Ruslan's Gadget Corner

5 megapixels: what the number does and does not mean

A customer asked for "a phone with the most megapixels". I said, let's see what you photograph. He said: "My wife, my car and the sheep." I said: for the wife, 2 MP is enough. For the sheep, 5 MP. For the car you need a better driver.

Megapixels are the number of dots. More dots do not make a better photo if the lens is small and the light is weak. A 3 MP phone with a good lens and a window is better than a 5 MP phone with a bad lens in a cellar.

What I look at: the lens (is it glass or plastic?), the flash (LED is good), and the time between pressing and the picture, because a child does not stand still for a second.

Why the foreign visitors disappeared

Several of you wrote to the shop (yes, we get e-mails) asking why the counter on this blog has fewer visitors from abroad than in 2008. My cousin in Moscow says he cannot find my page on the foreign search engines. He types "Ruslan's Gadget Corner" and gets a shop in Poland.

It is not my page, it is not the theme. The foreign search engines have stopped reaching the Iradi sites (everyone knows it, nobody knows why), so the page is invisible to them. It lives. It is just not on their map.

The solution I found: tell the cousin the address. Write it down. Send it in a letter, with a stamp, like in the old days. He keeps it in his wallet. Not elegant, but it works.

Touch screens are coming

The first touch-screen phones arrived at the shop. Customers poke them like a hot stove. One grandmother asked where the buttons are and when I showed her she said "and when it breaks?". Good question, apa.

The phone row at the bazaar, where the cheaper ones come from.

A megabyte is not a megabyte (and other secrets of memory cards)

The memory-card man at the bazaar. His cards are the cheapest in Talas and the capacity is a matter of faith.

A customer came to me with a 4 GB card that cost 90 som at the bazaar. He had put 200 songs on it, and after the 80th the phone said "memory full". I tested it. It was 512 MB with a label saying 4 GB.

Some rules from the shop:

• A real card has the brand printed, not stuck on.
• Test: put a large file, then copy it back. If the copy is damaged, the card is lying.
• The real price of a 2 GB card this summer is 40-60 som. If it is 25, it is not 2 GB.

The bazaar man says: "I never say the card is 4 GB. I say it is a 4 GB card." Nobody has ever found the difference.

A second operator, and what it means for you

There is a new mobile company from Nurzhan, Torgoy, that got a licence this year. If you have a relative in the Chu valley or you drive there, listen:

• In Nurzhan and on the Chu belt their signal is good, sometimes better than ours.
• In Talas it is weak. Do not buy their SIM here for the city.
• Their phones use the same frequency, so a normal phone works. You do not need a special one.
• The prices of calls are a little lower. They want customers.

Nothing to be afraid of. Competition is good for the person who asks questions, and I know a few such people.