Author: Bal Bansal

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Shopping

Black Friday Deals Pt2

The Best Black Friday Deals for white goods…

Bal, great blog about iPhones and tablets, but what if I’m after a washing machine?

Ok, here you go…from energy-efficient washing machines to smart fridges and powerful vacuum cleaners, this is the perfect time to upgrade essential home appliances without breaking the bank.

Washing Machines and Dryers

Laundry appliances are among the most heavily discounted items this Black Friday, with leading brands offering significant savings.

  • Samsung Series 5+ Auto Dose Washing Machine – Now £449 at Currys, down from £649. Features smart connectivity and energy-efficient performance.
  • Bosch Serie 6 Washer Dryer – £150 off at John Lewis, bringing the price to £699. Ideal for compact spaces with combined washing and drying functions.
  • LG TurboWash 360 Washing Machine – Reduced to £599 at AO.com, offering fast cycles and Wi-Fi control through the LG ThinQ app.
  • Hotpoint 9kg Washing Machine – Available for £299 at Argos, a reliable budget-friendly option with multiple wash settings.

Fridges and Freezers

Black Friday is the best time to invest in a new fridge or freezer, especially with energy-efficient models seeing major markdowns.

  • Samsung Family Hub Smart Fridge Freezer – £400 off at Currys, now £1,499. Includes a touchscreen display, internal camera, and smart home integration. Let’s be honest, who doesn’t love a touchscreen?
  • LG InstaView Door-in-Door Fridge Freezer – £300 off at AO.com, featuring a sleek design and energy-saving technology.
  • Beko Frost-Free Freezer – £199 at Argos, down from £279, offering great value for smaller households.
  • Bosch Serie 4 Fridge Freezer – £100 off at John Lewis, with a quiet motor and efficient cooling system.

Dishwashers

Dishwashers are another category seeing deep discounts this Black Friday, with both integrated and freestanding models on offer.

  • Bosch Serie 6 Dishwasher – £150 off at Currys, now £499. Known for quiet operation and excellent cleaning performance.
  • Hotpoint Freestanding Dishwasher – £249 at AO.com, a great entry-level option with multiple wash cycles.
  • Miele G 5210 SC Dishwasher – £200 off at John Lewis, offering premium build quality and energy efficiency. And don’t forget, with John Lewis, they have an extended warranty period.
  • Beko Full-Size Dishwasher – £199 at Argos, ideal for families looking for a reliable, affordable model.

Cookers and Ovens

For those upgrading the kitchen, Black Friday brings impressive deals on cookers, ovens, and hobs.

  • NEFF Slide&Hide Built-In Oven – £150 off at John Lewis, now £749. A favourite for home bakers and cooks.
  • Samsung Dual Cook Flex Oven – £200 off at Currys, featuring flexible cooking zones and smart control.
  • Beko Electric Cooker – £299 at AO.com, a solid budget-friendly choice with a large oven capacity.
  • Rangemaster Classic 90 Dual Fuel Cooker – £400 off at AO.com, perfect for larger kitchens and serious cooks.

Vacuum Cleaners and Small Appliances

Smaller white goods and cleaning appliances are also seeing strong discounts this year.

  • Dyson V15 Detect Cordless Vacuum – £100 off at Currys, now £549.
  • Shark Stratos Cordless Vacuum – £80 off at Argos, offering powerful suction and anti-hair wrap technology.
  • Ninja Air Fryer MAX – £30 off at Amazon, a popular kitchen essential for quick, healthy meals.
  • De’Longhi Magnifica Coffee Machine – £100 off at John Lewis, perfect for coffee lovers.

Bal’s Black Friday Final Thoughts

Whether upgrading a kitchen, replacing an old washing machine, or adding smart functionality to the home, these deals offer excellent value. So go ahead, look at what you’d like and order it! Now… like in the previous blog post, many deals are limited in numbers AND you have Cyber Monday!! (which is on Monday).

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Shopping

Black Friday Deals…

The Best Black Friday Tech Deals for this year!

Ok people… it’s that time of year… Black Friday 2025 has arrived, and retailers are rolling out some of the biggest tech discounts of the year.

My friend Geoff, has been looking at iPads for a while, and I told him in the pub, hold out for Black Friday if you can. Because from Apple iPads to the latest smartphones and smart home devices, there’s no better time to upgrade or grab a gift!

So, here’s a roundup of the standout deals across major categories.

iPad Deals

Apple rarely offers direct discounts, but this year’s Black Friday sales bring impressive savings through major retailers.

  • iPad (10th Gen) – Now available for around £379 at Currys and Amazon, down from £499. Perfect for everyday use, streaming, and note-taking. Treat yourself Geoff.
  • iPad Air (M2) – John Lewis and Argos are offering up to £100 off select models, with prices starting at £549.
  • iPad Pro (M4) – For professionals and creatives, the latest iPad Pro is discounted by up to £150 at Very and Amazon, depending on storage and size.

Accessories like the Apple Pencil (2nd Gen) and Magic Keyboard are also seeing 10–20% off, making it a great time to complete a setup.

Smartphone Discounts

Black Friday is always a hotspot for phone deals, and 2025 is no exception. Whether looking for flagship models or budget-friendly options, there’s something for everyone. Now admittedly, these aren’t the latest phones, nevertheless…. still great to have!

  • iPhone 15 and 15 Pro – Carphone Warehouse and O2 are offering trade-in bonuses and up to £200 off on contract deals. SIM-free models are discounted by around £100 at Amazon.
  • Samsung Galaxy S24 Series – Samsung’s own store and EE are offering up to £250 off, plus free Galaxy Buds with select purchases.
  • Google Pixel 9 – Available for £599 at Currys, down from £749, with an additional £50 gift card on select bundles.
  • OnePlus 12 – Reduced to £649 at Amazon, offering flagship performance at a mid-range price.

Smart Home and Wearable Tech

Beyond phones and tablets, smart tech is seeing some of the steepest discounts this Black Friday.

  • Apple Watch Series 10 – £50–£80 off at John Lewis and Amazon, with the SE model dropping below £200.
  • Amazon Echo Devices – The Echo Dot (5th Gen) is just £19.99, while the Echo Show 8 is down to £69.99. Personally.. I think this has to be the bargain of the day!
  • Google Nest Hub (2nd Gen) – Available for £49.99 at Argos, perfect for managing smart home devices or streaming music.
  • Fitbit Charge 6 – £30 off at Currys, ideal for fitness tracking and health monitoring.
  • Ring Doorbell 4 – Discounted to £129 at Amazon, offering enhanced security and convenience. Just to add… the new Ring Doorbell Floodlight camera’s are 4K and their night vision… wow!

Where to Shop

Top UK retailers offering major Black Friday tech deals (but I’m sure you already know this…) include:

  • Amazon.co.uk – Wide range of discounts across all categories.
  • Currys.co.uk – Bundle offers and extended warranties on electronics.
  • JohnLewis.com – Price match guarantee and free extended warranties.
  • Argos.co.uk – Fast delivery and in-store collection options.
  • Apple.com/uk – Gift card promotions with select purchases.

Bal’s Black Friday Final Thoughts

This year’s Black Friday is packed with opportunities to save on premium tech. Whether upgrading an iPad, switching to a new smartphone, or enhancing a smart home setup, these deals offer excellent value. With many offers running through Cyber Monday, it’s worth acting quickly before stock runs out. And stock is usually limited. But there’ll be more discounted products on Monday. Cyber Monday that is.

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Bal's Friday Thought

Bal’s Friday Thought…

Today I’m sharing an old Turkish proverb.

It’s about life. That if you never experience the ‘downs’, you’ll never appreciate and understand the ‘ups’.

Some of us have been fortunate enough not to experience that many lows. Which is great. But then you’d truly not experience the highs.

Those who were made redundant from work, or experienced a loss, or felt a serious low… when the highs come, they’ll truly cherish them.

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Security

Apps Down… Again!

Yesterday, Cloudflare experienced a widespread outage that disrupted access to numerous websites and online services across the globe. The incident, which lasted for approximately 45 minutes, affected a large portion of the internet due to Cloudflare’s central role in managing web traffic, security, and content delivery for millions of domains.

So, what happened Bal?

The outage was traced to a configuration error during a routine network update. Cloudflare’s engineers identified that a change in the routing configuration caused a cascade of failures across several data centers. This led to a temporary loss of connectivity for many websites relying on Cloudflare’s infrastructure.

Cloudflare quickly rolled back the faulty update and restored normal operations. The company confirmed that the issue was not the result of a cyberattack or external interference but rather an internal technical misconfiguration. And that’s good – in a strange kind of way. Imagine if it was a cyberattack…!

Which websites and services were impacted?

Because Cloudflare acts as a content delivery network (CDN) and security layer for a vast number of websites, the outage had a ripple effect across the internet. Users attempting to access affected sites encountered “502 Bad Gateway” or “Connection Timed Out” errors.

Some of the major platforms and services impacted included:

  • Discord – Users reported connection issues and message delivery failures.
  • Shopify – Many online stores were temporarily inaccessible or unable to process transactions.
  • Medium – The blogging platform experienced downtime for both readers and writers.
  • Coinbase – Cryptocurrency traders faced difficulties accessing their accounts and viewing market data.
  • DoorDash – Food delivery orders were delayed or failed to process.
  • Feedly – The RSS reader service was unavailable for a short period.

Smaller websites and independent businesses using Cloudflare for DNS or DDoS protection were also affected, highlighting the company’s extensive reach across the web. And this is also why I couldn’t tweet much within that 45 minute period!

Cloudflare’s Response

Cloudflare’s engineering team provided real-time updates through its status page and social media channels. Within an hour, most services were restored, and the company issued a detailed post-incident report explaining the root cause and steps taken to prevent similar issues in the future. If you’re interested in that report – go ahead and google it.

The company emphasized improvements to its deployment process, including additional safeguards for configuration changes and enhanced monitoring to detect anomalies faster.

Lessons from the Outage

The incident underscored the internet’s reliance on a few key infrastructure providers. While Cloudflare’s services improve performance and security for millions of websites, the outage demonstrated how a single point of failure can have global consequences.

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AI

How not to use AI

All the talk is about AI.

To be fair, it’s transformational.

Alot of industries are being disrupted. A number of roles/jobs/occupations will be replaced with the use of AI.

You might be thinking, but Bal… we’ll need journalists, right?

Maybe. We’ll need them to write good articles. They could use AI to research and/or refine their material. Ideally, not publish something that ChatGPT writes for you after a few prompts.

The issue is, everyone is jumping on the bandwagon without the right due diligence. And when you don’t carry out the right checks, your credibility falls. Significantly. How can you be then trusted?

And guess what. That just happened –

You might think you’ve saved time and outsmarted your team & workforce. Maybe you could have… if you’d checked your work.

Use AI to support you. Make sure the final output is your work. Especially if you’re in an industry where your reputation matters.

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Bal's Friday Thought

Bal’s Friday Thought…

Today’s Friday Thought is about Feng Shui.

It helps you to be more focussed, clearer and enabled to make progress.

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Uncategorized

Bal’s Friday Thought…

As it was Diwali recently (Happy Diwali) to all those celebrating.

Today’s Friday thought, is based on something Krishna shared…

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Uncategorized

Bal’s Friday Thought…

I was talking to someone the other day, about how after 13 years I left Coca-Cola. They said, you must have been comfortable… why did you leave?

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Uncategorized

AI to takeover

You’ve probably read it in the news… how AI is going to takeover. A lot of current jobs will no longer exist.

The interesting thing here is, and why I wanted to write this blog post – whilst, yes… AI will takeover a number of current ‘office’ type of jobs, it’s like when robots were introduced in manufacturing. People were re-trained. Different skills were picked up. And people survived.

I was talking to a VP of AI, and asked her – what’s next after AI?

I didn’t get an answer.

Type into google – AI taking over jobs and..

AI is already taking over jobs, particularly entry-level and repetitive roles, with estimates suggesting millions of jobs could be displaced by trends like AI in the coming years

And this, to be honest is true. I use AI (mainly Co-Pilot) to do some basic tasks. And it’s good. Why do I need an analyst or someone at a junior level to do this work?

Well, two reasons – 1) We need entry people to grow and become leaders in companies and 2) I have them use AI to do the tasks – they’re growing up with AI (unlike me).

But can AI do everything?

Can it make me a cup of tea in the morning?

Now, the above makes sense. But let’s look at it from an industry perspective…

And so, are people worried?

I’ve gone all graphical and visual in this blog!

But in all honesty.. let’s not hide away from the fact that AI is coming for those basic admin type of roles. And as it grows, it’ll takeover more.

Whilst I don’t know what the future holds, what I do know is that if you’re in one of those roles – it might be worth thinking about a) embracing AI or b) what other roles you can do.

Don’t be the people on the manufacturing line… who were replaced by robots.

And here’s a great video from Julia talking about AI and jobs..

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Bal's Friday Thought

Bal’s Friday Thought…

I love learning about other cultures.

How they operate. What they do differently.

Some may sound/look strange to us. Some we can relate to.

Today’s Friday thought is all about appreciating other cultures.

Happy Friday!

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