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Sarge
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Quote: from DaffyDuck on 3:53 pm on Dec. 29, 2008
Except that Somchai has to come up with the entire sum from the get go, while the subsidized option allows him to defer the payments over two years. So, if Somchai is rich, not a problem - if he ain't, he'd prefer the perceived 'zero cost' option. (of course, I'm excluding Bar Girls from this calculation, as they get the phone bought for them by their teerak).
sure, and that's why I didn't mention the pay-as-you-go option in my initial post; 1. because it's not available in Thailand in this moment in time - 2. even following your maths he'll be worse off with True, if (following your scenario) Somchai could get hold of a fully unlocked iPhone 3G. Once fully unlocked iPhone can be purchased from Apple Stores, you'll see carriers' charges go down to a more realistic level. They're currently enjoying the monopoly and you know what companies do when that happens, dontcha?
Quote: from DaffyDuck on 3:53 pm on Dec. 29, 2008
This is completely and patently false and untrue -- no phones have been terminally bricked by anything Apple has done. None. Ever.
Software can not terminally brick any iPhone. The only instances of 'bricking' that have occurred is when people modify their hardware, and blow it up - in those instances where people screwed up their software unlocks, iPhones could simply be properly restored, and all was well again, and restored to virginal status.
As for the grey market imports you are referring to, based on the prices of 20,000 THB, it is unlikely (albeit, not impossible) for them to be HK or Singapore phones -- albeit those do cost $800 for the hardware, so I doubt they can just sell it for close to $600 and make a profit.
There are rumors of some folks having cloned the IMEI of unlocked iPhones, and burning them into virgin iPhones - this would work, until Apple figures it out and invalidates that IMEI. Either way, that's rumors, and nothing solid. Just because an iPhone does not claim to use a TurboSIM means little -- some enterprising grey marketeers now solder the TurboSIM *inside* the iPhone, or use special SIM trays with TurboSIM integrated. Cat and Mouse game, indeed.
well that's good to know, so I can fiddle with sim turbo devices (as you do) and not worry about "terminal" consequences. Funny you should say that, reading through various forums (even O2 forums), users complain that they're rendered the phone unusable due to fiddling with sim proxies and other software hacks. However, I'll play safe and won't use a sim turbo device when in BKK, I guess I have to carry 2 phones. Small price to pay to keep my phone bill to a reasonable level, when going abroad.
In terms of grey imports in Thailand, bear in mind that major currencies (GBP, Euro, US$, AUSD) have lost big time against the THB, the Sterling has lost something like 25% in the last 7 months. Maybe reselling a 3G at around 20,000 THB would have seemed unthinkable months ago, nowadays is in the realm of possibilities, especially if big numbers are involved. An example, it's now cheaper to buy a MBP in UK than Thailand, strange but true. Anyway, as I said, I'll personally check in MBK for best deals.
ouch.... my finger hurts now, posting this via my new iPhone 3G (got it today)  hard and time consuming doing it over the phone but what a great device it is. I thought I'd have been able to use a song in the library as ringtone, apparently not. iTunes is playing funny now and doesn't allow me to create a ringtones; minor niggles and I'll get around it in the end. I guess now I have got something to keep myself occupied on those long 12 hours flight to BKK, on Wednesday night.
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 11:09 am on Dec. 29, 2008
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DaffyDuck
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Quote: from Sarge on 12:09 am on Dec. 30, 2008
I thought I'd have been able to use a song in the library as ringtone, apparently not. iTunes is playing funny now and doesn't allow me to create a ringtones; minor niggles and I'll get around it in the end.
HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN CUSTOM RINGTONES.
In short, an iPhone ringtone is nothing else but a 30 seconds or less long piece of AAC soundfile, saved with a file extension of.m4r (mpeg-4 ringtone).
Simply find the song you want as a ringtone; drag it from iTunes to your desktop; open it in a sound editing program (QuickTime player will do) ; crop it to the desired length, and In and Out points; Save it as a 'Movie to iPhone' file back under a different name; rename it with an m4r extension; double-click it, or drag it into iTunes.
The file will now be placed within the 'Ringtones' portion of iTunes, and will show up under the 'Ringtones' tab in your iPhone setting, allowing you to synchronize it with your iPhone on the next synch.
Easy, no?
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Bangkok Women : Meet Sensual Bangkok Women
Posted on: 9:27 pm on Dec. 29, 2008
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Sarge
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Quote: from DaffyDuck on 10:27 am on Dec. 30, 2008
HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN CUSTOM RINGTONES
cheers  It works now
I initially tried to create a ringtone from a song in my iTunes library but every time I made an attempt I got this message:
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"iTunes could not connect to the iTunes Store. An unknown error occurred (11556).
Make sure your network connection is active and try again."
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So I went to Apple - Support - iTunes for Mac - Apple discussion and found a thread discussing this very issue: Topic : Error 11556 when trying to create ringtones and in the last post someone inserted a link to a website suggesting a work around (pretty much similar to yours) : Create Custom iPhone Free Ringtones Using Only iTunes, Still didn't work, the bit I was missing is *Save it as a 'Movie to iPhone'*, as you suggested and bingo it worked!
My next project (555 lol, yeah I'm goal oriented guy) is to transfer my music videos, I have in my iTunes library to the iPhone. I explain - I originally copied to my MBP a number of Thai (mor-laam) DVD songs and were saved as.DAT format that plays in VLC app. Obviously you can't add this format to iTunes' library so I re-converted them in.MOV files (QT Pro) and were successfully added to my iTunes, as music video files. So far so good, but when I sync my iPhone it refuses to transfer them saying: ".... songs were not copied to the iPhone because they cannot be played on this iPhone".
So in the same vein as per your ringtone procedure, I dragged a video out my iTunes to my desktop - opened it with QT Pro and 'exported' saving it as 'movie to iPhone' - re-imported it back into iTunes library - sync the iPhone and bingo it now shows in it. The problem is that it loses sound (totally mute) when you exports as.M4V (iPhone) or as MPEG-4. It seems if I change the.MOV extension the sound disappears in the process. Change it back to.MOV and all is good again....... but can't sync it to the iPhone.
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 2:33 am on Dec. 30, 2008
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lucky6666
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one other thing to consider. I certainly considered. My company, as is practice here in Thailand, will pay the cost of my Phone service. This not just for me, an expat, but also for the entry level management Thai LNE positions.
So at my company, if I or Somchai buy the Iphone I must pay for the hardware. But if the hardware is "free" but part of a 24 month service contract, it is a no brainer that I take the True plan, rather then the grey market.
Unfortunately Thailand doesnt have phone number portability, and I hate the idea of getting new phone number but I think it is worth it
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Sexy Bangkok Girls
Posted on: 7:52 am on Dec. 30, 2008
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DaffyDuck
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Quote: from Sarge on 3:33 pm on Dec. 30, 2008
So in the same vein as per your ringtone procedure, I dragged a video out my iTunes to my desktop - opened it with QT Pro and 'exported' saving it as 'movie to iPhone' - re-imported it back into iTunes library - sync the iPhone and bingo it now shows in it. The problem is that it loses sound (totally mute) when you exports as.M4V (iPhone) or as MPEG-4. It seems if I change the.MOV extension the sound disappears in the process. Change it back to.MOV and all is good again....... but can't sync it to the iPhone.
Save yourself a lot of hassles and download Handbrake:
http://handbrake.fr/
It will do the heavy lifting for you, will RIP your DVDs (or other media) and will dump it right into iTunes in iPhone compatible format (if you set it as such).
Works like a charm for me.
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 1:02 pm on Dec. 30, 2008
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DaffyDuck
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iPhone 3G for $49 at AT&T (online & refurbished)
8GB iPhone for $99
16GB iPhone for $199
(corrected for accuracy - the prior $49/$149 were inaccurate - still a great deal)
These are refurbs, and they need to be bought before December 31st.
AT&T US online stores only, and require a 2 year contract.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Beautiful Thai Girls
Posted on: 1:15 pm on Dec. 30, 2008
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Sarge
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Quote: from DaffyDuck on 2:02 am on Dec. 31, 2008
Save yourself a lot of hassles and download Handbrake:
http://handbrake.fr/
It will do the heavy lifting for you, will RIP your DVDs (or other media) and will dump it right into iTunes in iPhone compatible format (if you set it as such).
Works like a charm for me.
Excellent, does what it says on the tin. Converting my videos to a format acceptable to iPhone. Good Stuff.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 4:28 pm on Dec. 30, 2008
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Sarge
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Quote: from DaffyDuck on 2:15 am on Dec. 31, 2008
iPhone 3G for $49 at AT&T (online & refurbished)
8GB iPhone for $49
16GB iPhone for $149
These are refurbs, and they need to be bought before December 31st.
AT&T US online stores only, and require a 2 year contract.
similar deal over the pond -
iPhone 3G for £0 at O2 (over the phone - ex-show room & refurbished)
8GB iPhone for £0 ONLY (16GB normal sale price)
They're almost sold out. Maybe if you hurry up you can grab the last one. Ah, 18 months contract..... available at O2 stores only
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Thai Girls : Meet Active Thai Girls
Posted on: 4:35 pm on Dec. 30, 2008
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DaffyDuck
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Quote: from Sarge on 5:28 am on Dec. 31, 2008
Excellent, does what it says on the tin. Converting my videos to a format acceptable to iPhone. Good Stuff.
Glad it's working out well for you.
I use it to convert a lot of Video-CDs and Karaoke stuff.
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 2:44 am on Dec. 31, 2008
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Sarge
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a couple of apps I'd like to see available for iPhone 3G are Skype and Audium. yeah I know one can get Fring (I have) to give you a bit of both but a dedicated VoiP app (Skype) gives you greater flexibility and ability call landline & mobile numbers. Audium on the other hand, is a dedicated instant messaging application with a more elegant interface and tabbed conversation
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 5:08 am on Dec. 31, 2008
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