The new era of handheld USB(-C) [Li-ion battery-chargeable - sometimes] home and garden small appliances. (Updating)

It’s been about high-time for some change in our domestic lives, tech and lifestyle-wise.

It’s more than ingenious - the feeling of charging a device, on the same basis; the same cord, if you will, as we had gotten used to charging much more familiar things, in our metropolitan lifestyles, powered by e-commerce giants such as Amazon. AMZN (Nasdaq). It’s the empowerment of the consumer, by simplifying the essentials in our lives; it would seem both inevitable, as well as incredible, to consider.

Here, I’ll showcase several devices, offered on Amazon, which make use of USB-C power and Li-ion batteries, just like the latest smartphones, tablets, and laptops that we use, and have come to expect - have a compatible and universally recognized power supply. Okay. I might include a few Micro-USB devices, just because - it’s not been fully integrated in to the manufacturing process of some of these devices that I’d come across yet, but for the sake of inclusion in to my lifestyle marketing pitch, here, I’ll include some of the stragglers, and perhaps update this article in the months and years to come (originally posted in May of 2022). 

Tool Daily - Grass/Hedge Trimmer - $31.99 

This is a beauty of a USB-C chargeable device. It makes the task of gardening so much more relatable for our daily lives, which had become stalwart stand-off events, in the context of being glued to web browsing, newsfeed tidbits, and social media finger-flipping, trying to find some way to make use of technology for our benefit, especially for those of us who had been unemployed, here, in California, during the pandemic. With that notion still fresh in our minds, with many people, here in Los Angeles, still wearing masks, the tendency, for the jobless, is to search and strive to find some way in which we can monetize our particular individual strengths and skill sets, without sacrificing our dignity, or personal standards in how we expect to be treated - I’ve been there, before, in feeling pulled, by the hand, in pursuing some sort of superficial escape from daily strife and instability, of a casual offer of friendship, I’ll say, gone awry. Be certain - this sort of lifestyle accommodation is by no means a trap that we must face, for all our lives - for the willing-to-work demographic, there are social institutions in place for the sake of bettering our lives, through government programs, for example, which “sustain” us, at a minimum, and they provide us with regular reminders of that life ought not feel completely hopeless; in this case, I chose gardening services to offer to clients, on craigslist, as my occupation du jour, to pursue. People have been generally forthcoming, in the small numbers in which I am reestablishing a new professional identity, after many years, in my late 20’s, in to age 30, or so, which marks the time in life in which I once again significantly fell from grace, and failed, in professional and personal circumstances. It’s virtually bound to happen, for some of us aspiring and practicing entrepreneurs, of a self-styled “business.” Yet, as millennials, give or take, we’re coming of age, in to our 40’s, now, and it would seem to be less “affordable” to continue forth, in doing anything, of an irresponsible and unaccountable nature, within the scope of professionalism. The consequences are real, but rest assured - there are good people out there, within the community, who are willing to hire the right person, on craigslist - it happens regularly, but don’t just search for gigs, or jobs - that’s my advice; try out the services section - it only costs $5 to post an ad for something that the poster might specialize in, and the elves will go to work, behind the scenes, checking user intent, trackable data, perhaps, and the marketing identity of the user, and hopefully, those things will have checked out alright - have you been offering user data to developers, for example? Certain allowances, rather than disavowals, in the subject of data sharing - are invaluable, to some entities - there are rewards and programs offered for the willing contributor of a desirable marketing demographic. For example, I started getting in to white blood cell donation, for $250, every five weeks, as well as research studies, which are more randomized, rather than reliable, as income sources, yet I’ve landed a few, in the past several months, via my Facebook feed, which - all of a sudden, somewhat, turned in to a precious marketing resource of opportunity, as for myself. In my experience, the vast majority of craigslist transactions are well-executed, on both ends, although people are wary of flakes, and it might take a bit of practice and intentional composure, on the service provider’s part, to maintain the job’s basis. Check out my blog article on some best practices in composing a classifieds ad, such as on craigslist.

Cefrank Store - 8 x 1 watt | 10 slot 5v 2a 6,000k LED Spotlights - $42.90

People who have become acquainted with my historical social media (Facebook) data, which is publicly available, would attest to my fascination with effect lighting, within the scope of personal interior design and decorating. This sort of pursuit had formerly been largely fulfilled by the likes of IKEA - yet, on Amazon, we see a much more open-air market sort of competitiveness, with manufacturers being capable of dealing direct, from as small as a single individual, potentially - capably marketing their goods, and having Amazon provide fulfillment features, such as processing the payment, advertising sellers’ items on third party platforms, such as Google Shopping, and, at times, the shipping is also handled, perhaps partially so, or perhaps, that Amazon even provides warehousing for some of sellers’ products. Amazon truly does it all, in fulfillment, within their umbrella of organizations and brands. 

Much more than might be realized, and yet, how far had Amazon come, since the days of Jeff Bezos’ bootstrapping young, talented aspirations, coming to light, with his stacks of books, at hand, and with books, having been the basis, initially, of Amazon’s premise, for consumers. People might even forgotten Amazon’s beginnings, from what it has become, as a company. 

The expanse of product offerings extends in to yet more miniaturization of a commonly-beloved decoration staple - the spotlight, or track lighting, nearly (or, it could be used as track lighting, in a pinch) - here, offered as an 8 x 1 watt array of LED lights, on a swivel base, with holes for screws, for installation, and screws included. It’s elegant, in its simplicity, and what could be more cute, or more tasteful? 

Here, the performance and quality of spotlights, compared between IKEA and Amazon’s offering, through the Cefrank Store, sees the Amazon seller’s offering as a higher quality aluminum casing design, versus memorable plastic spotlight LEDs, with fewer slots offered (4, versus 8 lights, with this seller, and 10 slots available, in total) - the Cefrank Store’s offering also rounds out to a cheaper price than IKEA’s comparable offerings - granted, I didn’t bother to check their latest offerings in miniature track lighting, I’ll say, but I had previously purchased their track lighting, back in 2010, or so. I’m eager to get to a professional camera and lighting store, to nab some great colors, in terms of lighting gels, otherwise recognizable as clear, colored sheets, for the sake of filtering (and thus, changing) the color of lights. 

AICase Store - Biometric Fingerprint | Thumbprint Authentication Lock Box - $39.99

In the days of free-wheeling and open access on the internet, for so many possibilities of life, including new methods and means of perpetrating crimes upon victims, I wound up relating to this neat-o device, as a means of effecting greater security, on top of that this lockbox works great with most of my product line, which happens to be fragrance extracts and isolates, as well as aroma chemicals. The device is made well enough to evade most intruders’ willingness to intervene in a person’s say about what constitutes appropriate and sociable interactivity. The design is sleek, with a view-roof, at the top of the box, to keep belongings in view. The lock itself is just a slotted rod, but it does the job, well enough. On top of all of that, the device’s documentation claims that the box will stay charged (via USB-C) for around 2,000 openings of the box, upon authentication, with a built-in 280 mAh Li-ion battery. Best of all, the impressive significant basis of this particular lockbox is that it is fully run by fingerprint or thumbprint biometric authentication, reminiscent of an Android smartphone or iOS | iPadOS device. It’s truly a beautiful thing.

“Sunset” lamp, with 16 color variations, by Yicen Trading Co., Ltd

This lamp, available on Amazon, is unlike any other lighting product I’d ever encountered. It’s simply amazing, right? The coolest thing about it, aside from the lighting aspect, is that it can be taken around, with you, on a mobile-cool stuff lifestyle outing, perhaps involving a feature piece of artwork, or doing photog work for a client, where this lamp would illuminate both the subject and the background beautifully - and it can all be done on USB (it’s actually the only possibility - [USB-A]). Although I hadn’t set it up, at the time of this writing, my idea with this lamp, initially, as the name implies, is that I’d implement it, plugged in to a timer, perhaps, to simulate the sun’s rise, in the morning, rather than have it as a sunset effect, although, upon considering it, why not? The device is quite sturdy and well-made, and it is a bargain at $25.99 (although at the time of writing, it’s being offered for $17.99). It’s arguably the most beautiful light available in retail, especially for the price.