Ruslan's Gadget Corner

Leaving the shop

After four years I am leaving the phone shop. I got a job at a repair centre, real repairs with a soldering iron, not only selling covers.

I don't think I will write here a lot more. Everybody reads things on the phone now and the phone does not like long posts. Thanks for all your questions. And no, Nokia is not dead. (Maybe a little.)

I went to see the repair centre

I went on Friday, after work, to the repair centre on the other side of the river. They have a big room with six tables, six lamps and six men with soldering irons. The smell of flux, which is the smell I want to wear in my coat for the rest of my life.

The boss is called Rinat, I think, I forgot to ask the last name. He gave me a broken phone with a swollen battery and a dead board and said: "Fix it." I had never done it before in front of a man who knew how. It took 50 minutes. He looked and said: "The solder is ugly. The phone works."

I start in May. Four years of selling covers. I am a little afraid and quite happy.

Wi-Fi at home: the router is not magic

Three customers this month asked me to "put the internet in the air". They meant a Wi-Fi router. It is a small box with a few lights. You connect it to the ADSL modem and the whole flat can use the internet with phones and laptops.

• Put it in the middle of the flat, not behind the fridge.
• Change the password from "admin". Everybody knows "admin".
• The neighbour's Wi-Fi is not yours. I have seen a man walk around the entrance with a laptop, looking for a signal, like a priest with a cross.
• In the evening it is slower. It is not the router, it is all of us at once.

The prices: a simple router is 140-180 som. Setup by me: free, if you buy it here, and tea with your family, if you have time.

A student's guide to buying a phone

September is the month of students. They come in groups of three, with a budget of 400 som and an opinion of 3,000. Here's what I tell them:

• Buy a phone with a removable battery. When the battery dies in two years, you will not need a new phone.
• Buy a phone that takes a big memory card. You will want music and photos.
• Do not buy the phone your friend bought. Your hands are not his hands.
• Ask for a case in the box. If they say no, ask for a discount.
• Keep the box and the receipt for six months.

And the final rule: the best phone is the one you will not be afraid to lose on the bus.

Now you can post from the phone!

Kündölük 3.0 is out and it has a button "Post from phone". I wrote this on the bus. It took 20 minutes, because the phone predicts the wrong words. I wrote "gadget" and it wrote "gazelle". I think I'll leave it.

Is it good? Yes. Will I post more? Probably. Will you be able to read it? Yes, the blog looks fine on a small screen. Is it dangerous? A little. On the bus, in the morning, I forgot my stop.