**REVIEW** 10-foot USB Phone-Charging Cable

There's nothing special these days about a USB cable for our phones. Between my phone, tablet, and vape devices, I have cables in every room of my apartment.

The reason I have so many cables is that they eventually fray around the ends - from being bent, pulled, twisted, and stretched - and I have to replace them.

What is kind of special about this one is the banded protection on each end.

their photo was better than mine

I am really hoping that this kind of protection extends the life of the cable. I am hopeful...

The 2 cords I am trying are each 10 feet long, but the seller, CyvenSmart, has the same type cords in different lengths. They have a lot of other style cords also, but what I needed was this Type C cable for Samsung's S8 phone.

In addition to the length, I like the tough TPE covering the rest of the cord. It's stronger and feels a lot more durable than the fabric that covered my last cords.



The very best thing about this cable is that it is the first I've had in a while that charges as fast as OEM cables that came with the phone.

Not much else to tell you, but I had not seen this type of cable before so I wanted to share the info. Keep in mind that there were cheaper cables and I even found a set of 4 cables for less than the $11 I paid for these 2, but I am not disappointed.

Peace
--Free


I was in the mood to post some spoken word art and was going to post some Gwendolyn Brooks poetry or something by Tupac but... I remember being obsessed with Def Poetry Jam. A friend I and used to sit around, drinking cheap wine and crying over life while we watched video copies of DPJ. For those who missed out, here's a sample.

Maybe for this holiday season, do something to support a starving and brilliant artist.

**REVIEW** Samsung Galaxy Note4 Spare Battery Charger

For anyone who uses a cellphone, I don't think there is such a thing as having too many spare batteries or chargers. Or too many charging cables.

Recently, I got the chance to grab a spare battery and charger for that battery for a review. I love having a spare battery. Having the included charger was nice but I found a better charger.

Front of case
case door closed
Charging indicator light at very top

First off, I love the way the charger is made. Inserting a dead battery will trigger a red/orange light; a charged battery triggers a green light. Once I charge up my spare battery, I can just drop the case into my bag and go. The one other charger I have is of an open design. The battery moves around and sometimes will fall out of the charging position and there's absolutely no way to pack it around with a battery inserted.

This case by Samsung is a nice and neat design. Looks very clean and it's super lightweight. Another benefit it has over my other (open-face) face charger is that there is no hassle in having to line up the charging nodes. All I need to do is drop the battery into the case, shut the door and then plug in a cable and cord:

Case door open, battery insterted

The one and only negative to this case is, for the price, I was surprised that there was no cable included. Using the right charging cable makes a HUGE difference.

The product page for the charger indicates an approximate 2-hour charging time. The first time I used the charger, I attached it to one of the spare universal cords I keep around the house. Bad move. I had the charger plugged in for over four hours and the battery was still not charged. I left it overnight so I'm not sure exactly when it finally charged up the battery to full. That was kind of a test. The next time, I made sure to use my fast-charging Samsung cable. Took about and hour and 15 minutes to charge up a mostly depleted battery.

Lesson learned: the charging cable makes all the difference!

The charging case is perfect for someone like me who is always forgetting to check their current battery level. I never realize how low my battery is until I am walking out the door on the way to an appointment or to run errands. My family hates when I leave the house and there is no way to get in touch with me. They worry I will get sick and not have a way to call for help or let them know. Hell, I worry about that, but my memory is bad so... I forget to check my battery.

This case is just what I needed. Now all I have to do is get a few more rapid charging cables to go with it.

view of charging port

Like I said, the design is perfect for a take-along. The case is slim and thin and lightweight. I can slide it into the back pocket of my jeans and forget that it's there. It takes up almost no room in my purse.

Slim enough for pocket, purse, bag

For some reason, when I ordered, the case was priced at $15.98. I see that it is now showing a price of $9.99. For the higher price, it should have come with a spare cable...

Now that I do have a charger I love and that works really well, I am on the lookout for an extra battery, cable, and wall plug. If anyone knows of something good, reasonably priced, and (this is the important part) actually a verified OEM (original equipment manufacturer),please shoot me a message. I am finding a TON of parts that say they are OEM, but customer reviews are outing some fakes and substitutes. Come to think of it, I might need to bypass Amazon and go straight to the Samsung source.

Peace
--Free