Budget Planning: Black Friday 2014 and New Year's Gifts
It just seems that there is still a lot of time left before the New Year. Believe me, if you are going to buy gifts in foreign online stores through an intermediary in the USA, or want to buy something on Ebay, it's time to start choosing gifts. Especially since Black Friday 2014 is coming (Black Friday) and you have a real opportunity to snatch the desired item with a significant discount. Black Friday falls on November 27 and in this text I tried to collect everything that, in my opinion, it makes sense to pay attention to this year.
Why through an intermediary, and why take a closer look now? The fact is that many stores participating in the largest annual sale simply do not send their goods to Russia. So, if you buy through official channels and discounts, no one will work. Moreover, what looks like Russian Black Friday, you can see here in this hub . So the best option is to get a virtual one in the USA and send packages there. Two or three days will be spent on the formation of the order in the store, 3-5 days - for shipment throughout the United States, another day or two - to collect their parcels in one (see more details here), possible verification of goods and weighing. And then - 2-4 weeks (depending on the method) for delivery to Russia. So it turns out that in time for the New Year, you need to move now.
Let's start with Apple
. Apple has two, perhaps the most coveted gifts this year. First of all, this is the iPhone 6 (alas, due to the growth in the exchange rate, the benefit in shipping from the States is not very big, but still there) and the iPad Mini 2, which has fallen in price to $ 300. Surprisingly, the recently released iPad Mini 3 differs from last year’s brother only in the presence of a fingerprint sensor. And now that the iPad Mini 2 has naturally become cheaper, this is a very, very good suggestion. In addition, there is hope that sellers participating in Black Friday will make an additional discount on it.
Android
The most interesting devices on Android are, of course, HTC Nexus 9 and Motorola Nexus 6. If everything is more or less clear with Nexus 9, you can safely order it right now (official sales in Russia will start in November with a price tag of 28-30 thousand for the version with LTE, in the states - $ 599),
intermediaries in the USA recently did not recommend contacting with very good Motorola phones. There was at least one case when the person who ordered Moto G received a subpoena instead of a phone. The problem turned out to be that these phones are not officially delivered to Russia, and, therefore, there is no notification issued by the FSB on them.
All this, in theory, cast doubt on the possibility of ordering the Nexus 6 in Russia. However, recently the Chinese company Lenovo bought Motorola, and its supplies to Russia are more than well established. Here, Lenovo managers hastened to declare that smartphones from the eminent American company were about to rush into the Russian market. They promise to try to catch up before the New Year, but most likely they will start after.
If you do not like the new Nexus, or if you think that the 6 ”screen is still too much, I advise you to pay attention to the still luxurious LG G3 . Moreover, there are likely to be discounts on it - the model is not the latest.
Well, if you have a 5.4 ”screen and you don’t really like the achievements of“ world shovel building ”, you can pay attention to Sony Z3 Compact. The very case when the phone is small and remote, and the filling, with the exception of the 4.6 ”screen and the battery, corresponds to the older brother.
Wearable Electronics The
passing year was very marked in terms of the development of wearable electronics. At first, only the lazy did not release his fitness bracelet. Then only the lazy did not release (or announced) his smart watch.
It's too early to talk about Apple - their Watch will appear only in 2015, but Android-watches have been released more than enough. At the moment, I would point out two interesting models: Motorola 360 (after the last update they have noticeably increased battery life on a single charge) and the beautiful LG G Watch R (there is a reviewon Geektimes). Both of them are round, but LG is a little prettier, more powerful and, accordingly, more expensive, moto360 is a little simpler, they have a stupid black bar at the bottom of the screen, but they are $ 50 cheaper.
Moto360 on the left, LG G Watch R - on the right
In theory, the advent of smart watches was supposed to displace all sorts of fitness bracelets and sleep trackers from the market. However, the modern generation of watches has one problem - they need to be charged either every day or every other day. Agree, in this mode, there is no question of any sleep tracking and a smart alarm clock. If it is important for you, like me, to wake up rested and slept early in the morning, I strongly advise you to take a closer look at the Jawbone UP24 and Sony Smartband bracelets. Why are trackers needed, and how the alarm clock works correctly with the phases of sleep, I tried to describe it in great detail in this habratopike. So, I repeat, if sleep is very important to you - you can look for a discount on the above bracelets.
Pleasant technical devices
I believe that the New Year is a great reason to buy a thing of two categories - NAS and SSD-drive. Both of these devices do not seem to be essential things and are more or less well replaced by regular things - internal or external hard drives. However, I assure you, as soon as the correct NAS or SSD drive appears in your household, it will not be clear how you lived without them before.
From SSD disks I would recommend Crucial MX100 or Samsung Electronics 840 EVO . The volume is at your discretion, but it makes no sense to take less than 256GB.
With NAS, unfortunately, everything is a little more complicated. The best manufacturer, in my opinion, is Synology (model DS213if two screws or something cheaper if single-disk). But to call this budget language does not turn. The same DS213 costs under $ 300 and it is without disks. So, one hope for discounts.
If you need a budget option, then Western reviews praise the ZyXEL NSA310 and its updated modification NSA310S . The price of Amazon is almost the same. But I, unfortunately, did not try this device in business, therefore I cannot say anything concrete. According to the characteristics, it looks good.
Well, a very simple way is to buy WD My Cloud . It costs almost like a regular hard drive, the basic functionality of the NAS is present. If desired, you can fasten the jump torrents. On a hub there is a good review of this disk. The device is nice.
Well and also that I would like to note in the section of pleasant technical devices - headphones, costing up to $ 20-40. If you still go with the standard “plugs” that come with the phone (be it at least three times the iPhone) or, God forgive me, an mp3 player, then Black Friday is the perfect time to buy normal headphones. Believe me, all this time you robbed yourself.
So, why exactly from $ 20 to $ 40 - it seems to me that this is the minimum price when the quality of the “ears” is already more or less, and the price tag is still sparing. Then you can listen to the nuances and pick any audiophile ears you like, but it is at this price point, as it seems to me, that you start to hear music, and not noise through cotton wool.
Here then is a list of good headphones, collected with the price in ascending order. Personally, I really likeSennheiser CX 300 Mk-II , but here it all depends on personal preferences.
Not really
Tech gadgets and headphones; this, of course, is wonderful. But they need to be worn somewhere. A couple of months ago, I wrote a great post on choosing the right bag for the right geek
If you just think that your current bag leaves much to be desired, I strongly advise you to go into that topic and read the topic itself and its comments. The choice is simply stunning. For myself, I identified two companies - Timbuk2 (on the site you can design the look and color of your future bag yourself) and Booq. The latter has a wonderful Boa nerve messenger run for a 15-inch laptop (I like the model of the previous generation, but it's harder to find)
and just a luxurious Boa Squeeze backpack. Both companies are likely to provide a decent discount on their bags.
If a solid style is important to you, then I would point out just such an option. Discounts are also expected.
Even in the New Year it is cold and you need to make many calls. This is to say that many (especially owners of iTechnics) will be very happy with the touch gloves lying under the Christmas tree. No matter how they convince me that you can use normal Nokia with gloves, and for speed dialing, you can glove and lick, I still think that nothing can replace good sensory gloves. According to the results of this topicI would single out inexpensive, but high-quality Glider Gloves Winter
or expensive, but “costume” Mujjo Leather Crochet Touchscreen Gloves .
Both of them can be bought as an addition to the main cargo, combine the packages into one and significantly save on delivery. More details - here .
Offtopic
Offtopic I would like to start with children. Already someone who, and the children will receive their gift for the New Year for sure. But our children are not just parents, but we are techies. Therefore, gifts must be appropriate. This year I am ordering such a set of fridge magnets in the form of Fridgigears gears (peeped in LJ from Lehi Andreev).
The gears are mounted on the refrigerator and one of them has a built-in electric motor. As a result, we study the principle of gears fun and interesting.
True, for the other constructor, for children it is much older, I wrote earlier. This is the Lego Batman Tumbler Betmobile . 1869 parts, dimensions: 38x23 centimeters, price - only $ 200. Given the dollar, a discount would be more than welcome.
By the way, an interesting nuance is associated with Lego this year - due to the growth of the dollar exchange rate it was much cheaper to buy sets in Russia than to order in the states. But here I have not seen rare or interesting models, like the aforementioned betmobile, in Russia.
The following emergency shields printed on a 3D printer are still good in case of an attack by zombies or vampires:
but I’m afraid that it will be difficult to transport them through customs.
And the last thing I wanted to note in the offtopics section is Philips' Wake-Up Light alarm clock , which imitates dawn. Some time before the appointed wake-up, the alarm clock will begin to glow softly, gradually increasing power and color, as if a personal sun was rising in your room. Philips experts say that such an awakening is the most natural and easy.
Conclusion
If you noticed, in most cases I give a link to the Amazon store. But this does not mean that Black Friday needs to be caught there (although there too). On blackfriday.com you can find a list of participants and on Friday, the 28th day, go over the necessary sites. I also advise you to see what you can buy on ebay. I am sure that for many positions (with the exception of very new models) you can find pleasant discounts. And thereby not only pay for shipping to Russia, but also save a lot of money.
By the way, with Ebay there is one interesting point, somewhere after December 25th a bunch of lots from the category of "unwanted gifts" should appear. For example, a man found an iPhone under a Christmas tree, and he is a rebel and dreams of Nexus with ubuntu on board - that’s selling a new device at a small discount. But here, of course, the goods will have to be checked. Why it is necessary to do it and how - the rrepeen habrazhitel well wrote. Alas, this method of saving is suitable only for those who have an enviable share of patience and are not going to keep up with the New Year.
And what are you waiting for as a gift for the New Year?
Let me remind you that you are reading the blog of Shopozz - the free Mail Forwarding service from the USA. Shopozz will gladly, at a low price and in a guaranteed time, deliver everything from the USA and other countries. I also remind you that Shopozz provides a free service of combining several parcels into one before sending the goods to yourself, which allows you to buy a lot of pleasant things as gifts and significantly save on shipping. Moreover, Shopozz can take on all the troubles of making a purchase, checking and sending goods to Russia. Everything is in Russian, of course. Subscribe to our Giktayms blog not to miss interesting articles and reviews. Have a nice shopping with Shopozz !
