Jingthing

Apple? No.

I had a realme. Enough said. I agree my personal experiences are subjective. But that is only part of the reasons that I won't buy a Chnese brand phone.

Up to you back I had very very bad experiences with my first two smartphones, both Chinese brands. Switched to Samsung and it was night and day. I love Chinese food and some Chinese people, but there are objectively verified issues with Chinese government related security issues with at least some Chinese brands. I hate much of what the Chinese government is doing but I also hate much of what the U.S. government is doing as well. Especially recently that China is the backbone of the coalition of the killing in Ukraine etc. No it's not about made in China. It's about Chinese companies. I rate the chances of a war between China and the west as at least possible. If that happens I wouldn't want to be dependent on tech from a Chinese company. South Korea is a part of the west and Samsung does indeed offer some amazingly attractive phones, though nobody is saying the cheapest. I know some might say well not everything is politics. True, but not everything is not politics either.

I don't care what Obama did or Biden did. Trump is president now and isn't man enough to own up to responsibility for that. Now it's what Trump is doing, and what Trump is doing is having American soldiers bow down and lay down a red carpet for terrorist war criminal dictator Putin and clapping and smiling like a moron when he arrives.

Yeah well it does seem extremely unlikely he will be thrown into the hellscape of a joint like the Bangkok Hilton with the great unwashed. I don't think Thai society of for that matter most societies in the world really wants to see that with convicted ex-leaders. It would a political powder keg just the thought of it.

I'm still confused though it sounds like there maybe a sort of confirmation that the legacy of using a lawyer before may have mucked up something that does indeed block the lawyers from using the income method this time. I don't know what exactly. Address related? Where the stamps came from? Don't know. I agree an option is to try to do it himself but if his legacy is mucked up somehow by the lawyer, it seems to me that it might also be mucked up even though as clearly indicated he does have good evidence of all the needed 65k transfers. But that's not the entire application. Everything needs to comply for a do it yourself attempt. OR I guess if desperate go with the lawyers suggestion to do a "special process" for an 800K application even though he is definitely too late for that without such a scheme. This is another example I suppose of the wisdom of doing the extensions yourself and that using agents is not risk free in the long term. Best of luck.

Bugger if I know!

That obviously is NOT the case.

Generally Chinese phones.

There's a lot to unpack there. I'm assuming from your post that your Dad has been doing the extensions with the assistance of a lawyer/agent rather than by himself. I can say that Thai banks have become extremely onerous about foreigner bank accounts of late with the stated reason to combat fraud. Apparently thousands of foreigner owned accounts have been locked and/or closed. Bangkok Bank in particular has imposed insane bank freezes on people doing retirement extensions by the 800K method that has nothing to do with what immigration has ordered. Reading between the lines which is all I can do because you have provided incomplete info, it SOUNDS like what the lawyers are saying is probably true as far as assisting him with the 65K method. I don't really know why IF he really has done all the transfers and can prove it. So back to the 800K method, the funds need to be in the account two months before application. It sounds like you're past that now. Possibly the lawyer can do "special" process where he doesn't need to actually put up the money. That's what most people use agents for with retirement extensions and believe it or not it can be seen as quasi legal. Perhaps you will post more information and others can pipe in with their opinions on what is happening in your Dad's case.

Makes sense but I suppose that even with that he'd be facing a more than zero percentage risk that the winds will change and bite him.

Yes of course. So it's reasonable to assume that IF he does return that he's got some kind of iron clad guarantee that won't happen.

My initial findings are that the translation features are permanent with the purchase of the phone and not part of an add on paid service. For Thai, you probably need to download a pack for that, and here's another feature, you don't even need connectivity to use it.

Well I'm not a Luddite but I do understand caution with new tech. I'm using basic AI daily now though.

Either in an oven or you can buy specialized mini ovens for that (that also work to make extracts with oils). Google for details. You don't want to overcook. In the oven will smell up your house.

Aha. That's definitely a detail I need to check out. I recall something related to that but I thought the paid part was for AI content creators, etc. and assumed the translation part was baseline. Thanks for alerting me to this possible big issue.

Avocados

You can make potent tea from cannabis but you need to decarboxylate it first.

Y'all are gonna laugh but I'm now feeling a push towards the S25 plus. Why? As I said before, I can afford it. With 7 years of promised support, the extra cost over the A56 can be rationalized as trivial on a monthly basis. But what is really making the difference is what I hope to get from the AI translation features. I did a little bit of research and apparently it works really well including English/Thai which has got to be more of a difficult one. Not only the during a phone conversation part but the live conversation feature is said to be much less clumsy than using standard google translate. So why the plus over the more budget FE? I think the plus is better future proofed. Also I prefer bigger phones over the petite S25.

He actually didn't even commit to that much less actually do anything. DUH.

Oh, no! Opinions. We can't have that.

Yes of course! Damn those pesky Koreanas for taking away jobs from Mexicans!

Not helping Ukraine INCREASES the chance of nuclear war. Why? Russia will NOT stop. Duh. I think his primary motivation in sucking up to his idol Putin is that Trump craves love from Putin and all other authoritarian strong men dictators because that's how Trump imagines himself to be (though obviously a weak tea one comparably). Trump is on the SIDE of Russia. He is HELPING Russia. He WANTS Russia to win. Not Ukraine. Also of course he deeply despises Zelinskyy on a personal level. He does some dances to mask that as he knows the harsh reality of that freaks out so many people, but that's the reality.

I don't know about the nation, but I'm definitely feeling all abuzz.

To attempt to divert more like.