build6

Any chance I can talk you into doing all the work? If it turns out to be a nice simple succinct reply from them, you can go ahead and laugh at me

But if it involves a lot of back and forth where you explain and re-explain what you're trying to find out...then I guess my reluctance is warranted!

Haha

It's ok no worries

You're right I should just "go to the source"

the problem is that I don't speak Thai and I've built up an aversion to talking to "official channels" because it just takes so much effort (and too often, end up with incomplete/inaccurate information). So I hoped to try my luck here.

haha when I saw there was a reply posted to the thread you really got my hopes up :-P

So as a test when in Gadget Trend I looked at Google maps on my phone, chose a street name in a town (Kanchananburi) and asked the sales lady to show me how to search for it, she tried three times, no result found... Never mind, probably a different spelling of the street name in English I thought, lets try a different street.... same no result found....

Needless to say I left the shop without spending the thick end of 6000 Baht on a machine that can't do what my 4000 baht mobile phone can do.....

Shame really as I really wanted a GPS, anyone any experience with Papago?

I find street addresses etc. in Thailand to be generally unworkable in English, because there's basically no spelling "standardisation". And I don't know the difference between, say, "Sukhumvit Soi 1" and "Sukhumvit 1 Soi" (things like this show up all the time when I have to find addresses in Bangkok).

When I've relied on the GPS for navigation I've almost always relied on the "points of interest" database (searching for particular hotels, landmarks etc. - but even for that there can be issues if there aren't any English names for the place, Thai-->English transliteration is really quite random in terms of spelling). Businesses/shops are surprisingly well represented in the database too. And I've noticed a lot of business websites outright stating their GPS coordinates.

I've not regretted buying my Garmin - so much so I've never considered exploring alternatives.

Why does not the Garmin suggest this way home?

(1) what version map are you using? if it is outdated it might not have all the available options.

(2) per MJCM said, your Garmin can be set to optimise for different things - "shortest distance", "shortest time" etc., the route it will offer you will differ based on this. Also, you can define "exclusions"/avoidances - especially because it's not a new unit, it may be set to avoid using particular roads, for example. You need to check your own device settings. English language instructions/manuals can be found online even if the booklet is in Thai.

Another thing ,how do you cancel the trip you are doing so you can alter you destination? I have tried to change my trip several times and cannot appear to change it, I close it down, type in cancel trip and other things nothing works.

When the GPS is first turned on you should be on the main screen. There is a "Where To" on the left, and "view map" on the right. You tap on the "where to" to program in where you're going, and then the system switches you to the map view right? In map view there will be a button to return you to the main screen. When there is a destination currently programmed, there will be a circle with a cross (a universal sign for cancel?) on the bottom left (below the "Where to"). Tap that and you can cancel the current destination program.

I got a good deal at the mobile expo. If you can wait, I think its not a bad idea to wait for the promotions at the expo (I'm sure there'll be another next year?). I bought an LG at a good price with lots of useful freebies (power bank!) and the vendor was actually jaymart.

If you can't wait and aren't desperate for "rock bottom prices" why not just get from the stores in the malls? TG Fone, etc

http://news.yahoo.com/obvious-scam-android-app-installed-over-1-million-193927872.html

RM-977 Americas 3G 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100

RM-979 Brazil 3G 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 Dual-SIM with SBTVD (Brazilian terrestrial digital TV standard) - realized with additional app.

So may be have a look for the RM number on the packing box , just why Nokia do not print the actual radio bands etc of the phone on the packing box is crazy .

So for DTAC/True, probably have to find RM-977 then? Seems implausible they'll sell RM-979 anywhere here (lack of Brazilian broadcast TV, for one thing).

Surely you can find something better to do than watch foreign TV when you're in Thailand, though!

The cell coverage in a Thailand is great in all those areas... The wifi will be hit or miss... Most hotels will have free wifi for you but they are usually slow or the hotspots are not close enough to your room to be useful...

If you have four people you might get everyone a SIM card with NET 250...

What is NET 250? Yes I have 4 phones (an iPhone 4, an iPhone 4S, and two iPhone 5). In the US, hotel wifi is always slower than 4G LTE. 3G however isn't always as fast. Current my daughter is using the wifi in a Bangkok hotel to watch Netflix. I don't know if it's going ok but I did talk her through setting up VPN while she was using her iPhone to Skype with me.

Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

NET 250 is a name for one of the packages offered by True. It's listed in the link sfokevin gave you earlier:

http://truemoveh.truecorp.co.th/3g/toppings/iplay/entry/654

3G in Thailand is actually pretty good, speed-wise (I'm talking metropolitan areas not out in the sticks) since they have HSPA+ and I've on occasion gotten faster "3G" speeds in Thailand than I got for "4G" in Singapore, for example.

However, if the purpose of the bandwidth you want to get is to watch Netflix I think you might be better off relying on the hotel network, price wise (depends on the hotel of course).

Do you have more details re your wife's experience with local SIM cards being slow? That seems to have coloured your perceptions a bit. I, too, was thinking a prepaid SIM would work better than WiFi.

Unfortunately I don't have more details at the moment. My guess is she had a SIM card that slowed the speeds after only a week or two of usage. She's back in Thailand now and I won't arrive until Thursday night.

Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

All of the "unlimited" packages you can sign up for include a fixed amount of "fair use" volume - once the amount of MB/GB you've used hits that limit, the system will throttle you down to a slower speed - i.e. your internet access won't be cut off, but it'll be significantly slower once you've crossed that mark. So you can't sign up for a weekly package and then just leave your phone streaming movies permanently 24/7 the entire week, for example.

If your wife initially experienced acceptable/good speeds, then there is no technical problem and you should be able to rely on SIM cards with prepaid packages. Once you hit the volume limits you can "top up" with a bit more money for more high speed data (she should have got an SMS about it, actually).

If your wife NEVER got tolerable/acceptable speeds then there might be an issue with either your equipment or the places you will be going, in which case seeking out wifi locales etc. is worth the effort.

Do you have more details re your wife's experience with local SIM cards being slow? That seems to have coloured your perceptions a bit. I, too, was thinking a prepaid SIM would work better than WiFi.

BANGKOK: -- The Education Ministry has put the children tablet project on hold pending a two-week study by a working group of its advantage and disadvantages.

This afternoon, the Education Ministry announced that the children tablet project project has been scrapped.

https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/singapore-grapples-smartphone-addiction-030637768.html

From the article:

=============

He recalled having treated an 18-year-old male student with extreme symptoms.

"When I saw him, he was unshaven, he had long hair, he was skinny, he hadn't showered for days, he looked like a homeless man," Wang told AFP.

The boy came to blows with his father after he tried to take away the young man's laptop computer.

After the father cut off Internet access in the house, desperation drove the boy to hang around neighbours' homes trying to get a wireless connection.

He was eventually hospitalised, put on anti-depressants and received "a lot" of counselling, Wang said.

...

actually what this says to me is that the phone is too scary to buy

too much uncertainty

According to this there's a RM-979 for which UMTS on 850 is possible:

http://www.smartphonezero.com/nokia-lumia-630-dual-sim-rm-978-specs/

however this also seems to indicate only SIM1 has full access to the networking hardware (SIM2 is GPRS/EDGE only?!)

where my confusion is . I did in the jaymart shop ask to see the Dual SIM version's box but it had '' No '' specification details printed on the out side of the box at all

That really surprises me.

Hrm what about part number? There must be some kind of part number on the box somewhere? You could google that and see what the net says.

GSMarena listing for the 630 dual sim *is* 900/2100 only:

http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_lumia_630_dual_sim-6255.php

from that page I see "RM-978" as the part number, and googling that I find myself getting to:

http://www.nokiapoweruser.com/2014/03/11/two-dual-sim-variants-of-lumia630-rm-978-rm-979-pass-through-fcc/

So there's quite a bit of evidence that it really is 900/2100 only.

actually the lack of printed specifications on the box doesn't surprise me as much anymore - if the product ONLY does particular frequencies there's less of a need to make a distinction on the box so that staff don't hand out the wrong model... either that phone model is right for you or it isn't, and you can do that from the "marketing name" itself, no need to double-check...

Phones often have different editions for different markets. It looks to me very much like the particular phone you saw is AIS-only, and will NOT work for 3G networking with your True SIM. I wouldn't get it if I were you.

One more definitive way to check is to ask to see the box - the frequencies will be printed on it. If it doesn't say 850 for WCDMA then its not right for you.

The tot website has no English to speak of. How does the tot prepaid validity work? Is it also 30 days per top up? Is there a pay-to-extend option?

There are different types of top up machines.

The top up machines at the AIS/True branches are "in house" and don't charge fees. Everywhere I've seen them there've been staff standing beside to help you use them (kind of defeats the purpose of having self help kiosks?).

You can't miss them.

If you're in a town that has a Central Plaza/Festival, just go to the AIS/True in them.

As far as i know, DTAC does not have these in-house machines.

The top up machines outside 7-11s are by a third party and hence the additional fees.

"A telecom analyst said the partnership would help True with its financing, since its net gearing has reached 1,051 per cent."

--- 1051% net gearing!

I have an LG E455 which is the previous generation of the current L40. I can confirm it's built well and works well, so it bodes well for these new revisions.

But there are a few cost-cutting corners they cut which I disliked - for example the home, menu etc buttons aren't backlit so you can't see them at night.

(on the other hand, I like price savings too)

I guess we don't have to worry about them running out of money despite their long loss-making run...

FYI I've found that the prepaid scratch cards work abroad too (this requires you to already have activated international roaming though?). The problem here is that the lowest denomination for DTAC scratch cards I've seen is 60 baht. So the free day option lomatopo pointed out above is more cost effective.

Haha how about 4 hours to Central Festival Hatyai?

Anyways maybe its possible to just call and ask... T G Fone, Jaymart, Banana et al are represented at Central Surat.

He was talking about Surat Thani so I was thinking of the central there. Actually I do know its available in Malaysia so if he's up to a 9+ hour round trip drive south of Surat....