iPhone 4: A Surprise Purchase

[Admin]

iPhone 4: A Surprise Purchase
Published: 6/10/2010 at 12:00 AM
Bangkok Post: Newspaper section: Database

I did not think I would be writing this column as, despite registering early with Dtac and already having my name on a True iPhone, I was not invited to any events; nor was I surprised by a smiling delivery-man with a shiny new iPhone 4. Speculation on Twitter and Facebook (how we rely on these nowadays) suggested that 18,000 of the devices went to Dtac, 43,000 to True and 20,000 to another carrier. These figures are unsubstantiated; but whatever the real figure, I confirm I did not get one in the release euphoria.

On a whim, however, when the 79 bus arrived in the Siam area on Saturday morning, I dropped into the iStudio in Siam Discovery. I saw a notice for a free iPhone workshop and another with the words, "iPhone 4", "here" and "now". I asked and was told the iPhone 4 was available.

A slightly nervous assistant, named Ming, came to me and confirmed that I really did want one:

"An iPhone 4?"

"Yes."

"Unlocked?"

"Yes. I have a Dtac micro-sim."

"You want it now?"

"Yes. About 27,000 baht? You have black or white?"

"Black only."

"That's fine. I just want the iPhone; colour not important."

He fetched the box and showed me the price (27,820 baht), as if this was going to stop me.

"You live in Thailand?"

"I do."

"I'm sorry, I cannot give a refund of VAT."

"That's OK, I know. I just want the phone."

Having earmarked the funds for this already, I knew the credit card could take the strain. Within a few minutes, the transaction was complete. I was told that servicing, if needed, will be done at a True shop. Ming then removed the micro-sim card from the 3G iPhone, cut it out of its surround and put the tiny chip into the side of the iPhone 4. The new iPhone was then connected to a MacBook Pro and initial processing was carried out. I could make calls and use the few apps installed by default. However, when the addresses in the sim card were imported, they were only the basic carrier numbers. My contacts would have to wait until later.

With the new iPhone, my Saturday shopping day was revised. I grabbed a quick lunch in Siam Paragon, bought some essentials (bread, cakes, chocolate, wine) and headed for the western suburbs. While at lunch, I had a look at the iPhone 4, took a few photographs, recorded a short movie clip and changed a few settings. Photographs were adjusted automatically by the software from ISO 80 up to ISO 1000. While eating, I entered details for my Mobile Me account and in a few minutes all of my contact details were synchronised to the iPhone. I was able to send emails and SMS right away.

At home, I connected the new phone to my own MacBook Pro and went through a quick registration process: most details were entered automatically and I just had to change the phone number. I went through the sections to synchronise one by one - music, ringtones, videos, podcasts, books and photos. I omitted apps initially as I wanted to sort them into an order to suit me: name, kind, category, date or size are not good enough. The process takes much longer, of course.

After the first sync, I made some adjustments, changed the name of the new iPhone and ran the process again. iTunes itself was updated later the same day to version 10.0.1 with some improvements, although most were linked to Ping social networking which is unavailable here.

I ran the synchronisation process a couple more times to make sure. We can force a backup (and other related processes) by clicking on the iPhone icon in the iTunes sidebar while pressing the Control key.

A new installation, like the one on this iPhone 4, will not have all of the settings or passwords for the device or the apps. I spent an hour or so adding these, starting with the home Wi-Fi. Also missing were email settings and I had to set these up one by one. Mobile Me was easy and had been effected by lunchtime. Once I had the password for my Gmail account, that also took only a few seconds to set up.

Less easy were the POP accounts I use, as True demands we use an authorising account to send email. Using Keychain access and settings from Mail on the Mac, as well as memory, this took a few minutes for each.

Despite Antennagate, try as I might, I cannot get the signal to drop.

I had already written a summarisation of my recent computer problems and the solutions, but scrapped that and gladly started again.

[maraudingscot]

 

ops forgot to say. I got new phone on Monday, brilliant phone

 

[Admin]

So tell us about your experience with your new phone! Is it the new 'BlackBerry Torch 9800' ?! 

I was really exciting to buy iPhone as it fulfill all my needs in one small phone, but all these problems popping up every time show me that it might not be the 'perfect' phone....
considering the outrages price and investment, I consider his close competitors;

Samsung, HTC, and others actually any android based system will do same and better on open source environment.. 

Ha yes.... its not cool.......

Also, Apple make all their products in a strict environment not allowing java (they claim its a bad technology/code) and locked only to apple store.. problems with antenna when you touching one point of the NEW iPhone4, glass being broken easily, expensive parts, bla bla bla....

Steve makes a lot of money from this iPhone mania, that's for sure!!!! 

Maybe I will wait for the iPhone 5... there will be good reception and the phone will be made of solid parts.

http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/iphone-4-glass-back-causing-apple-problems-08-10-2010/

[buriramboy]

I read good reviews on the new Samsung Wave, people writing this phone is better than the iphone when it comes to resolution of the touch screen and more.
price on ebay is only 400-500 $, approximately 14,000-15,000 Baht. include delivery to Thailand.
good price for a phone of this type.

http://wave.samsungmobile.com/

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?LH_BIN=1&LH_PrefLoc=2&_trkparms=65%253A16%257C66%253A2%257C39%253A1&rt=nc&_nkw=samsung%20wave&_dmpt=PDA_Accessories&_sop=16&_stpos=&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14.l1513&gbr=1&_pgn=2

[lahansai]

I thought to buy the iphone but eventually decided to buy the sony ericsson vivaz pro because of the price and camera, its not new model but a good one.
bought it for 400$ and I think it was a good purchase.
camera is one of the best, I have qwerty keyboard, internet.

[maraudingscot]

 

OK, soz for the delay in replying, But been getting use to the new phone!

Now, I have not gotten to grips with all its many functions. I do quite like this phone, I had the LG KM900 (erana) before and was very much impressed by the touch screen that came with this and the LG's camera and video function is very easy to use.

So when it came time to renew my phone (on a contract, but more of that later) I wanted something just as good as the LG, now I was very tempted by the i-phone4, so looked online at the various options that was available! This is were I found the Blackberry Torch 9800,  few friends and my daughter all use Blackberry's and say they are very good. But, like every phone I guess, there was always a few things that was not quite right with them. i.e. when using the bluetooth function, and one friend always seem to have her operating system lock up?

So why did I settle for the new Backberry, well I like the idea of having the touch screen operation as well as the traditional qwerty keyboard and original functions of the blackberry. Both work very well together and the touch screen movement/response time is the best that I have experienced. There are a lot of downloadable apps which is good for a new operating system. The phone is light and not at all bulky, which I felt when handling previous Blackberrys.
The only thing that I have is one reservation abou,t is I am not sure how sturdy the sliding machinism will be, I had a samsung a while back and that was a slide phone, but the machism kept jamming due to a loose screw that seemed to just exist to unwind itself.

So at moment its a good phone.

Oh almost for got, I signed up to a contract with orange, many years ago, so I get the oppertunity of a new phone every year and a half, the contract is brilliant as I ge 500 minutes to any mobile 3000 texts (which I willneverever use) and 500mb internet and the most importna to me unlimited landline calls. as I have a landline number that I phone which is a 020 number and hat gives me access to be able to phone Thailand at half a pence a minute.
 

[maraudingscot]

[Admin]

I don't like sliders at all, unless its like the N97 or even bigger screen like the iphone or others mentioned above.
I would opt a touch screen only without any keyboard but think I will prefer initiative touch screen like the Nokia have on their touch screen phones.
It just not feels right when you can't feel what you just clicked on the phone.
Think about it, if you are driving and need to make a fast call or something small, with the bumps on the road and while driving make it almost impossible (not that I recommend talk on the hone while driving but it does happen sometimes....)
but maybe some others can give different review on touch screens.....

[maraudingscot]

 

Totally agree with you on the slider thing!
The Blackberry has a voice activate dailing feature, although a little difficult to originally adjust toyour voice it does work, though sometimes you do end up dailing someone totally different, but hey maybe you should have phoned that person before now!

Anyway with a little practice it works

[Admin]

Totally agree with you on the slider thing!
The Blackberry has a voice activate dialing feature, although a little difficult to originally adjust to your voice it does work, though sometimes you do end up dialing someone totally different, but hey maybe you should have phoned that person before now!

Anyway with a little practice it works

-I'm coming, get naked.



-Ho.. mom,, sorry............ ..... can be dangerous.