What I Bought (2024.04.13)

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Email: lixuehan@email.cn

Phone/WeChat: 13273792437

By default, I only record those that make a lasting impression.

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Software Purchases:

I generally only buy one-time perpetual licenses and avoid membership subscription models whenever possible.

Software Name	Price	Regret?	Purpose
Efficiency Controller	50		Mini toolkit (QR code generation, web page screenshot, etc.)
Hometime	50	Regret. Not useful; can be replaced by calendar.	System-built calendar + contact notes update more neatly and conveniently.
VideoLeap	448	Regret. Realized I am not suited for making videos.
VLLO	50	Regret. Realized I am not suited for making videos.
Screen Recorder Master	128	Regret. Realized I am not suited for making videos.
Bay Area Daily News	50	Stopped updating; already delisted.
MockingBot	168	Regret. Eventually bought Cakeresize lifetime plan as a substitute.
Pico	18	Regret. No actual need.
iVod	98	Regret. Still ended up buying VideoSave as a substitute.
Picsew	18	Regret. Free apps like MyMark can replace it.
Thor	16	Regret. No need.
HttpCatcher	16	Regret. No real-world need.
My Items	50	Regret. Blog or memo notes would suffice.
MiaoScan	6	Regret. iOS 15 supports built-in OCR; WeChat can also do it.
MiaoScan ID Photo	6		Take electronic ID photos
Scanner Lens+	6	Regret. Forgot what it does; definitely never used it.
SuperShift	50	Regret. Forgot what it does; never used it.
Cakeresize	500	Seems like the price has dropped	Easily create commonly used image sizes
JustPressRecord	15	Regret. Speech-to-text can be replaced by Word’s dictate feature.
i Dictyun	1	Regret. Not worth buying.
Audio Extractor	98		Extract audio files
Panda Reads SMS	3	Regret. Not worth buying; I rarely check SMS anyway.
VideoSave	198	(See better substitute below)
Office 2016 Windows	398
NPlayer	68	Regret. Can't make use of it; better to buy Infuse directly from the store.
Office 2021 Windows	35
Office 2021 Mac	106
Infuse	100	Limited value; Emby and Plex can both handle it.
Affinity Photo (Mac)	178	They release new versions that require repayment, which is sad.	Photo editing and graphic design
Affinity Photo (iPad)	68	They release new versions that require repayment, which is sad.	Photo editing and graphic design
Affinity Designer (Mac)	178	They release new versions that require repayment, which is sad.	Photo editing and graphic design
Affinity Designer (iPad)	68	They release new versions that require repayment, which is sad.	Photo editing and graphic design
Affinity Publisher (Mac)	178	They release new versions that require repayment, which is sad.	Photo editing and graphic design
Percento	88	Expense tracking (regret series; Excel is better).	Not as good as Excel.
Qianji	128	Expense tracking (Excel is better).	Not as good as Excel.
Zfuse (iOS)	18	Live TV channels (has substitutes).	Not as good as Aptv
Zfuse (tvOS)	18	Live TV channels (has substitutes).	Not as good as Aptv
Any Video Save+	25	Replaced VideoSave; download feature updated and removed.	Video download
Walden	50	Memos and Reminders are enough.	Not as good as built-in Reminders
Yingyibao	88	Regret. Many bugs; has substitutes.	Passable for watching Aliyun Cloud via X
Plex	999	Regret. Without a NAS, it's useless.
iPlayTV	45	Regret. Has substitute products.
Miaoproject	45	Bilibili third-party TV client
Obox	21	No substitute yet, but buying additional annual subscription products is meaningless.	No longer maintained
Fileball	70	No longer suitable; dropped support for many cloud drives.	Live streaming replacement, cloud drive, NAS player, can connect to public servers
Infuse	618	Cannot use public servers or cloud drives; useless without NAS	Buying private server version is more practical
Xiangyue	12	TXT offline reader; has better substitutes.
Shanqiu Reader	78		Multi-format e-book offline reader; supports Baidu Netdisk resource extraction
Evermusic Pro	68		Local offline music player; can connect to some cloud drive resources
Mengge Reader	18		Web and English original book reader; supports direct word lookup and translation
Smartplus Dictionary	38	In-app purchases not worth it; directly buy the Pro Family Sharing version.	English vocabulary learning dictionary
Aptv	12		IPTV player. Independent developer product; experience better suits domestic users.
Music Mate	68	Hardly ever needed.	Geolocation-based AM radio recommendations
MindNow	100		Online mind mapping tool; minimalist but not very user-friendly.
Ecloud Disk *3	540	10TB permanent storage	Lost account due to SIM swap
Smartplus Dictionary Pro	98		Learn vocabulary
Ad Blocker	12		Block ads
Zoe	18	Better alternative: MP4Pro	Download videos
ReadOn	12	The best domestic product so far, but still recommend using free options.	RSS reader; cannot fetch full articles
Color Card	12		Used for color matching and identifying color values
Progress	1	Walden substitute	Task schedule progress management (not as good as built-in Reminders)
Webpage Monitor Plugin	399		Monitors webpage content changes; frequently blocked by anti-scraping measures, making it unusable
Retouch	25	Image processing; remove unwanted content	Unsatisfactory results; barely acceptable
Ego Reader	128	RSS reader; default full-article fetching (its only advantage)	Some bugs; poor experience. Complements NetNewsWire:
Moon Knight	100+	Satisfying single-player game	Heard the developer was struggling, so I bought all expansion packs
Honor of Kings	0	Playable as a casual multiplayer/single-player game
Reigns: Gunfire Reborn	30	Keep one shooting game; play when free
Bad North	12	Worthwhile demo; kept it
Kingdom Rush (Origins)	12	Solid tower defense
Warlegion (Age of Heroes)	40	Few people enjoy time-consuming strategy games anymore
Zhiji	18	Decent webpage subscription tool (unmaintained for 3 years)
MoneyThings	108	Expense tracker supporting 5-person family sharing; slightly steeper learning curve, more scientific	Seldom used; still prefer Excel
Final Cut Pro	1298	Wait until needed to learn video editing
SuperResume	119	Edit and revise resumes
zhixi	328	Mind mapping tool
AdGuard	195	Cross-platform ad blocking tool
ReadKit	168	RSS reader	Decent experience
Scan King All-in-One	89	OCR recognition, text extraction
SyncNext	198	Fills Appletv content gaps
Eagle	199
Haodu	30	Collect URLs for later reading; suitable for organizing sites that don’t support RSS.	Acceptable experience
GoodLinks	30	Replaces Haodu	Acceptable experience
Gemini	6	Game
Going Under	30	Game
Moon Knight	120	Game
Tribes and Blades	30	Game
Neon Abyss Infinite	30	Game
Reigns: Gunfire Reborn	30	Game
Zoe	12	Video download extension
HDIMG	0	Image download extension
Ad Blocker - Anti-Harassment Master	12	Ad blocking extension
Terraria	12	Game
Bird Alone	12	Game
Bad North		Game
Pascal's Wager		Game
Robo Force		Game
Kingdom Rush Vengeance		Game
Middle-Aged Unemployment Simulator		Game
Life Simulator - Chinese Style		Game
Empire Defender		Game
Kingdom Rush Origins		Game
Plague Inc.		Game
Warlegion Age of Heroes		Game
Mini Metro		Game
Hero Dungeon Adventure	12	Game
ChaptGPT 3.5	199		Independent developer already ran away
GoodNotes 5	68		Not worth it. Future updates will remove paid features, requiring repurchase. One-time purchase turned subscription.
UPDF	299	PDF processing tool
XPTV	50	Third-party pirated TV player
Rizika Camera	50	Photo editing tool	Feels less convenient than WeChat editing
Warm Snow	50	Single-player game
Hulu AI	299	Aggregates multiple mainstream AI large models, including GPT-4.0 and others	Switched to free credits instead
Peanut Shop	3000	Cheaper e-commerce mini-program than Youzan (with H5 version)	No business to run
Legendary Dregs	18	Game
Convenient Toolbox	68	Bought it just for one video extraction feature. Looked feature-rich, paid for it, then found it unusable... speechless
Huapi	9.9	Explored low-cost social projects; actually quite well-made
Madimi	58	Password manager	Switched back to Apple’s built-in password manager
Victor Music	88	Play cloud drive music	Switched back to Apple HomePod music
Enpass Password	70	Password manager	Switched back to Apple’s built-in password manager
Hamster Base Note Software	400	Webpage saving tool	Updates too slow; poor experience. Gave up. Now uses share-to-WeChat-group method.
Vidhub	88	Cloud drive video player	Not as good as Infuse
Music Mate	88	Listen to nearby users’ music via Apple Music	Occasionally use when out of songs. Feels their taste is vastly different from mine.

Membership Services:

As a rule, only buy or renew memberships that have practical value

Membership Name	Annual Fee	Regret?
NetEase Yanxuan	59	Regret. Membership benefits have become increasingly useless, essentially worthless
Jingdong	99
1号店	99	No need to renew. Can get membership for free via this link》
UnionPay QuickPass	62
Weibo	60	Regret. No practical purpose
Apple Music	204	Redirected Tencent Video membership cost to Family Plan music membership
Suning	30	Regret. Never used it
Domain Name	500
Server	1100
Phone Plan	19	Own 6 SIM cards
Tencent Video	109	Supposedly upgrading to V7 allows opening several supplementary cards, equivalent to 2 annual memberships (costs 10000 growth points deduction, requires 2 years to accumulate 10000, need 40000 to reach X7, roughly 7 years — not worth it). Will not renew.
Video Library	240	（Open-source self-hosted options Plex | Emby ）》 also can self-host locally, switched back to cloud drive
Property Fee	2500
Video Membership	1000	Uncertain if the service will shut down. Hope it lasts longer, switched back to cloud drive

Free Apps in Use:

Biquge	Built-in novel reader with swappable sources (better to install an ad-blocking extension in the browser instead. Already deleted)
Perfect Mail	Low user count. To apply for an email in your own name》lixuehan@email.cn, switched back to QQ Mail
Authenticator	Microsoft's keychain, syncs with Edge browser and Microsoft account, very convenient, service discontinued. Switched to Apple's built-in password manager
Onedrive	Purchased extra 15GB permanent space on Taobao for 2 yuan. Very convenient for automatic backup and syncing work files
ECloud	Bought 10TB permanent storage tied to my own account on Xianyu for 180 yuan. Synced with Onedrive folder, double (nested) sync was very comfortable, lost the card account
Outlook	Microsoft email. Set up swipe-to-delete for reading newsletters and handling mail. Good with translation plugins etc., switched back to QQ Mail
QQ Mail	Primarily used for account registration. Emails auto-forward to Outlook for processing
CCTV Player	Free live TV streaming
Bilibili	Sometimes watch a few favorite creators' updates
AliCloud Drive	Sometimes transfer files. Locked in by the 1.7TB free permanent storage, switched to 123 Cloud Drive
Chinese Law	Might be needed for rights protection and complaints
Office (2021)	Bought second-hand on Xianyu for dozens of yuan, tied to my own account, then linked to Onedrive for auto-save. No longer worry about file loss, no need to buy membership
MoYu Kiki	Can actively subscribe to certain feeds for news headlines, switched back to RSS
UnionPay QuickPass	New users can get over 100 yuan following the flow. Primarily manages bank cards with no handling fees and promotional perks
NetNewsWire	Should be the best free RSS reader / switched to paid Reeder
Calendar / Reminders / Notes	Login with Microsoft account, default save content to Microsoft account. Enables iOS and Windows info sync. Calendar and Reminders correspond to TODO, Notes correspond to OneNote and sticky notes
National Anti-Fraud Center	Free scam call blocking
Apeedtest (OKLA)	Free internet speed test
JD Finance	JD Baitiao, funds (already cancelled, noticed severe interest deductions)
Jingdong / Jingdong Special / Jingxi	Shopping
QieMan	Second fund platform. Auto DCA buy/sell, no handling fees currently. Manages bank card annual fees
Xianyu / Pinduoduo	Shopping (too many pitfalls)
Sketchbook	Whiteboard. Barely used
Snapseed	Photo editing. Barely used
My Marks	Photo stitching for tutorials
QQ Sync Assistant	Bulk backup phone contacts (started charging membership fee, already deleted)
Tencent Medical Encyclopedia	Sometimes look up health-related information
Nike Training	Nike's free fitness classes. Too bad they quit operating in China
Invoice Box	Process invoices. Jingdong's actually can ask Plus customer service to organize and send to your email. Started charging so stopped using. QQ Mail supports it now

Recording some extra expenses from the last 2 months (cannot fit into the table):

2 SIM cards with carrier permission changes reducing plan costs: 400

Acquired a Nanyang-area SIM card: 500 (includes 100 yuan credit)

Modified 2 supplementary cards (450 each, spent 900, includes 400 yuan credit)

Currently at home: 2 China Unicom King Cards (19 yuan for 70GB) * (did 39 to offset broadband), and 1 enterprise 42-card with 120GB (already cancelled, never found a user). 2 broadband lines

Bought 3 10TB ECloud drives: 640 (180 on Xianyu. First purchase got scalped an extra 280, later changed cards without noticing and lost it. Waste.)

Bought a second-hand iPhone 11: 1700. (If you don't insist on new, second-hand is actually quite good with great prices. Used as a dedicated device for account logins.)

Avoiding pitfalls.

 

Renovation & Furniture:

The renovation totals are recorded as follows:

Looking back now, Pinduoduo Billions Subsidy and Jingdong Billions Subsidy prices are relatively decent.

Product	Brand	Specs/Model	Budget (approx. out-of-pocket)	Experience	Decision	Purchase Link	Other Recommended Channels	Other Recommended Channels
Air conditioner	Hualing	1.5HP, new Level 1 energy efficiency, HA1	1,700	Looks fine so far; free repairs for 6 years	About half the price of the originally planned Gree, Midea brand	Check it out	Pinduoduo Ten Billion Subsidy	JD.com Ten Billion Subsidy
TV	TCL	Q10G PRO	5,000	Overall experience is fine, Is TCL's Q10G PRO TV worth buying? What's the actual experience?	Specs are noticeably better than the originally planned Sony; on-hand experience is decent; no need to buy a soundbar within 1,000 yuan	Check it out	Pinduoduo Ten Billion Subsidy	JD.com Ten Billion Subsidy
Refrigerator	Panasonic	303L, automatic ice maker, frosted white	2,500	Which refrigerator is good to buy when renovating?	Experience is good so far, no noticeable noise	Check it out	Pinduoduo Ten Billion Subsidy	JD.com Ten Billion Subsidy
Washing machine	LG	10.5kg, 95°C high-temperature steam wash	2,500	Which washing machine is good to buy when renovating?	Generally fine, but quite noisy and vigorous during the spin cycle	Check it out	Pinduoduo Ten Billion Subsidy	JD.com Ten Billion Subsidy
	NetEase Yanxuan	AB-side flagship model	1,800	Which mattress is most worth buying?	Be sure to buy during major sales; comes with two latex pillows or a mattress protector; overall experience is good, regret not getting the latex pillows	Check it out	Pinduoduo Ten Billion Subsidy	JD.com Ten Billion Subsidy
Wooden bed	Yuanshi Yuansu	1.8m	1,700	Where to buy solid wood furniture?	Slatted base is a bit flimsy, but overall acceptable	Check it out	Pinduoduo Ten Billion Subsidy	JD.com Ten Billion Subsidy
Wooden coffee table	Xiangmuyu	1.2 meters	1,300	Where to buy solid wood furniture?	Works well; drawer material is a bit thin	Check it out	Pinduoduo Ten Billion Subsidy	JD.com Ten Billion Subsidy
Wooden dining table & chairs (set)	Xiangmuyu	1.6m table + 1 long bench, 4 Windsor chairs	3,800	Where to buy solid wood furniture?	Good experience, just slightly larger than expected	Check it out	Pinduoduo Ten Billion Subsidy	JD.com Ten Billion Subsidy
Door lock	Xiaomi	Smart Door Lock Pro	1,500	Renovation soft-furnishings summary (how and what to buy for furniture and home appliances)	Experience is decent; the battery-loading operation made me think it was fake at one point	Check it out	Pinduoduo Ten Billion Subsidy	JD.com Ten Billion Subsidy
Speaker	Apple	HomePod mini	600	Is TCL's Q10G PRO TV worth buying? What's the actual experience?	Garbage for pairing with a TV, but great for listening to music and as an alarm clock	Check it out	Pinduoduo Ten Billion Subsidy	JD.com Ten Billion Subsidy
TV streaming box	Apple TV	6th generation	1,200	Apple TV usage experience and resources (Apple TV user guide)	Works nicely	Check it out	Pinduoduo Ten Billion Subsidy	JD.com Ten Billion Subsidy