Iphone Users In Thailand

[sbk]

What do you think of the service offered in Thailand? Isn't only True that offers the Iphone? Is the internet fast enough? What about apple service on the phone?

[MKAsok]

I'm using a 3G 16GB iPhone from the US (originally locked to AT&T). Jailbroken with redsn0w, unlocked with ultrasn0w on AIS. I'm pretty happy with it. I'm sure many will be along to disagree with me, but I think anyone who pays True the best part of 30,000 baht for one is out of their frikkin mind (I bought this one for $350 on ebay - 2 months old and in mint condition - it really was as good as new). Sure, True supply the phone factory unlocked, but this isn't an issue for me. I don't feel the need to obsessively upgrade my firmware every time there's a new release, and the Dev Team have always seemed to be able to supply an unlock to major firmware upgrades pretty quickly. Worst case scenario, I'm stuck with firmware 3.0, but I can't say I'm that bothered, and the chances of it happening seem pretty remote anyway. The iPhone is a fine piece of gear. Miles ahead of anything else I've seen or used before. But as a company, I think Apple are a bunch of morons. Their control-freakery seems to know no limits. iTunes, as I've stated many times in this forum, is garbage and they treat their customers with utter contempt (the other day they described people who jailbreak the iPhone as being 'drug dealers'). Because of this, the iPhone doesn't support even basic stuff like bluetooth connectivity to other phones (you have to be jailbroken and install ibluetooth), MP3 ringtones (yeah, I really want 'marimba' as my ringtone - thanks Apple for not letting me use music I already legally own without jumping through tedious conversion hoops), even to change the sound the dam_n thing makes when receiving an SMS involves hacking into it with WinSC. All because of this autocratic bullshit. Anyway, sbk, to actually answer your question, I don't use Edge on the phone, but the speed is really network dependent anyway. It doesn't have much to do with the phone. The internet works fine over wifi, but I can't say I really use it that often, occasionally for checking e-mail, but that's about it. For me, the internet is just too painful over any mobile, but if you really need to use it on a phone, I don't think you'll do any better than the iPhone. If you're thinking of buying one, just go ahead. You won't regret the decision (assuming you don't get robbed by True - just buy it off ebay, or get someone to bring one over or whatever).

[keeniau96]

Great account and practical wisdom on the actual use of the iPhone in the LOS. Confirms my impression that the item is excellent device supported by control freaks and worshiped by loonies. Pity the 3G service is effectively unavailable in TH, but I hear that such is well developed in Cambodia, Laos, VN and maybe even Burma; the locals should be ashamed of themselves.

[skippybangkok]

Having percieved the iphone as "fancy but for low tech users" in the past.............and now having bought one......... I LOVE IT ! 3G for my service provider only avail in down town bangkok....... but there is quite a bit of un-locked Wifi ( or i use True Wifi n my bundle which is all around BKK) ...so generally i bounce to and from Wifi and 3G with pockets of GPRS edge. Suits me.

Battery sucks though........ drag your charger with you if your on line alot as i am

[verydumbubba]

Absolutely - buy one in the US - jailbreak it and enjoy. There are plenty other countries that have 3G.

More cluster WiFi hotspots almost daily & GSM/EDGE is fine for text email. Thai telcos suck.

Bubba

[surayu]

The most annoying thing with the True internet for Iphone is that it requires to log in your username and password, why they don't think of something that let you get in straight away?

[cobra]

Having percieved the iphone as "fancy but for low tech users" in the past.............and now having bought one......... I LOVE IT ! 3G for my service provider only avail in down town bangkok....... but there is quite a bit of un-locked Wifi ( or i use True Wifi n my bundle which is all around BKK) ...so generally i bounce to and from Wifi and 3G with pockets of GPRS edge. Suits me.

Battery sucks though........ drag your charger with you if your on line alot as i am

Agree, I'm constantly disabling / re-enabling data roaming to conserve batt, I'm plugging in for a quick recharge where ever and when ever

but totally digging my 3GS, basically a digital Swiss Army knife,

Some specific apps are so useful I wonder how I got along with out them in the first place.

Convenience is like a drug, very addictive.

[Abrak]

Having percieved the iphone as "fancy but for low tech users" in the past.............and now having bought one......... I LOVE IT ! 3G for my service provider only avail in down town bangkok....... but there is quite a bit of un-locked Wifi ( or i use True Wifi n my bundle which is all around BKK) ...so generally i bounce to and from Wifi and 3G with pockets of GPRS edge. Suits me.

Battery sucks though........ drag your charger with you if your on line alot as i am

Agree, I'm constantly disabling / re-enabling data roaming to conserve batt, I'm plugging in for a quick recharge where ever and when ever

but totally digging my 3GS, basically a digital Swiss Army knife,

Some specific apps are so useful I wonder how I got along with out them in the first place.

Convenience is like a drug, very addictive.

I am a huge fan too.

The battery life is pretty good when you consider the screen and the phone size (better than my old Nokia).

Edge speeds at around 200kbps are ok for what you need them for.

Some of the Apps are simply amazing.

Sygic GPS is as good as a Tom Tom and better, I think, than Garmin stand alone.

The golf Apps which automatically give you distances to the pin or anywhere else are great although only ohmygolf has over 50 Thai courses.

Shazam will identify any music and is free

There is an App that you only need to point at the sky and it will tell you what every star is

Whitelists/blacklists/hiding or faking your call number

Apps that show your stocks in Thailand and others that show them in the USA

you now have wireless headsets and speakers for music

Motion GPS

Geotagging photos

Compatibility with products like the IDJ

Great games that you can play against others over wifi

If I had to choose between my GF and my Iphone, it would be a pretty tough choice.

[tombkk]

Having percieved the iphone as "fancy but for low tech users" in the past.............and now having bought one......... I LOVE IT ! 3G for my service provider only avail in down town bangkok....... but there is quite a bit of un-locked Wifi ( or i use True Wifi n my bundle which is all around BKK) ...so generally i bounce to and from Wifi and 3G with pockets of GPRS edge. Suits me.

Battery sucks though........ drag your charger with you if your on line alot as i am

Where in downtown BKK do you have 3G technology and who is your provider? I'm so sad that Thailand is far behind Cambodia and Laos and would be happy to hear that it is catching up.

[tombkk]

I'm using a 3G 16GB iPhone from the US (originally locked to AT&T). Jailbroken with redsn0w, unlocked with ultrasn0w on AIS. I'm pretty happy with it. I'm sure many will be along to disagree with me, but I think anyone who pays True the best part of 30,000 baht for one is out of their frikkin mind (I bought this one for $350 on ebay - 2 months old and in mint condition - it really was as good as new). Sure, True supply the phone factory unlocked, but this isn't an issue for me. I don't feel the need to obsessively upgrade my firmware every time there's a new release, and the Dev Team have always seemed to be able to supply an unlock to major firmware upgrades pretty quickly. Worst case scenario, I'm stuck with firmware 3.0, but I can't say I'm that bothered, and the chances of it happening seem pretty remote anyway. The iPhone is a fine piece of gear. Miles ahead of anything else I've seen or used before. But as a company, I think Apple are a bunch of morons. Their control-freakery seems to know no limits. iTunes, as I've stated many times in this forum, is garbage and they treat their customers with utter contempt (the other day they described people who jailbreak the iPhone as being 'drug dealers'). Because of this, the iPhone doesn't support even basic stuff like bluetooth connectivity to other phones (you have to be jailbroken and install ibluetooth), MP3 ringtones (yeah, I really want 'marimba' as my ringtone - thanks Apple for not letting me use music I already legally own without jumping through tedious conversion hoops), even to change the sound the dam_n thing makes when receiving an SMS involves hacking into it with WinSC. All because of this autocratic bullshit. Anyway, sbk, to actually answer your question, I don't use Edge on the phone, but the speed is really network dependent anyway. It doesn't have much to do with the phone. The internet works fine over wifi, but I can't say I really use it that often, occasionally for checking e-mail, but that's about it. For me, the internet is just too painful over any mobile, but if you really need to use it on a phone, I don't think you'll do any better than the iPhone. If you're thinking of buying one, just go ahead. You won't regret the decision (assuming you don't get robbed by True - just buy it off ebay, or get someone to bring one over or whatever).

Thanks, quite a lot if into in one paragraph. Let me add bit about Bluetooth. I first thought that Bluetooth doesn't work on the iPhone as I couldn't connect to my headset or my laptop. My iPhone is not jailbroken.

It turned out that the problem was the headset: It didn't work with the Nokia headset (I could hear people but they couldn't understand me), but I bought a Jabra and now all is fine.

Laptop: What I do is use my mobile phone as a modem to connect to the internet whenever there is no wired or wireless internet that I can use (happens on travels). Was no problem with the Nokia, but it simply didn't work with the iPhone. It turns out that internet "tethering" requires you to download a carrier's file into the iPhone. I'm not sure it's allowed to show the URL here.

Edited August 12, 2009 by tombkk

[rgw]

The most annoying thing with the True internet for Iphone is that it requires to log in your username and password, why they don't think of something that let you get in straight away?

No, go back to the shop where you bought and ask them to enter your mac address into their system, then no need to login again.

Works like a charm, even at the expensive coffeshops where they offer truewifi.

(That's for my wifes phone, now I just need to find somehting which changes my Iphone's MAC address to the address my wife has :-)

[surayu]

....now I just need to find somehting which changes my Iphone's MAC address to the address my wife has :-)

Thanks, did you try the "Mac Spoof Script" from the BigBoss Cydia repository? http://thebigboss.org

[bkkmick]

Abrak: How did you get Shazam onto your iPhone. I tried and couldn't.

[surayu]

Shazam it's not available for accounts located in Thailand, you can however register a free account in a country where this application is available

[bkkmick]

Thanks surayu....how exactly do you do that? My credit card's based in Thailand and I thought that you needed a credit card to open an account.

[surayu]

you can open an account without a credit card, here is how's: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2534

[bkkmick]

That's great surayu. Got it now. I'll test it down the pub tonight.

[surayu]

[bkkmick]

Well, that's a fantastic piece of software (Shazam). I tried it in the pub last night. Not only did it pick up songs that most people would recognise but also some Irish bands that I didn't know. Amazing.