James105

Buying it from Apple directly I have done in the past, but every time it has been shipped from China (even if in stock in Thailand) so can take a week or more to get it. Buying something from a Studio 7 store has never been a problem before. I bought my last iPad from one of them. The system was that I paid for the device and left the store with the device in its box without anyone needing to open it.

The store employee when the phone is new has full admin control over it and could potentially install firmware (root kit for example) that provides a back door into the phone for a nefarious individual. Connected to wifi means connected to internet and the internet is a place full of dangerous software that could be downloaded and installed as the store employee has full admin control over the device at this stage. So lets say a nasty hacker is aware of Studio 7s policy of accessing the phone before the purchaser has secured it themselves and one of their "tests" is to connect to the internet and activate it. This nasty hacker offers lowly paid Studio 7 store employees 20,000 bahts per phone to simply visit an IP address and download a root kit to the phone that reinstalls itself whenever a factory reset is activated. The customer then factory resets the phone and goes merrily on his way thinking the phone is "secure" as its been reset, but in reality the device is completely open to the hacker thanks to the software the employee downloaded. Is that far fetched? Sure it is. Is it possible? Sure it is. If the store employee doesn't connect the phone to the internet is it possible? Nope. The point I am making is that it is impossible for this to happen if the customer takes control of the phone after purchase and sets it up themselves. Letting someone else do something with the device and connect it to the internet just seems like an unnecessary risk (no matter how small that risk is) considering the device will have full access to every aspect of my financial life.

Root kits would be my main concern as they can affect the hardware of the device and potentially can be set up to reinstall on reset. Do I know how to do it? Nope. Can it be done if someone has control of your device and its connected to the internet to download and install it? Possibly. Can it be done if I am the one setting up the phone? Definitely not.

Actually, whilst I was talking to the manager about it I got a notification on my phone that the payment was refunded which the first sales guy did as he got the hump with me laughing at the silliness of it all. If they had explained and/or just let me set the thing up which I was trying to suggest as solution and do the tests myself in the English language (rather than the Thai language he was doing it in) it probably would have resulted in win/win (store sells phone I get phone) instead of lose/lose where store has an opened phone they cannot sell and I don't have phone. This makes the whole "testing to make sure it works" scenario utterly pointless then as you are in no better position than if you took it out of the store in its box without testing. I doubt very much they would break the seals and open a device box prior to payment as if you change your mind they now have an opened device which most people would be reluctant to buy.

Sure I could watch him do it but since he was using the Thai language to go through the set up which I cannot read that wasn't much comfort. Maybe if he had explained before I bought the device what he planned to do and why he had to do it then it wouldn't have caught me by surprise.

The Tories have made a mistake. The last thing they need is another WEF puppet as their leader. Good for Reform though I would think.

Easy and safe for sure, not sure about fast though. Every time I've ordered something from Apple, even if it is in stock in their Bangkok stores it gets shipped from China so has always been 1-2 weeks.

These devices have hardware based security and it is a device that will store my banking details and passwords for every financial aspect of my life. Even though I would be 99.9% sure there would be no issues with this that 0.1% of doubt can affect my sleep. The guy was just doing his job but he caught me by surprise by opening the box and then messing around with the phone I had just purchased and was technically mine at that point.

I went to the other Studio 7 near where I live and its the same there and in PowerBuy too. The very specific tests they have to do are: 1. Connect to wifi 2. Activate the phone 3. Test the camera 4. Test the sound. Considering this is functionality found on every apple device and it is only the phones that they have this policy for (they don't need to do this for iPads for example) then my presumption is that there is a bad batch of phones that have made it through production and into Thailand that have problems with one or more of these aspects and I am guessing that Apple have told them to do this to make it easier for the store to return them. In the other one I offered to do the setup/tests myself in store so at least its only my own grubby fingerprints on the shiny new toy but weirdly they said no to that so I guess I'll just order directly from Apple or pick one up next time I am in Bangkok. Still think it is a stupid policy though and one I remain uncomfortable with.

It's too late for me to turn to Android. I've been Appled. Phone, watch, laptop, tablet and TV and they all play so nicely together. Impossible to change now.

Yes very odd. Prices are identical to Apple stores, really is no difference and still covered by Apple guarantee as well so there really isn't even any need to open the box, yet alone carry out the other nonsense he was attempting.

I might go and pick one up from the other Studio 7 in town today and see if the madness occurs there as well or if this is just an isolated case of Studio 7 idiocy.

Checking it is working is annoying but I have no major problem with that and once the phone turned on that is proof enough. But going through the phone set up to get it to connect to the internet and do whatever else is too much, especially for a device that is used for so many things like banking etc. It made me way too uncomfortable watching him go through the setup (in Thai language as well) to let him continue. As I said, I had bought and paid for the device at this point so technically it was mine and I should have some say into what he can do with it.

1. I don't know how much time he has spent in his constituency and nor do I care. It's generally accepted that party leaders are less available that normal MPs. How much time does Starmer spend in his constituency for example? Do you know or care? I suspect not. 2. Farage didn't gift anyone billions of pounds of PPE so is utterly irrelevant. I don't think he is hero worshipped to the same level he is vilified by the morons on the left. He speaks about uncomfortable truths which is why people on the left are so afraid of him. Regarding Trump it is important for the west that he gets elected. If he demonstrates that economic growth can be achieved by slashing taxes, cutting wasteful spending and eradicating illegal immigration then this will provide a path the UK can follow in the next election and eradicate the socialist clowns we have in government for another generation.

Yeah 100%. They are official Apple resellers. The phone was fine, nothing wrong with it at all. It's a transaction I have made several times in the past with me paying and literally walking out the store without anybody needing to even open the box (from Apple stores not Studio 7) and haven't encountered this silliness before. It was quite amusing in the store as I was saying that since I had paid for it the device was mine now and he was insisting he needed to set it up (and he was setting it up using Thai language as well) to get to the connect to wifi stage and wouldn't let me leave with the device I had bought and paid for. Bonkers.

So I tried to buy a new iPhone yesterday. Went into the local Studio 7 and they had what I wanted in stock so I paid for it. The next step should be walking out the store with my newly purchased product... right? Well not in this case. The guy then said he needed to open it to check it was working. So he broke the seal, then removed the protective plastic and used his grubby fingers on my shiny new toy to turn it on. Ok fine, its working, I thank him and take the phone and put it back in the box ready to leave. Can I leave? Nope. He then says he needs to sign into wifi with it to activate it and take a photo and check other things. Store policy or something. Now checking it is working is one thing, but getting to the stage of connecting a device that I use for authentication, banking and investments to the internet before I have had a chance to use it, now that is a no go for me. So I said there was no need and I can activate it myself. He wouldn't let me leave and in the end he ended up refunding my payment as I wouldn't let him use my new phone and connect it to wifi and do whatever before I have had a chance to secure it and activate it with my apple account. So the store now has an opened iPhone in stock that they will not be able to sell as new and I still don't have a new iPhone. What kind of madness is this?

Are you confusing Farage with Starmer here? Why do you think people labelled him "Free gear Keir"?

So what? I never said he was I (correctly) stated he was Labour. You were the one banging on about how private sector pensions should be improved and I pointed out one of the reasons they are so bad is because of idiotic Labour policies to grab relatively small amounts of money that has devastating consequences.

What? You are actually crediting the explosion of civil servants with the advancement of medicine and sanitation since the 19th century that led to longer life expectancy in the 20th century and beyond? How about trying to address the points being that the UK cannot afford the public sector pensions (£2.5 trillion) and public sector "workers" with their "broad shoulder" pensions should maybe have to shoulder some of the burden that the private sector already is if frittering away £11bn to africa for climate nonsense, £13bn to foreign aid, £8bn to illegal immigrants, £22bn to carbon capture and £3bn to Zelensky is considered essential expenditure for the taxpayers. Take a look at Labour (shock) for the devastating impact he had on private pensions. Another legacy of the Blair era: https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-13041677/HAMISH-MCRAE-Time-fix-Gordon-Browns-pension-errors.html Stole £5bn from private pension funds in tax which is estimated to cost to the pension funds of an estimated £250bn over the last 20 years since that money wasn't reinvested back into the funds and makes no money today since the pension funds no longer hold British assets.

Taking winter fuel payments away from people on one of the lowest pensions in Europe with one of the highest energy bills in Europe which at best saves £1.4bn and if those struggling manage to complete the 243 question form for pension credits will cost the government more money. Labours own research said this will kill 4000 people before their time. Meanwhile they managed to find (borrow) money to throw away on the following: £11bn wasted on climate payments to Africa. £13bn wasted on foreign aid £22bn wasted on "carbon capture" £3bn wasted on Zelensky As you have never run a business it's clear you understand as little as the clowns in government of the impact of employers NIC on ordinary working people and how it will force employers to employ less people at lower wages.

This in a nutshell. Any public sector pay rises should be paid for by a reduction in pension benefits they receive. If they want parity with the private sector then give them parity with every aspect including the lack of job security that comes with poor performance. The public sector is far too large. At the height of the British empire Britain employed about 40,000 civil servants globally. This was before the internet, GPS, mobile phones, AI, computers and all the other productivity tools at our disposal today. The UK government (without needing to manage an empire and with all these tools) today employs about 546,000 people. If 500,000 of those people disappeared overnight would anyone even notice?

1. Thailand economy != UK economy. It relies on tourism so would benefit from a weaker baht. 2. This thread is about UK budget, not Thailand. 3. When the pound last tanked and the gilts rose following Liz Truss budget leftists here had a meltdown over it. They seem to be more relaxed about the same thing happening here.

I'd much prefer a UK equivalent of Guantanamo bay. We are currently harbouring tens of thousands of Islamic terrorists in the UK (40,000 on the MI5 watchlist but that figure was from several years ago now). This monster came from a 2% Islamic country into a 6.7% Islamic country. Since he arrived he has been radicalised. This monster will have information about who was involved in his journey from innocent looking Dr Who appearing kid into the Al Queada manual downloading, child killing terrorist he became and everyone involved in that journey needs to be rounded up. Won't happen of course as we have to wait for the trial to confirm what we already know (he is a child killer) and then the heads can be firmly planted back in the sand whilst fretting about Islamaphobia and doing everything possible to appease the people who so so clearly hate the west and its way of life.

My presumption is they are hiding a muslim beard which is why all the artist sketches have him covering that part of his face.

They voted for it as they were misled. "Referring to the 2003 vote to invade Iraq, he said: "If you look just at the debate alone, on five different grounds the House was misled, three in terms of the weapons of mass destruction, one in terms of the UN votes were going, and one in terms of the threat, the risks." https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-36756878 Labour were overspending before the crash. Had they not done so the UK would not have been so affected.