Searching for the perfect yet inexpensive last minute Valentine’s gift for your techie sweetie? Fear not, here are 5 Coolest Techie Gift Ideas Under S$30…
1. EC TECHNOLOGY® PORTABLE POWER BANK WITH FLASHLIGHT (2600mAh)
Available in 5 colors, this mini power bank with flashlight fits easily inside your bag or pocket. Its capacity is a one full cycle charge for your Samsung or iPhone handphones. Its weight is about 3 ounces that only requires 4-5 hours of input charging time.
We all have important files we want to protect. But, as soon as the computer crashes, all of it can be gone forever. To prevent this from happening, it is important to back-up your files with this 16 GB SanDisk flash drive. You can store a lot with this small thing.
Since airlines are now charging by the extra pound, knowing how much you are bringing on board is a serious business.
Image Credits: amazon.com
Tackle with weight of your luggage with this portable luggage scale. Its features include LCD back-light and varied unit options (i.e., grams, kilograms, ounces, and pounds). The two AAA batteries it requires are included when you purchase.
This collapsible storm lantern by Secur boasts its ability to act as a light source and as a charging source for your Smartphone incase of a storm or any light shortage emergency. There are two light settings that require different amounts of charging time. This product can also double as either a lantern or a flashlight once you collapse or fold it down.
Embrace your partner’s inner child with this cool Griffin Technology Helicopter controlled by using your IOS or Android App. Yes! You can be a pilot and control the plane’s onboard LED with just a tap of your fingertip. It features twin twin missile launchers and 6 Redeye missiles.
As Chinese New Year approaches, there is an increasing traffic in malls and online stores where the latest designs of outfits get snapped up in a jiffy. Many are having a headache on where to get trendy outfits without burning a hole in their pockets. In addition, many prefer to wear red, the auspicious colour, during their visits, which adds on to the difficulty to land your hands on suitable clothing for the festival. The trend of traditional costumes has returned and cheongsams have made their comeback. Many stores have brought in beautiful designs and colours and displayed their cheongsams proudly. However, most of them come with exorbitant prices due to the demand and supply during this period of time.
As the belief goes, one should wear brand new clothes, shoes and accessories when celebrating the first day of the lunar new year as it represents a prosperous new beginning. As much as we wish to have a brand new start to the new year, finding suitable new clothes could be a real pain in the neck, especially clothes that are budget-friendly and deemed auspicious. This is especially when you are someone who has to visit traditional seniors who would be particular about the colours of the outfit as well as how conservative you should look. Since different people have different demands for different kinds of outfits, here are 3 places you can shop for a wide variety of cheap clothing!
Bugis Village
(Image credit: missterfaith.blogspot.com)
Bugis Village is a very popular place for young people to shop at. That is because they sell many imported products from Thailand and Taiwan where they are cheap and trendy. The clothing are up-to-date and they have a wide variety for you to choose from. Although the area could be cramp and extremely crowded, jostling through the crowd would be completely worth it when you scavenge for the best deals in town. Many of the stalls sell almost the same thing, which means that the sales competition would be steep. Prices could go as low as $8 per clothing where they can get cheaper if you bought more and you can even bargain in some of the shops. It is a 3-storey building so if you are unable to find what you want in the first floor, you can always go upstairs where it is usually less crowded and you can comb the area at your own time. In addition, between the shops are food and beverage stalls where you can take a break and munch on your favourite street snack from all around the world. My personal favourite would be the ‘I Love Taimei’ stall (located at the first floor at the back facing Waterloo Street, they have several other branches as well) where I can sip on flavourful milk tea and munch on crispy aromatic fried chicken as I browse the items.
City Plaza
(Image credit: jpaem.blogspot.com)
Many people know City Plaza to be a rundown building located somewhat opposite Payar Lebar and it functions as a wholesale centre, but not many people know that there are actually many hidden gems inside. Although the building consists mainly of suppliers, they are actually boutiques and if you were to enter any of the shops, most of them would give you reasonable prices should you ask them. They do not just do wholesale but they also sell clothing piece by piece for walk-in customers. Many online stores attain their stocks from here and don’t be surprised that the products sold there are very up-to-date and of pretty good quality! If you are looking for better bargains, it would be best to go with a big group of friends or family so that you can buy in bulk and buy everything at a way better deal.
Fleas & Blog shops
(Image credit: sg.asia-city.com/)
The last option would be to go to any flea organised by blogshops. Many would think that fleas are where people sell their used items at a cheaper price. However, many online stores have taken this path of selling their items in fleas so that their customers can not just come down to collect their ordered items, but also to gain recognition and trust in their buyers. Due to the low rental costs, products can be sold at a more affordable price. In addition, they also sell a wide variety of products so not only do you buy clothes, you can also buy watches, shoes and even hats from there. There has been many fleas organised around Singapore, and more have appeared since it is the Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year period. One of the prominent ones would be the Scape flea where every weekend there would be many venders who set up booths right outside Scape at Orchard Road. Other up and coming fleas include those organised by Three Blind Mice, where they pool famous bloggers and popular online stores to sell their merchandise. The latest flea was held at Triple One Somerset and even City Plaza itself. More details can be found in their website: http://threeblindmice.com.sg/
If you have a busy schedule and don’t want to escape the crowd, why not shop online? There are many blog shops in Singapore and as they operate online without the brick and mortar store, they can pass on the cost-savings to the customers. Popular one includes brands like Love Bonito, MDS Collections, Mich Sara and Love & Bravery.
Blog shops also update their inventory regularly to bring in the latest trendy fashion often curated by tastemakers. For example, for the month of Chinese New Year, Mich Sara carries a range of Chinese New Year’s collection that is not only fashionable but also of high quality.
We hope we have given you sufficient tips to prepare for the Chinese New year! Non-Chinese friends should also come along to experience the hustle of the festival. All the best in attaining your last minute loots!
In about 6 hours, the GOSF fever will hit Singapore.
If you haven’t heard of ‘GOSF’, it stands for Great Online Shopping Festival and it was first introduced by Google India in 2012. The concept originated from the United States, similar to Cyber Monday where online retailers will get together to offer huge massive discounts to shoppers for a limited time period.
Singapore has one of the highest smartphone penetration and active online shoppers in World and it is no wonder Google has brought this initiative to Singapore, partnering SingPost and DBS in this 3 days online event.
This will be the first time the GOSF is held in Singapore with more than 60 brands taking part in the 72 hours sale from 2 February 2015 to 4 February 2015.
Singpost will be offering delivery and returns solution for brands taking part in the festival, including access to 90 POPStations across Singapore.
Here’s an even better deal you don’t want to miss out.
DBS is offering 15% rebates for DBS/POSB cardholders for the first 2,000 shoppers who register on the GOSF website at the stroke of midnight on 2 February 2015.
There is a minimum spend of $168 for your combined transaction during the 3 days period and a capped of a maximum of $100 rebate. Check out the full term and conditions here: http://on.fb.me/1AebODd
Luxury items are typically symbols of status and wealth. When we see one walking down the street with, say, a Chanel Classic bag, onlookers would definitely label her with words like ‘classy’, ‘stylish’, ‘rich’ and the like. Such bags have a wide range of prices depending on the novelty of the brand, how famous the designers are, as well as the material cost that has gone into the product. Every brand boasts quality in their products, justifying the prices and stature. This goes the same for all luxury goods.
(Image credit: kagen33, via Flickr)
So what exactly are luxury goods? To start it simply, luxury goods are simply, well, just goods! They are considered non-essential items where demand for them usually increase when income is high. Why is that so? Because they are items that we do not need, yet want and would be able to afford when our income reaches a certain level. They serve about similar (okay, to be fair, maybe a little more?) functions as many other product listed in the market. Such examples would include luxury bags like those from Louis Vuitton, sports cars and Rolex watches when there are many other cheaper alternatives that one may choose to own. Luxury companies romanticise their products in order to remain appealing to potential consumers, having the idea of prestige sprayed all over their items in television advertisements and billboards.
As the phrase goes, ‘what you pay is what you get’, but is every single cent worth the item you have paid for?
(Image credit: Ed Yourdon, via Flickr)
Many people would be able to more or less recognise the boutique prices of the luxury items when they see them. Because of that, such items tend to make heads turn due to various reasons including envy, awe or even admiration. This is probably one of the main reasons why people would be willing to spend on such a costly item without regard of whether their purchase is worth the money or not. On the down side, replicas are rampant in the market due to people wanting to spend less to look equally good. Not many are able to differentiate between the two most of the time because of how similar (or even accurate) the imitations look. With that, it sure makes me wonder if it is really all that worth the money to buy something when people cannot recognise if the item is truly the real deal.
Psychologists have proven that the mind tricks us to believe that the item that costs more is indeed the one of better quality. When conducting a research, most subjects nominated the bottle labelled ‘mineral water’ as the best tasting water compared to the other 2 bottles they have tasted. However, it has been revealed that the labels on the bottles have been replaced to trick the subjects to believing that the mineral water was, well, truly mineral water. The ‘mineral water’ they have nominated was actually regular tap water, contrary to what they have been made to believe. This can only prove that just giving people an impression can actually cause a huge impact in their choices and actions, likewise to choosing a luxury item over the alternative.
Well, ultimately whether you would prefer to spend a large sum of money or prefer to purchase a cheaper option, the choice is yours. Some would think it as a psychological impact when they carry a bag that makes them look good, some would prioritise practicality. Most importantly, choose what makes you and your wallet happy!
Anna Agoncillo
MoneyDigest
