Budget planning: black friday 2014 and gifts for the New Year

It only seems that there is still a lot of time before the New Year. Believe me, if you are going to buy gifts in foreign online stores through an intermediary in the United States, or want to buy something on Ebay, it's time to start choosing gifts. Especially since Black Friday 2014 (Black Friday) is coming soon and you have a real opportunity to snatch the desired thing with a significant discount. Black Friday falls on November 28th 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 look closely now? The fact is that many stores participating in the largest annual sale do not send their goods to Russia in a banal manner. So, if you buy through official channels and no discounts will not work. Moreover, as Russian Black Friday looks like, you can see here in this habrapost . So the best option is to get a virtual one in the USA and send parcels there. It will take two or three days to place an order in the store, 3-5 days to ship across the US, another day or two to collect your packages in one (see here for more details), a possible product check and weighing. And then - 2-4 weeks (depending on the method) for delivery to Russia. So it turns out, to have time before the New Year, we must move now.
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Let's start with Apple
Apple has two, perhaps the most desirable gifts this year. First of all, this is the iPhone 6 (alas, due to the growth of the course, the benefit from shipping from the States is not very big, but it is still there) and the iPad Mini 2, which dropped to $ 300. Surprisingly, the recently released iPad Mini 3 differs from its counterpart last year only in the presence of a fingerprint sensor. And now, when the iPad Mini 2 has naturally become cheaper, this is a very, very good offer. In addition, there is hope that salespeople participating in Black Friday will make an additional discount on it.



Android
The most interesting devices on Android are, of course, the HTC Nexus 9 and Motorola Nexus 6. If everything is more or less clear with the Nexus 9, you can safely order it right now (official sales in Russia start in November with a price tag of 28-30 thousand for the version with LTE, in the states - $ 599),



the mediators in the United States had not recently recommended contacting very good Motorola phones. There was at least one case where the person who ordered the Moto G instead of the phone received a subpoena. The problem turned out to be that these phones are not officially shipped to Russia, and, therefore, there is no notification of them issued by the FSB.

All this, in theory, called into question the possibility of ordering Nexus 6 to Russia. However, recently, Lenovo from China bought Motorola, and its deliveries to Russia are more than fine. At the same time, Lenovo managers were quick to declare that smartphones from a well-known American company are about to flood 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 you think that the screen is 6 "- it's still too much, I advise you to pay attention to the still luxurious LG G3 . Moreover, the discounts are most likely on it - the model is not the freshest.



Well, if you have a 5.4 ”screen a lot, and you don’t really like the achievements of“ world shovel manufacturing, ”you can pay attention to the Sony Z3 Compact . The same case, when the phone is small, but deleted, and the filling, with the exception of the screen of 4.6 ”and the battery, corresponds to the older brother.

Wearable electronics
The past year was very marked in terms of the development of wearable electronics. At first, only the lazy one did not release his fitness bracelet. Then only the lazy one did not release (or announced) their smart watches.

It's too early to talk about Apple - their Watch will appear only in 2015, but there are more than enough Android-hours released. At the moment, I would point out two interesting models: Motorola 360 (after the last update, they noticeably increased the operating time from one charge) and beautiful LG G Watch R (there is a review on Geektimes). Both are round, but LG is a bit prettier, more powerful and, accordingly, more expensive, moto360 is a bit simpler, they have a stupid black bar at the bottom of the screen, but it is cheaper by $ 50.


Moto360 on the left, LG G Watch R - on the right

In theory, the emergence of smart watches was supposed to oust 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, with this mode, there is no talk of sleep tracking and a smart alarm clock. If you, like me, it is important to wake up early in the morning rested and slept, I strongly advise you to look at the bracelets Jawbone UP24 and Sony Smartband. Why do we need trackers, and how does the alarm clock work correctly with the phases of sleep, I tried to write in great detail in this habratopic. So, again, if you really need a dream, you can look for a discount on the above-mentioned bracelets.

Pleasant technical devices
I believe that the New Year is an excellent reason to buy a thing of two categories - NAS and SSD. 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 disk appears on your farm, it becomes unclear how you used to live without them.
From SSD drives, I would recommend the Crucial MX100 or Samsung Electronics 840 EVO . Volume - at your discretion, but less than 256GB take no sense.



Unfortunately, NAS is a little more complicated. The best manufacturer, in my opinion, is Synology (model DS213 , if the two screws or something cheaper, if one plate). But to call this budget does not turn the language. The same DS213 costs under $ 300 and it is without disks. So, one hope for discounts.



If you need a budget option, in the Western reviews praise ZyXEL NSA310 and its updated version of NSA310S . The price of Amazon is almost the same. But I, unfortunately, have not tried this device in practice, so I can’t say anything concrete. The performance looks good.



Well, a very simple way is to buy WD My Cloud . It is almost like a regular hard drive, the basic functionality of the NAS is present. If desired, you can fasten the jump torrents. On Habré there is a good overview of this disk. The device is nice.



Well, and what I would like to mention in the section of pleasant technical devices - headphones, worth up to $ 20-40. If you still go with standard “plugs” that come with your phone (even if it’s three times the iPhone) or God, forgive me, an mp3 player, then Black Friday is the perfect time to buy normal headphones for yourself. Believe me, all this time you have robbed yourself.

So, why it is 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 up all sorts of audiophile ears, but at this price turn, I think, you begin to hear the music, and not the noise through the cotton.



Here you can find a list of good headphones, collected with an ascending price. Personally, I really like the Sennheiser CX 300 Mk-II , but it all depends on personal preference.

Not quite gadgets
Technique and headphones, this, of course, wonderful. But they need to be worn somewhere. A couple of months ago I wrote a big post on choosing the right bag for the right kid geek. After reading the comments, I could not stand it and bought myself a new bag. Very satisfied. I do not understand how I went with the old.

If you just think that your current bag leaves much to be desired, I strongly advise you to go to that topic and read the topic itself and its comments. The choice is simply stunning. For myself, I singled out two companies - Timbuk2 (on the website you can design the appearance and color of the future bag yourself) and Booq . The latter has a wonderful Boa nerve messenger run for a 15 inch laptop (I prefer the model of the previous generation, but it's harder to find)



and just a boa squeeze luxury backpack. Both companies are likely to give a decent discount on their bags.



If a solid style is important to you, then I would point out this option. Discounts are also expected.



Even in the New Year it is cold and you need to make a lot of calls. This is me to the fact that many (especially the owners of iTechnique) will be very happy to touch gloves, lying under the tree. No matter how convinced I am that you can use normal Nokii in gloves, and for speed dialing you can glove and lick, I still think that there’s no good sensor gloves. According to the results of this topic, I would single out inexpensive, but high-quality Glider Gloves Winter



or expensive, but “costume” Mujjo Leather Crochet Touchscreen Gloves .



Both those and others can be bought as an addition to the main cargo, combine the parcels into one and save a lot on delivery. Read more - here .

Offtopic
Offtopic I would like to start with children. Someone who, and children, will receive their New Year's gift for sure. But after all, our children are not just parents, but we are techies. Therefore, gifts must be appropriate. This year I have been ordering such a set of fridge magnets in the form of Fridgigears gears (peeped on LJ from Lehi Andreev).



Gears are mounted on the fridge and one of them has a built-in electric motor. As a result, the principle of gearing is fun and interesting.

About another designer, however, for children much older, I already wrote earlier. This is the Lego Batman Tumbler Betmobile. 1869 parts, dimensions: 38x23 centimeters, price - only $ 200. Given the dollar rate, the discount would be more than welcome.



By the way, an interesting nuance is connected with Lego this year - due to the growth of the dollar exchange rate, buying sets in Russia turned out to be noticeably cheaper than ordering in the states. But I have not seen any rare or interesting models like the aforementioned betmobile in Russia.

Here are some of the emergency shields printed on a 3D printer in case of a zombie or vampire attack:



but I am afraid that they will be problematic to be transported through customs.



And the last thing I wanted to point out in the offtopic section is the Philips LED wake-up light alarm clock that simulates dawn.



Some time before the wake-up call, the alarm clock starts to glow softly, gradually increasing its power and color, as if the personal sun was rising in your room. Philips specialists 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, run through the right sites. I also advise you to see what you can buy on ebay. I am sure that many positions (with the exception of the very very new models) will be able to find pleasant discounts. And thus not only pay back the delivery to Russia, but also save money very, very much.

By the way, with Ebay there is one interesting point, somewhere after December 25th there should be a lot of lots from the category of “unloved gifts”. For example, a man found an iPhone under the tree, and he is a rebel and dreams of a Nexus with an ubunta on board - here he is selling a new device with a small discount. But then, of course, the goods will have to be checked. Why it should be done and how - the rrepeen habrazhitel wrote well. Alas, this way 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?

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