that's what they do.

As you point out, they can also throttle particular services and particular ports, and they can also shape the traffic in all sorts of other ways.

The ISPs that work that way usually offer more expensive packages that are throttled/shaped less for international use. So the end user can just pay more and get better international connectivity if he wants.

"Up to you", as they say.

6 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

I usually prebook a taxi.

The taxi price at the airport went up to 1200b.

The link I posted seems to indicate 800B for a taxi and 250B for a minivan.

3 hours ago, giddyup said:

If you have no dependants of relatives to leave either property or money to, makes little difference.

Even without dependents I think at an advanced age I would rather avoid the hassle of trying to sell property here, if possible.

3 hours ago, giddyup said:

If you opt for a nursing home you can count on having a miserable last few years alive.

Can't agree with that. It all depends on the sort of place you go to.

It's a very simple job that any shop should be able to do. But will they do it properly and not mess it up?

I would do it myself. Even for an unskilled person it is easy IF they can follow simple instructions.

34 minutes ago, kellersphuket said:

having to report your presence to immigration everytime you return home from an overnight trip to another town is beyond ludicrous.

I agree. Thankfully as a retiree with my own condo I dont have to do it. But if I did have to do it I would consider it an unnecessary imposition and it would encourage me to look elsewhere.

The whole thing is made even more ridiculous when you consider that if you carry a mobile phone the government knows where you are at all times, to within a few hundred yards. The TM30 offers no such guarantee of accuracy at all. It is just a pointless bit of paperwork.

On 7/18/2019 at 4:34 PM, muratremix said:

AIS don't share ppoe login and password. Their router is custom made and it doesn't ask login, it retrieves it automatically. AIS is the hardest ISP in terms of using your own modem.

3BB is pretty easy for example. I use 3bb with Asus AC-86u for some time.

That's tricky of them. Normally even with those auto-configured systems it is possible to use PPPoE assuming that they will tell you what the codes are.

You can always try plugging your Apple router into AIS's router and just turn off the AIS wifi. This will work fine for almost all types of data, though in some circumstances you may need to adjust the AIS router to allow all data to pass through unaltered.

Apparently AIS use routers which configure themselves over the connection and this normally prevents you from using other brands of router as a direct replacement.

Most other companies don't do that, so you could configure your own router with their login/password and use it as a direct replacement with them.

Edit: looks like it is indeed possible to do this with AIS.

You may even find that the AIS router has the guest wifi function built-in as it is a fairly standard feature of better routers these days. All my routers do, including the two provided by my ISPs.

22 hours ago, Peterw42 said:

I dont know why people have so much trouble understanding their internet speed. You pay for a connection of a certain speed, if there is no speed restriction or traffic between you and the source/destination, thats the speed you will get, if the cable between turkey and france is full, you are sharing it with others and your speed will be slowed.

That covers how it works within Thailand but once you leave the LOS it becomes a very different matter. Thai ISPs impose speed limits on international traffic to reduce costs. So even if the cable between Thailand and (say) the USA is empty, your bits of data may still be throttled.

For example: I get 250Mbps within Thailand consistently but I am lucky to get 10% of that outside of Thailand. And to some places at some times of day I am lucky to get 1% of it. It's all due to traffic shaping and throttling.

22 hours ago, Peterw42 said:

Why are so many people using VPNs ? Is it to get around geo-blocking, watch home country TV etc ?

Thailands connections to the outside world are not that great sometimes, why add a VPN to the equation unless its absolutely nessisary.?

I use a VPN to access geo-locked servers sometimes, but I can often get significantly better bandwidth to non geo-locked servers in (say) the UK by using a VPN to Singapore as the peering arrangements between Thailand and Singapore are pretty good.

Try this:

https://www.facebook.com/UTPlimousine/

I have no idea how good or bad they are, or even if they really exist.

On 7/15/2019 at 10:05 AM, marino28 said:

Ps: they don’t delivery only 1 bottle at the time. 2 to 3 is the minimum, depence where you are. So for a single maybe is not convinient.

Even as a single I have two bottles each time as it cuts down on the visits and phone calls.

On 7/15/2019 at 10:01 AM, Rimmer said:

Stopped having water delivered around a year back as we were getting tanks that smelt of petrol and other strange tastes in the water. 

Yes. I always do wonder about that. I visited the treatment plant a year or two ago and it looked OK to me (what do I know?). So far my bottles have never smelt of anything and the water only tastes of water but there are plenty of things that you cant smell or taste.

7 hours ago, champers said:

Floor 1: a properly booked cab is 1500 Baht. No waiting around, no haggling, no mafia.

Or book in one advance by email for 1100B from people like Mr T or Ann taxi or several others.

1 hour ago, gk10002000 said:

Diana Inn

Demolished, and a high-rise condo is going up where it was. There is another finished one next door that functions almost entirely as a Chinese hotel.

You are going to notice a lot of other changes too, and you will stand out if you are not Chinese or Indian or Arab.

50 minutes ago, giddyup said:

Do you think that all old people (what age is old exactly?) should all be living in nursing homes?

No, but everyone should be aware that after the age of 70 they are increasingly likely to lose their marbles and get sick and die, or any mixture of the three.

I've still got my smarts and I can stand on one leg without falling over, but I doubt that both will be true in 10 years time. So at the age of 70 I expect I would be giving more consideration to finding a nice nursing home than to finding a nice condo to buy.