Showing posts with label devices. Show all posts
Showing posts with label devices. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 16, 2026

3 Wellness Tools, 2 Will Stay in Their Boxes

When a child, my parents bought a waffle iron. We made waffles one time, put our new gadget back in its box and stored it on a shelf where it may still be to this day. We never made waffles again because it was extra trouble over pancakes or French toast that only requires a frying pan. The frying pan was much easier to wash and dry.

IMHO, the same hesitation will happen with 2 of the 3 wellness gadgets, and I’d think twice before buying them. It has nothing at all to do with the quality or functions of the wellness tools and everything to do with the innate laziness of human beings in not wanting to bother with certain aspects of using them. All 3 are appealing wellness gadgets, but it doesn’t mean customers will continue to use them after the novelty of owning them wears off.

Let’s go from negative to positive. The 2 devices that, IMHO, consumers will stop reaching for are: 

1) The Venom Go Heat and Vibration Massage Pad (top image👆) - The reason: It’s small and must be repositioned multiple times to get a comprehensive massage. It’s like a spot massager, and there are cheaper spot massagers already on the market, which humans will also stop using. Never underestimate our laziness! Better to get a heat/vibrator that is a full-body massager (for equal or less money because they’ve been on the market longer), that you place over a chair to massage your sore back and shoulders; or a foot/leg massager that you insert your feet into to massage your aching feet and legs at once. You don’t need to reposition either one to massage your entire body part.
2) Nanoleaf Lymphatic Body Sculpting Massager - The device uses massage and ultra red light to smooth skin and reduce puffiness, cellulite, tone the body, and improve skin texture. I have watched many YouTube demonstrations showing before and after the use of similar gadgets (some devices also treat fine lines), and the truth is, the difference is minimal. You must use them daily to get any results, and yet nobody ever looks much younger, less fatigued, or truly any better. It’s a lot of time and work -- that I’d need at least 10 years to be permanently removed from my skin -- in exchange for the motivation to use it daily! Wouldn't you? Reposition, reposition, reposition ... arghhh! Help, let me out of my bathroom or off my coach!!😱😱😱
IMHO, the gizmo consumers will faithfully use is the Autobrush Sonic Pro - Dentists tend to recommend using sonic toothbrushes to thoroughly clean your teeth without damaging your enamel. Usually, the job requires 2 minutes of time, positioning a standard sonic toothbrush in each quadrant of your mouth to go over your teeth for 30 seconds. The Autobrush Sonic Pro reduces those 2 minutes down to 30 seconds since it fits over our teeth to clean them all at once. It’s more than double the price of a standard 2-minute sonic toothbrush, but at $89.00 still affordable. Perhaps it’s worth paying the difference to get seniors or kids to thoroughly brush their teeth?

So that’s what I think. What do you think?

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Friday, September 12, 2025

Manufacturers Where Are the Refills?

I share a frustration with a lot of consumers. Reluctantly I buy a lot of mops to clean my floors. When it's time to replace the sponge head, I can never find my present mop's refills anywhere. It sucks to have to buy a whole new mop when all I need is its replacement sponge. Talk about waste in a throw away society!

Presently I have a Quickie mop. I bought the brand from the drugstore that is a stone’s throw away from my Manhattan apartment. The drugstore no longer sells the mops or its refills. Home Depot has refills for Quickie mops, but not for my model.

I don’t think it’s an accident either. A Google inquiry confirms my suspicions. We can’t get the replacement sponges for our mops frequently due to a business practice called build-in-obsolescience. Manufactures often make subtle changes to the the design rendering older refills obsolete. I’m far from a conspiracy theorist, and I’m chill about many things in everyday life, but I know I’m not imagining this practice as there’s an official name for it!

As long as I’m on a pet peeve roll, allow me to ask, why do mops and a few other tools and devises have to use unique connection systems that only fit the exact model they are designed for? Logically they don’t! There’s absolutely no practical reason except to increase revenue that some very common things everybody owns such as mops, plastic storage carts, or even Apple iPhones can't standardize their replacement parts, for examples, sponge heads (for mops) wheels (for plastic storage carts) or charging plugs (for iPhones) giving customers universal use for newer models especially within the same brands! It’s insane that every damn newer version of a tool or devise uses its own unique size of connection parts!

Of course a short-term solution is to buy extra refills for future use (urrr, accept and give the manufacturer the money). Another course of action is to look for generic knockoffs (i.e., pay a copycat competitor). 

Still, what else can consumers do? Let’s start with mops, shall we? Have you found a mop brand that you’ve been able to get the sponge refills for year after year? If so, it’d surely be my next mop because I’ve had it!😠😡


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Friday, November 25, 2022

Apple AirTag


An Apple AirTag is a genius invention! Ever misplace your purse, wallet, backpack, or keys? Attaching an airtag is an "easy way to keep track of your stuff." You can then use the Find My app on your phone to lead you to your lost possession.

Loosing your wallet is no longer a time waster. Find it by going to the "My app" and say, "Siri, find my wallet." If hiding in the next room or in plain sight, you would follow a ping sound that leads you to your wallet.

If your item is further away the AirTag sends out a secure Bluetooth signal through an anonymous and encrypted process to locate and send its location to the iCloud. On your phone, you'll see its location on a map.

You could also attach an Apple Airtag on your dog's or cat's collar to put them on your radar if they are in the habit of getting loose and lost outdoors.

In a once upon a time safe-family neighborhood, a thief stole my mother's front pouch chairs and later her folded-up grocery cart that she used to balance and steady her walk. The chairs had sat untouched on her front pouch for 60 years, and the grocery cart was rusting, so some people will take anything! Wouldn't we like to show up with a police officer at the thief's house to surprise them!

Friends of mine tend to lose their cars in a supermarket parking lot. Now they can pin it to find it!

This basenji cutie is a hound breed of dog. A crack in a door or fence and he's long gone.
On Amazon, Apple Air tags are about $4 cheaper than a purchase at Apple. The devices are not super expensive, yet pricey enough to make attaching them to all your worldly goods impractical. So you'd likely put them on the things you lose the most.


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