2014 New Year Gift Guide
We continue the tradition of writing about New Year's gifts for such slow-reacting comrades as I am.
Today is December 22, until the new year there are only 9 days left. And of course, you have not bought something, you have not even chosen gifts yet.
Then this guide is for you: here are collected the coolest and most interesting gifts, which, moreover, are exactly in the store and they are guaranteed to be delivered before the new year. In general, last chance presents.
Pebble Steel Smart Watch
For the second year, the Pebble smartwatch has been holding a palm in my rating of gifts for geeks. Of course, in the first place - this is a smart watch that allows you not to get the phone out of your pocket or bag with each notification. They can also control the music playing on the phone - change the volume, pause and flip through the tracks. One of the recent firmware updates brought the opportunity to install on the watch a fitness tracker program, which collects information about how many steps you have gone in a day and how well you slept. And they work from one charge to 9 days, and have protection from water - they can take a shower and swim in the pool.
More information about the clock can be found by reading already posted reviews and articles about them in Habré:
Subjective feelings after a month of using Pebble Watch
Pebble Steel - the evolution of Pebble smart watches Why you need a smartwatch: ten options for using Pebble Pebble smart watch. Personal experience using Pebble Kickstarter ReviewBut no matter how strange it may sound, all the above advantages are not the most interesting in the gift. The most interesting is the open watch platform for which you can easily write applications in C or JS . You can write a game or scoring application in your favorite board game.
On Habré already written (including myself) about programming under Pebble. These articles are:
We program under Pebble. Lesson One: Stupid Watches We program under Pebble. Lesson two: Pebble giving answers, dice and sex cubes Pebble: working with static graphics on the example of creating a 7-segment watchface Pebble + Marlight: controlled by light gestures Attempt to create a useful application for Pebble Pebble: add configuration and save options to your application Well, Pebble, wait a minute Pebble code optimizationAnd you can not write anything, but simply delve into a huge catalog of already written programs, in which there is nothing.
In addition, we have recently developed a cool detailed instruction in Russian, you can download it here: Instructions for
Pebble Steel , Pebble Plastic . The guide will help not only deal with freshly bought watches, but also answer many questions about watches before buying.Unfortunately, the price due to the change in the ruble rate is not so good now: Pebble Steel with a leather strap will cost
16 615 rubles (with a discount on the HABR code).')
Electronic training kits from the company "Amperka"
There are several types of them: Matryoshka with indexes X, Y, Z and the “Electronics for beginners” set, consisting of two parts. Nested dolls are sets for learning how to work with the Arduino platform, where the main focus is on programming the controller. Such a set can be bought to someone who already has the initial information about programming and wants to try to do it in a tighter bundle with hardware than on a computer.
"Electronics for beginners" - on the contrary, a set for learning the basics of electronics, there are no controllers and writing skills is also not required. It is better to buy it if you want to try to play around with the electronics itself, without bothering to write programs.
Nested dolls with different indices (X, Y, Z) differ in a set of parts and, accordingly, in the number of experiments that can be done with one or another set. For example, for the “Matryoshka X” set these are 8 experiments, for Y - 17, for Z - 20.
Review of "Matryoshka Z"
did on Habré in the blog of the MakeItLab company.A description of the experiments can be found on the Amperka website, in their wiki (the “projects” section). Buy sets, of course, can also be there. But it is better to buy them from us, and there are two reasons for this: a 5% discount on the HABR code and a bag of nuts and dried fruits from the Seeberger company free of charge for each order. Prices are shown as usual with a discount.
Set "Matryoshka X" (8 experiments):
2 849 rublesSet "Matryoshka Y" (17 experiments):
3 790 rublesSet "Matryoshka Z" (20 experiments):
4 645 rublesA set of "Electronics for beginners",
first and second part: 3 790 rublesFitness tracker Mio Fuse
Mio Fuse is the new brainchild of MioGlobal. C company you may be familiar from their previous product - Mio Alpha,
we wrote his review , for example, in BoxOverview (by the way, now we live on d3 ). Alpha is a convenient heart monitor for training, but his problem was that in order to record the pulse readings, you had to carry a smartphone with you - the bracelet simply transmitted heart rate data without storing it. The developers listened to the wishes of users and released not just a heart rate monitor with memory, but a full-fledged fitness tracker with the functionality of the previous generation of devices.
He can also monitor the pulse constantly and send it to applications on the phone, but in addition he also records the pulse and activity in his own memory, which allows him to take only his workout, leaving the phone at home.
You can buy Mio Fuse for
9 490 rubles (with a discount on the HABR code)Toothbrush Philips Sonicare
The Philips Sonicare Toothbrush is a true geek toothbrush. First, it has a button and indicators. Secondly, there is a PCB inside and a real microcontroller. Thirdly, it must be constantly charged!
But seriously - this is the best brush of all that I have tried. Unlike other electric toothbrushes, which brush their teeth with rotational movements with a frequency of about 50-100 hertz, Sonicare moves with a frequency of five times more, and due to this, perfectly cleans teeth and plaque, darkening and tartar.
Of course, this is just my opinion, but you can also read reviews from other users, for example on the Yandex Market . The main danger of this brush is that after it is impossible to return to the usual brushes.
There are many models of brushes in this Philips shop. Prices for the younger model start at 2 590 rubles - this is HX3110 . I have been using the HX6711 model for 5,290 rubles for several years. Older models such as the HX9352 and HX9332 are more expensive - 8,490 and 13,490 rubles, respectively, but their equipment is better - charging in the form of a glass and travel case with USB charging.
Backpacks Thule
Backpacks from the Swedish company Thule are specifically designed for geeks, and have compartments specifically for carrying all sorts of high-tech pieces - such as phone pockets, a separate tablet compartment (like a laptop, only thinner and smaller), moisture-proof and shock-proof area for delicate devices and so Further. Attention to trifles is also present - metal straps are fixed, and the backpack itself is made of good nylon fabric, which has a positive effect on strength.
We already wrote about the backpack
TCBP-217 32 liters, but there are many other options in the catalog:
You can see all of them by
link . Do not forget about the discount code HABR.Orbotix Ollie Mini Robot
Remember in
last year's guide was a robot Orbotix Sphero - a rolling ball, the direction of which could be controlled from the phone?This year, Orbotix decided not to make a ball, but a cylinder. By changing the shape of the new robot received a zero turning radius - it can turn around in one place, as well as an accelerometer with a gyroscope and an infrared sensor. A new API allows you to program the movement, depending on external conditions, for example, a robot can be taught to pass a route drawn on paper.
At first I wanted to insert an official video here, but then I realized that it’s much more interesting to watch the process of shooting a video than the video itself. Especially the crash test 3:03
You can buy Orbotix Ollie for
5 975 rubles (with a discount on the HABR code).Cardboard glasses analogue of Google Cardboard
Probably, every geek knows what Oculus Rift is - a virtual reality helmet. Unfortunately, the process of developing it is still not finished, so it did not go on sale widely. And when it comes, it will not be so cheap. Meanwhile, almost every geek has a device with a fairly powerful processor, a screen and a gyroscope - its smartphone. So they thought at Google and
made inexpensive virtual reality glasses out of ... cardboard. It's really simple and easy - to assemble a cardboard structure, insert a couple of lenses there, insert a smartphone and enjoy the virtual reality. We sell their copy, the manufacturer of which claims that they have made even a little more convenient than Google Cardboard.You can buy a set of already cut cardboard, a set of lenses, and some other details for
1 805 rubles (including discount)Designer LEGO Education WeDo
Unlike expensive Mindstorms sets, LEGO Education WeDo sets have less functionality and do not work without computer control. But then they are cheaper and also allow you to get the first experience of assembling and programming simple robots. Included are instructions for assembling 12 projects, and of course, business is not limited to them - the only question is in your imagination.
Buy a set of "Perobot LEGO WEDO 9580" for
6 688 rubles , including a discount. Also, if you want to build something more complicated, you can order additional resource kit , which will add to the designer 326 parts and 4 new models.Zendure Batteries
Just external batteries, but made with attention to detail. For example, the developers did a good job on the electronics of the converter and achieved a higher efficiency than that of ordinary Chinese. Twice the amount of energy given is, of course, not increased, but the effect is. In addition, all the batteries of this line have a shockproof case and high-quality "banks", which lose only 5% of the charge during semi-annual storage.
They collected money for the release of these batteries on Kickstarter , and collected quite a lot - more than $ 200 thousand, instead of the requested $ 30,000. Now they have already started the production of these batteries and are ready to sell them to anyone.
In our catalog there are two variants of batteries with a metal case: A5 at 15 Ah for
3,790 rubles and A2 for 6 A · h per 2 365 rubles . There are still two new products - not only shockproof, but also dustproof and waterproof Gridder One for 8 Ah in 2 840 rubles and a desktop power supply for 4 USB ports with built-in wireless charging standard Qi - USB and Wireless Charger for the same 2 840 rubles . The latter is a great gift for a person with a bunch of devices that need to be charged at the same time.OZAKI batteries
As if in spite of the Zendure company, OZAKI does not make either shockproof or dust-proof batteries. They make just cute batteries in the form of robots, which in themselves are a nice cute gift, including a girl.
A small battery (2.6 Ah) in the form of a standing robot will cost
1 890 rubles , and large batteries in the form of a robot head - in 3,125 and 4,740 rubles for versions in 5.2 A · h and 10.4 A · h, respectively.
Of course, still for all habrazhiteli there is a 5% discount on the HABR code. And we attach a bag of nuts or dried fruits from our partner, Seeberger, to each order.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/364657/
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