lennois

OK, I should have said only one that is FREE WORLDWIDE. Yeah great, I can buy sygic and use it in SEA. Buy another one/more maps when I go back down under. Buy another/more maps when i head to England. No thanks - if you are a world traveller then ovi maps just isn't going to be beat (unless you have plenty of cash to burn I guess.) If google make their maps offline then I will make the jump to android, but if they wanted to, they would have already.

Whats the 'use offline' problem you have ?? Isnt that the whole good side of a smartphone ?? They are overkill if you dont have data..

...

Google should be paying you chap.

Offline maps are important because no one wants to get stung with large roaming charges when they are travelling. It is one of the most asked for features for google maps but it isn't going to happen. Yes, garmin etc have offline maps but it is gonna get expensive very quickly if you travel worldwide.

Yes, I see android has just got skype. Symbian has had it for ages...

Screen res isn't that important on such a small screen tbh. No one had any issues with browsing on a 3GS with a 480x320 res, but now suddenly they up the res and that's all that matters.. And small correction - the n8 res is 640 x 360. Wouldn't want you cutting pixels off now would we.

I would say the n8 is a flagship multimedia phone - and it does this aspect better than most all. Competing for the hardcore mobile computer user isn't really it's goal - The n9 coming in a few months running meego will be doing that, and currently the n900 is.

I don't even disagree with most of what you write. Android/iphone are better for apps and UI. N8 is a camera phone with sweet hardware for 2/3 the price of iphone or galaxy S with plenty of good apps of it's own (and all the important ones I can think of.) Both have their markets. However, I don't see the op firing up his android phone to fly his helicopter, do you?

Symbian has ovi maps which is the only decent offline worldwide sat nav available. It really is quite good.

Garmin.. Tomtom.. NDrive.. Sygic.. CoPilot.. Google turn by turn (which you cant install on symbian with Thai maps). Theres 10's of them out there. Of course many wont run on that phone platform.

As you say, you dont care about apps.. So dont buy a smartphone.. Not everyone wants or needs a smartphone, in fact if you see my post I am saying if you dont need the power of one, get s dumb-phone and dont suffer the battery / price / etc disadvantages. But comparing dumb-phones and saying they can do everything just shows your not pushing the limits of what modern ones can do.

We have an online financial enterprise, we have coded an iOS app and will have a android one in the new year, these mobile clients are mission critical online banking type apps our logs show what hardware is connecting to our mobile site and symbian is a single digit %, its just yesterdays tech in the mobile internet field.

OK, I should have said only one that is FREE WORLDWIDE. Yeah great, I can buy sygic and use it in SEA. Buy another one/more maps when I go back down under. Buy another/more maps when i head to England. No thanks - if you are a world traveller then ovi maps just isn't going to be beat (unless you have plenty of cash to burn I guess.) If google make their maps offline then I will make the jump to android, but if they wanted to, they would have already.

Most apps are bought, used for a day, then quickly forgotten about. There are of course apps that symbian have which android doesn't - a native skype client for one, and garmin runs on symbian.

Don't forget symbian still has by far the largest market share of smartphones and now the development environment is nice (QT) I expect the app store to take off.

But yeah, overall if you need tonnes of apps that symbian doesn't offer or care about how pretty your UI is, don't buy a nokia. Make no mistake though, the N8 is going to sell like hotcakes.

I have not got a clue what you are on about OS this and OS that, maybe a touch complicated phone is not for me, looks, camara and easy of operation is all I want.

This is my point exactly, if you are looking for hardware then dont worry about symbian, android and all that. Look at the quality of the camera, sat nav, storage and looks etc.

Dont agree personally.. A smartphone is only as good as its apps..

For example you say look at its GPS.. How many GPS apps are there on symbian ?? With Thai maps ?? If you talk about iOS and Android you have 10's of options globally for mapping solutions.. Even here in Thailand you have multiples (tomtom, nDrive, etc) any minute now we expect to have the garmin app released on android.

The camera.. Can you load photoshop mobile onto symbian ??

With a smartphone its ALL about its expandability.. Its about customizing it for your needs and NOT being fixed with what the phone does out of the box, and to do that you need a large dev community and really that means currently android phones or Apple phones (win series 7 phones being an unknown at this stage).

I have nothing against conventional phones.. Nokia make some solid units.. As do Sony (I like their cybershots had 3 of them over the years) but once going to a smartphone then its all about the apps and expandability.

A smartphone is all about different things for different people tbh. A lot of people simply don't care about a lot of apps (myself included.)

Symbian has ovi maps which is the only decent offline worldwide sat nav available. It really is quite good. You can install google maps, garmin, or a host of others if you so desire. No need though. I have FREE built in nav in Thailand, NZ, Aus, England which i visit frequently. I don't have to buy different options for different countries.

App development is all QT now so apps are all compatible over s^3 and meego phones. Nokia have also thrown 10 million dollars into an app competition so expect the apps to explode.

For about 16K you get a global offline nav device, a camera which matches mid range point and shoot camera, with awesome hardware. The UI isn't as nice as competitors, and app store not as vast, but for 16K you are getting an awful lot.

I tried to leave the link to Drummond's blog in place when I responded, but I was getting an error from TV saying I am not allowed to post links, so I had to remove it. What possible motive would I have in removing the link that displays Drummond's inconsistencies? He states in his blog that the "unspeakable acts" happened in Koh Samui as I have posted before the topic was closed. Other readers dismiss that error with a shrug and a flippant "it happens", but for me, it is a yet another demonstration of extremely poor fact checking, editing, and in this case, sensitivity. Reporters live and die by fact checking. Again, if Drummond can't even name the right island where this allegedly happened, why should anyone trust anything else he says about this story, which wasn't much. Now if this event did happen, then OF COURSE my heart goes out to the couple who experienced this horror. It's just a shame their story was told by an incompetent reporter.

I suggest we ask the couple who they find to be more insensitive - Drummond or yourself.

Thankfully, most of your obscenely insensitive posts were deleted.

I find it interesting that posters (several of them very new to TV) choose this forum, and subject, to launch what looks very like a personal vendetta against Mr Drummond.

It wasn't so very long ago that he was being considered for sainthood by many of TV's finest, for his open, frank, true and unbiased reporting of the King Power "scams", and the unfortunate travails of the shoplifting couple, Mr Ingram and Ms Li.

As for you A_Traveller, intelligent analysis and cogent posting is generally not welcomed in threads such as this. Please desist.

Yes, I get that feeling too. I found it interesting that when galaxywatcher quoted my post he specifically deleted the link to Drummond's blog.

I really don't believe all the bleaters and whingers in this thread!

Look, we've got a new express train to the airport. If you don't like the thing, don't fuggin use it. Use the great, friendly taxi drivers.

Thank you.

I am delighted by the announcement. It's a positive development and certainly will make life easier for a great many people. This is a great advantage for the airport workers and alot of visitors. More importantly it will improve the quality of live for tens thousands of people as their commutes to work will be shortened as road traffic will be reduced, both by the numbers using the roads and for others by the ability to take the train cutting their travel time. No more running the gauntlet of slimey touts. That in itself is worth something to me. I intend to use it whenever I can, so will my friends.

If a few miserables sods in TV want to nitpick, bless their lonely bereft hearts. The number of people that will benefit will certainly be greater than the brain shriveled constipated grumps that can get a "better deal" to their brothel. If 150 baht for the train ticket is too much to bear, then they have bigger problems to worry about than this.

Lol dunno if I was included in this but all I (and most others) were doing was making a valid comparison between taxis and the train. Taxi is at most 50 baht more and way more convenient for me so I will use a taxi. Quite simple.

Your vitriol towards the so called whiners makes you seem like a bit of a "brain shriveled constipated grump" yourself, to be fair.

I live just up from the city link. Costs me under 200 baht to get to airport (+25 if i want to use the expressway.) So dont see why most would bother with the train to save maybe 50 baht.

Obviously with 2 or more people a taxi is a complete no-brainer.

That can happen to 'anyone' who breaks the law. You break it, u pay for it.

Easy for you to say when you are not the one living on 5000 Baht salary or less and still trying to send money to your family.

"You break it, u pay for it."

Except Wall Street banksters? Or London Banksters.

There are plenty of very rich people who run scams, and there are plenty of very poor people who don't. It is not about how much money you earn, it is about the moral makeup of your character.

Yeah there are scams in other countries too - so what? That means scams are fine here?

He is a merchant of arms and in a true free world he would be allowed to sell to anyone and any country he wishes.

Yeah easy to say when he is profiteering from the distruction of nations in which you couldn't care less about.

I suspect if he was selling a nuke to terrorists who were to drop it on your country you might have a sudden change of heart...

Something as simple as this does not require a jury, she was caught red handed stealing from the bar ! Its that simple !

All you do-gooders saying she was not guilty, what evidence have you got to show this ? How many of you were in the bar with her when all this happened ? Thats right, none of you were !!

Lol at this whole post tbh. But ahh no, I'm not saying she is innocent. I'm saying you (and I) don't know until the facts become clear. How do you know she's guilty again? Were YOU in the bar?

There are differing version of events and if you believe her and her friends then she wasn't stealing at all.

edit: yeah you beat me to it bonobo, but he just left himself so open didn't he....

What part of "SHE IS A THIEF" dont you understand ??!!

geez, i sincerely hope you and your kind are never called up for jury service. Guilty until proven innocent aye mate?

I've owned, run, and worked in the pub industry most of my life, you have to be tolerant of people, you are selling them as much of the alcohol drug as you can to make a profit, then to complain about how they behave is stupid.

Boycott the bar and its intolerant owner, he does not deserve this publicity

This is a very good point.

In my home state in the U.S., a theft of property valued at less than $500 is a 1st degree misdemeanor. The maximum jail sentence for a 1st degree misdemeanor is 6 months in jail, though if it's a first offense, a fine and/or probation would probably be given instead of a jail sentence. Two to five years seems very harsh.

Similar in the UK. And, like your country this leads to repeat offending and a class of petty criminal that knows how far to push the law, how to get legal fees paid, sympathy from lefty social workers etc.

I bet her or her mates never steal in Thailand again! Think they will be angels in Oz?

One thousand bahts worth of beer mat is about right for the quality and size of the one in the picture. One thousand Baht is one third of a months wages to many in the service industry. Had it been a Thai they had stolen from it would have been much much worse and had a Thai been caught stealing 1000 bahts worth of items from another Thai it would have resulted in a severe beating if not worse.

It was not a prank. Please somebody explain how putting this mat in a bag is funny? It was obviously going to be stolen.

I read on another site that this place is totally covered by CCTV cameras at every angle and every table. This system is used when people argue about beer tabs. The customer is shown a video replay of every drink arriving at their table!!! Hope we get to see it soon.

Are you saying you think 2-5 years in a Thai jail is reasonable punishment for stealing a bar mat? Clearly you are saying 6 months in jail is too lenient for petty theft.

Perhaps her or her mates should get life. Bet that stops them from stealing a bar mat again aye?

Don't tell me Thais and Farang get treated the same either. EVERY time the police see me in a taxi at asoke intersection I am pulled over and thoroughly searched as cars of thais have flown on by before me. How many thais are hit up with "give me 20K and you won't have to go to the police station"

they would do the same to Thais too if the Thais had 20000b, it has nothing to do with race

Lol, garbage dude. I am repeatedly stopped and Thais I know living in my same area never are (some with more cash than me.) It has EVERYTHING to with race.

Next you'll be telling me there is no racism in Thailand. Lolapalooza. About the only place I've been to that (openly) has pricing schemes based on the colour of your skin...

yep, I will say that, they go for the farang because they know they have money and they know they arent going to have connections to higher people, call it racism if you want but the reality is that, like the girls, they are only interested in your money, not your skin color

Yup, I'll call it racism because it quite clearly is. Your argument is the same as "I don't like asians because they are bad drivers - nothing to do with the colour of their skin."

Both absurd generalisations, and both as racist as it gets.

Don't tell me Thais and Farang get treated the same either. EVERY time the police see me in a taxi at asoke intersection I am pulled over and thoroughly searched as cars of thais have flown on by before me. How many thais are hit up with "give me 20K and you won't have to go to the police station"

they would do the same to Thais too if the Thais had 20000b, it has nothing to do with race

Lol, garbage dude. I am repeatedly stopped and Thais I know living in my same area never are (some with more cash than me.) It has EVERYTHING to with race.

Next you'll be telling me there is no racism in Thailand. Lolapalooza. About the only place I've been to that (openly) has pricing schemes based on the colour of your skin...

How many thais are hit up with "give me 20K and you won't have to go to the police station"

the difference is that the thais know how to negotiate the price down and you obviously failed.

ahh no, you just failed. Actually I repeatedly said "no I really want to go the police station" Basically he gave up and sent me on my way.

And the answer is - thais are never hit up for 20K so they never have to negotiate the price down.

Ohh I have done plenty wrong.. I have spent more time in those cells in Patong cop shop than she has from whats been posted..

But the difference is I didnt cry about it.. I didnt get onto some radio talk show and say "poor little me, I am a mother remember".. No I took my lumps, sobered up, paid my 'fine' and got out.. Learning to keep my mouth shut around 3rd world cops in the process. I dont have some kind of western sense of entitlement to better treatment than the locals get, they get locked up, beaten up, charged for nothing too..

Yes its rough justice.. But the same thing happens to Thais day in day out.. Theres no international outcry then..

Well perhaps if more people 'cried' about it the thai justice system wouldn't be quite the corrupt joke that it is now.

Don't tell me Thais and Farang get treated the same either. EVERY time the police see me in a taxi at asoke intersection I am pulled over and thoroughly searched as cars of thais have flown on by before me. How many thais are hit up with "give me 20K and you won't have to go to the police station"

So all this talk of she got what she is deserved is based on conjecture and rumour mainly it seems from the aggrieved bar owner,) and NOT the charges laid. Best to stick to the facts.

More conjecture only this time aimed at the barowner i would suggest. " Lets just stick to the facts ".

ahh no, he wasn't there and said in an interview that he thought it was her attitude problem and abuse etc. So no conjecture coming from me chap.

Correct me if I'm wrong but she was charged with theft of a bar mat, NOT with resisting arrest, threatening officers etc.

you are wrong, because we don't know what she was charged with. just the mainstream dumbass media tells the story this way.

Well all reports are saying she was charged with 'night time theft' so seems pretty likely to be the case. I'll look forward to being proven wrong

Correct me if I'm wrong but she was charged with theft of a bar mat, NOT with resisting arrest, threatening officers etc.

So all this talk of she got what she is deserved is based on conjecture and rumour (mainly it seems from the aggrieved bar owner,) and NOT the charges laid. Best to stick to the facts.

It's immediately obvious from the first report it's not suicide. The police and the powers that be would want nothing more for it to be a suicide so when it's reported it's not, you can guarantee it's not.

And I would suggest the odds of the head being viciously decapitated but miraculously staying attached to the rope are very, very low indeed

just back from penang. Got a tourist visa in one day (30th) without any problems. I used Banana guest house and they are good.

wow, supposed to grab a visa their on the 30th. Any update on this?

Not going to happen mate.

Closed monday 29th (local holiday) and then 31st to the 4th.

Possibly open on the 30th but you'll be waiting to pick up your visa until Jan 5th

Called my agent there and they said they now have stickers again and same day visas are no problem.

Cross my fingers I guess

wow, supposed to grab a visa their on the 30th. Any update on this?

Last month I tried to head there the PAD had taken over the airport. This time no stickers.

Don't know why I bother sometimes

PAD 3 not 2 toxin 0.

Go PAD go.

lol, you really think PAD are the winners here?

They were screwed the minute they took over the airport and alienated the majority of what little support they had left.