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Sarge
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thx for the advice; you mean the Turbo SIM Unlock Card : http://www.ecplaza.net/ecmarket/imageview.asp?imageUrl=http://image.ecplaza.net/offer/c/contriver/5287744.jpg
I'll give MBK a try, any specific unit/shop you recommend there?
I haven't got the iPhone 3G yet, it should be delivered on Tuesday, a day before I'm due to fly to Thailand. However I have tried a friend's and is great, it feels quality. The only concern is the commercial policy (here in UK but also other countries) to lock it to a carrier, something I really dislike. I travel often and I can't be chained to a single carrier or having the inconvenience to carry 2 phones at the same time.
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 12:11 pm on Dec. 25, 2008
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Sarge
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trying to find a way to unchain myself from O2, I came across to this article on CNET: Unlocking iPhone 3Gs--the Vietnamese way. Intriguing. I wonder if a similar enterprise exists in BKK.
Excerpts from the article:
"Unfortunately, the recently released 2.2 software update, for now, has made the iPhone 3G impossible to unlock--unless you happen to be in Hanoi. Here, I met a man who takes the job quite seriously and gets it done the hard way, literally.
The technician then extracted the baseband chip, the component that controls the connection between the phone and the mobile network, from the motherboard. (This is a painstaking task as the chip is strongly glued to the phone's motherboard. A mistake during this process could brick the phone completely.)
Once the chip was extracted, it was Tuan Anh's turn. He used a chip reader to read information into a file. He then used a Hex editor to remove the locking data from the file, and after that, the chip got reprogrammed with the newly altered file. Now it was no longer programmed to work with only a specific provider.
The chip then got reassembled into the motherboard, another painstaking process.
As a last step, the technician put the phone back together, and it looked like nothing had been done to it.
However, the phone is now unlocked and can be used with any carrier's SIM. It can also be synced with iTunes and used with the original carrier and it can perform all other functions without any problem. But it's not yet jailbroken, which Tuan Anh will do for free. He'll even add lots of applications and utilities at no additional cost.
Each such unlocking job takes about an hour to complete and costs 1.2 million dong (about $80), a small fortune over here. Tuan Anh said that so far, his business has unlocked hundreds of iPhone 3Gs and thousands of first-generation iPhones.
He also said that if an iPhone has been unlocked under the firmware version 2.1 or earlier, upgrading to version 2.2 will lock it again. This is because the 2.2 update is the first update that alters the baseband chip, a clear move by Apple to counter the software-based unlocking solution. In this case, Tuan Anh is willing to re-unlock it for a discount price of $50."
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Bangkok Women : Meet Sensual Bangkok Women
Posted on: 12:45 pm on Dec. 25, 2008
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DaffyDuck
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Bear in mind, any such hardware unlock will result in it getting locked again the moment Apple releases a new firmware update, which they will before too long.
If you want a genuinely unlocked iPhone 3G, you can buy them in Hong Kong, for about $800, directly from Apple.
Otherwise, MBK's your best bet -- check with Winner on the Mobile Phone floor, as they ought to be able to help you out - go with any of the SIM unlocking solution. Some might try to sell you on a software unlock, but that's only good for 2.1 firmware, and won't ever support 2.2 software (hence, making it effectively useless anyway).
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 8:57 pm on Dec. 25, 2008
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Sarge
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yes, that's a cat & mouse game the world is playing with Apple and their cohorts (delinquent phone network companies), any temporary hack, either hardware or software jailbreaking will only be good until the next firmware release. In terms of HK phones, they'll only sell it to local addresses using a CC registered to a HK address. Useless if you live abroad, unless you have a friend there who can buy it for you and then ship it by DHL.
It looks like Apple and their cohorts have thought this through and have pretty much chained everybody (apart from few countries where phone locking is illegal), to provide them with a constant stream of monthly revenue. Yes, there'll always be a tiny percentage of people who slip through the net (see Dev-Team) but the net keeps getting tighter to push those people back in.
Going back to the Turbo Sim card, I'm under the impression is not just as simple as pop in it inside together with your carrier's sim card but it does also require independent software hacks (which you have to download prior inserting the Turbo Sim) to make it work. Obviously if you get the process wrong, it'll make the iPhone unusable. A very expensive mistake.
When you travel abroad, do you hack your iPhone or carry another branded, unlocked phone?
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Sexy Bangkok Girls
Posted on: 9:54 pm on Dec. 25, 2008
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DaffyDuck
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Quote: from Sarge on 1:43 pm on Dec. 26, 2008
When you travel abroad, do you hack your iPhone or carry another branded, unlocked phone?
I always use a first generation iPhone as my travel iPhone - those are easy to unlock, and work fine with 2.2.
As for iPhone 3G arriving in January - well, I guess the announcement was still in 2008 
At prices of 7,000 and 10,500 Baht for the base 8GB and 16GB units, and several pretty competitive plans, it looks like this may end up being a windfall for true, especially if their exclusivity lasts 3-6 months (it's safe to assume the other carriers get it as well, as TRUE touts being 'The First' to have it).
I'll probably wait until AIS gets it, *or* until Thailand has Number portability - the availability of gratuitous WiFi on TRUE's wifi cloud is a strong selling point.
Also, if you check on the App STore, TRUE has a bunch of apps for iPhone out now, to supplement their offering. Very nice.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Beautiful Thai Girls
Posted on: 9:19 am on Dec. 26, 2008
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Sarge
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mmhh... actually the "ownership" cost is cheaper in UK than Thailand. Let's compare plans like for like:
-------------O2 (UK) ------------- TRUE (TH)
Cost......... £0...........................THB 0
Month...... £35..........................THB 1,999
Minutes.... 600......................... 300
Texts........ 500......................... 300
Data......... Unlimited................. Unlimited
Lenght...... 18m........................ 24m
TOTALS...... £630...................... THB 51,334 (THB 38,500 over 18m) incl. of 7% VAT
at today exchange rate £1 = THB 50.95  (don't get me started on this one, a devaluation of 25% in just 8 months  )
£630 x 50.95 = THB 32,099 - THB 38,500 = (THB 6,400)
plus one gets double amount of free allowance minutes and almost double free texts. This being an exceedingly expensive country to live in, I find surprising that my ownership cost is slightly lower than Thais (I got £99 discount offer, that would have shaved appx THB 5,000 making it just THB 1,400 cheaper)
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 10:39 am on Dec. 26, 2008
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Sarge
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Quote: from DaffyDuck on 1:09 am on Dec. 27, 2008
I'll probably wait until AIS gets it, *or* until Thailand has Number portability - the availability of gratuitous WiFi on TRUE's wifi cloud is a strong selling point.
Also, if you check on the App STore, TRUE has a bunch of apps for iPhone out now, to supplement their offering. Very nice.
yes, if you can use your US iPhone in Thailand then WiFi is a must, especially in BKK. It is also available through iTunes Stores in the Utilities section free of charge.
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Thai Girls : Meet Active Thai Girls
Posted on: 11:01 am on Dec. 26, 2008
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Sarge
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btw, what happened to M$ plans to release an iPhone killer? there has persistent rumours of a iZune kinda device. Zune players meets Windows Vista Mobile with some GSM functionality thrown in. The industry is waiting with bated breath
could it look like this? iZune mock up
or
this one? iZune final version
exciting times ahead of us
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 11:02 pm on Dec. 26, 2008
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Skip
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FYI- Keeping tabs on the little misses just got a bit easier...
iPhone Mobile Spy
/quote
Mobile Spy is proud to announce the availability of the world's first commercial spy software for the Apple iPhone. Now you can use the powerful monitoring features of Mobile Spy on your iPhone!
Mobile Spy will reveal the truth for any company or family using Apple smartphones. You will finally learn the truth about their call and text message activities by logging into your Mobile Spy account from any web browser.
/end quote
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 12:22 am on Dec. 28, 2008
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