Ex Machina

On 9/16/2019 at 9:42 PM, wreckingcountry said:

Better to pay 7500 with all the extras and you know it reliable, than pay 3000 with usually no more than a 3 month warranty


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Couldn't agree more.

I did order the battery there, part arrived within 2 days (they said 7-14 days...)... then they fixed it within 2 days.

It's cool. IT's 7500 baht but i got a brand new keyboard and lower chassis (except the bottom plate)

And they fixed my broken speakers for 700 Baht! I had been quoted 2500 from an independent shop before, and the procedure to replace these is crazy, you basically have to take the entire thing apart, display off, etc. So this was another good thing.

Couldn't be happier with the service.

7500 is fair it's basically the price it was promised at the time of purchase - $200. The THB has gone up since so it's more than $200 - but that's not Apple's fault.

On 10/18/2014 at 7:59 AM, BKKdreaming said:

Yes to your accounts.....

but if they did not reset their old iPad before donating it there is no way to find the old owner and get the unlock password

A family tried to get an iPad unlocked in the UK when the Mom died and none of the family knew what it was, Apple refused to unlock it.

I assume it has a Hard drive inside and if you took it apart you could get to the hard drive , that does not help you with iCloud (which I did not want to get into anyway)

Apple devices all have full disk encryption enabled. That means if you get access to the physical memory, it's all gibberish. It's encrypted. Haha. You need the password to decrypt.

Furthermore, anything related to passwords and Face ID unlock and so on is stored in a secure enclave hardware chip.

You can't hack it unless you are the FBI. FBI couldn't unlock it either but they paid some hacking company $1M for a hardware device that can hack the iPhone. Last I heard that no longer works, but where there is a will (and $1M), there is a way.

They work well, my son is using one for his gaming laptop.

IDK why you would say the USB ones don't work - of course they work. The one I have has 2 huge fans and consists of a cooler grill kinda design that keeps the laptop as cool as it can be.

Complaza, Icon Plaza have them - that building behind com plaza, the new com plaza, has several accessories shops.

And no, fans do not generate more heat than they cool off .... basic logic, or your room fan would actually be an oven ????

That being said, if your CPU is actually overheating to the point where it shuts down, then those cooling pads may not be enough.

Then you may need a better designed laptop - these gaming laptops have very good cooling systems, they can run full power with full graphics all day long.
 

If you have a Mac, what I do is use iStats pro menu bar, not only does it show all temp sensors in the computer (there's an astounding number of them) - it also allows you to set the minimum fan speed a bit higher.

That's perfect for outdoors in thailand and Cafes and so on. You still can't hear it in loud places but it keeps all the electronics much cooler and prevents premature death.

Screenshot of that beauty

iCare and all these places aren't as good as Apple in the US. 

For an Apple-in-the-US customer experience, you need to go to the official Apple Store at Icon Siam in Bangkok.

iCare wanted to keep my computer for 3 weeks for a battery replacement - Icon Siam Apple store ordered the part for me, and I only needed to bring it in when the part was there. Was still 2 days because they're so backlogged / overwhelmed with work but it was a good experience. Certainly better than 3 weeks.

An employee even suggested I could buy a new MacBook while mine was being repaired, then return it free of charge inside the 14 day return window. I thought I'd do that but then changed my mind. I wanted to see what it's like to have no computer for 2 days - strangely enough I was working a lot, on the phone - and I also didn't want to abuse the system, like what are they gonna do with the returned machine, refab it and sell it cheaper? It didn't feel right for many reasons.

HEIC is a new image compression format used by Apple - it's more efficient and better quality than JPG.

However, it's not yet widely supported, whereas everything and anything can read/process/write JPG.

On 11/23/2019 at 9:26 AM, Bassosa said:

I prefer an Apple Macbook Pro over a Windows machine as its CHEAPER.

I am a heavy user and have had Sony Vaios and Asus machines before, mid-range. They used to last me two years before they basically fell apart. And by that time the OS would've slowed down significantly.

My current Macbook Pro I've had for four years and it still works the same as day 1. I've never had that with any laptop. The build quality is also stupidly good. Hardly a scratch on it!

Lol at the people saying that you can get a blazing fast Windows machine for the same money as an Apple. For how long is it going to be blazing fast? Guaranteed after one year it will be bogged down and seriously slow. 

At this point the Windows argument is ridiculous and anybody making it must be living under a rock. 

I mean they're not under a rock, they just go and look at the cheapest crappiest PC they can find, then compare it with a MacBook and determine that, oh, the MacBook costs 3x as much. Well. Duh! Of course it does!

Writing this on a 7 year old 2012 retina MacBook Pro. 16GB RAM, 512 SSD - both never needed "replacement". They just work. 

Computer is built solid as anything however I did have to replace the "non-user-replaceable" battery. Apple stood by its promise from 7 years ago and replaced this battery for $200 (no charge for labor). 

People complain about the top case assembly with keyboard and trackpad being glued to the battery. This engineering decision baffles me as much as anyone, however it should be said that

1 - Any Mac shop has a guy who will replace only the battery - they just unglue it from the top casing, they're absolute artisans at this. And then your replacement battery is only $70. Or even just $50 on AliExpress. Takes 30 minutes. Unfortunately, with the PC-like price also comes PC-like quality and so that battery became worn out within a few months. So I went with option 2 and had Apple replace it, which brings me to 2

2 - Apple replaces the battery, entire lower casing, keyboard, and trackpad. So I get a new battery for $200 but also get a new keyboard, trackpad and lower case thrown in for free. Out of this poor engineering decision comes a pretty good deal if you ask me ????

And this 7 years later... they also replaced my speakers which had blown out for $20.

This sort of customer commitment is really unique.

Dell and Acer don't need to worry about storing service parts for 7 year old laptops I guess because their crappy designs have long fallen apart 

There's some good PC laptops - thinkpads, some gaming laptops, Dell XPS higher end models. But ... they also cost just as much as Macs. Surprise, surprise ????

I'll get this new 16" for sure. Apple seems to have finally decided to make a good laptop again, after the years long disaster that was the 2016 design. I even had a 2018 for a bit, found it only marginally better than my old computer, and in some ways much worse (like only USB-C meaning everyone is carrying dongles around... )

But USBC is now mainstream so it's not an issue anymore. The 16" fixes the keyboard, and has a bigger battery - wow. Amazing machine, really deserves the Pro label.

When in the history of Apple has Apple last made a new machine *thicker* and *heavier*??!!!! First time I remember!

On 11/20/2019 at 4:07 PM, Thainesss said:

Thought I would interject here and repeat again that anyone who hasn't yet upgraded to Catalina - Dont. 

 

Ive never, in over a decade of macs, seen the spinning beachball as much as I have with this stupid 'upgrade'.

 

Weird, buggy garbage. 

 

Was in a hotel the other day and I COULD NOT log into the hotel wifi because due to a bug in the OS, it would not allow the captive portal to open. So after spending my entire morning on my phone googling the problem, I had to start the mac in safe mode to get the window to open. 

 

Im not the most advanced user but I have no doubt a new mac user would never have managed to get around this problem. 

I hope they get all this sh*t work out and im confident they will but damn. 

 

All that said, I still wouldn't ever get a windows computer. They are exhausting machines that constantly try and trick you into allowing bloatware to infiltrate your machine and require constant monitoring. 

Catalina works fine for me - 2012 retina macbook pro. 

I just had an issue logging into AIS smart login though - well... screwing up WiFi is basically Apple standard on any OS upgrade ????

Joking aside, for everything else it's fine and I *love* dark mode. It's like having a whole new computer for free.

This forum seems to be somewhat dead but can't really leave this pinned post here without adding the best warranty option in Thailand, ICONSIAM Apple Store.

It has a genius bar like in the US. It has parts in stock (everyone else ordering from Singapore).

This is a very large qualitative difference to authorized dealers I've been to. It's closer to US standards than Thai. 

Go to K-Phone in Maya Mall, K-Phone in Central Festival, Or Airport... OK I guess there's a K-Phone in every mall.

Super professional.

Expect around 700THB for battery replacement.

Had great experiences with them, used many times.

I guess we will have to wait for the government to change for the dual pricing to change. All of the dual pricing is a mistake, resident foreigner or not.

In the short term, the move will pay off even if 9 out of 10 ripped off foreigners refuse, which is to say, it will pay off, stupid as it is.

Long term effects of making Thailand a worse place to visit is something that should probably be measured as a percentage of the marketing budget of the TAT. Even if it is a minuscule amount more advertising they have to do to compensate, there is no way it ends up a cash positive.

Foreigners turning around and leaving I think will have an effect.

Not forgetting that you might suddenly encounter a queue of traffic in the fast lane waiting to do a u turn at one of the many cleverly laid put u turn exits.

When I was in driving school in Europe we learned one thing: Always drive by sight. Imagine there's a fallen log across the road just out of sight. Don't drive faster than you can brake.

This rule comes in very handy in Thailand, where no matter where you are, quite often there's stopped traffic, or a cleaning truck, or God knows what parked on your lane.

I've found an SUV parked _in_ a left curve once. It was surprising but I've just added it to the list of things that don't surprise me anymore. Of course it's stupid and reckless to park there - but if I hit that guy it's still my fault because either I wasn't paying attention or I was going faster than I can brake.

I've always avoided the scooter lane, and any lane related laws. Never been fined for it. Go where you're most comfortable for your speed.

Not sure how reliable DSL reports is but AIS fiber is looking good on it too , 30/10 connection

http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest/559569

Figures, just as I give up on TOT they suddenly buy more bandwidth...

Western Digital Passport Ultra 1TB is a nice and fast external USB 3.0 drive. I've been using one for about 18 months as my backup drive. I bought it then for around Bt2500...it's a little cheaper now.

I have this too, paid 2,150 for it, or something like that.

It's great - very small, very fast. Only downside is that it suffers from an overly bright LED light but that is easily fixed with a bit of tape. I would recommend formatting it first thing, you don't need all the "extras" on there.