**Smart Home Devices for Less**

In this week's episode of "Tech For Less", we're exploring some amazing smart home devices that won't break the bank. From a customizable LED strip to a portable power core, these gadgets are sure to make your life easier and more convenient.

**Customizable LED Strip Lights**

The included 44 key remote allows you to choose from a ton of colors that you can leave solid or set to breathe or flash between. They can get really bright, and they're perfect for accenting a home theater system, kitchen bar, computer desk, YouTube backdrop, or anywhere else where you want to draw extra attention. At $20, these strip lights are one of the least expensive and most powerful ways to quickly transform a space.

**Casa Smart Wi-Fi Plug Mini**

The Casa smart Wi-Fi plug mini from TP-Link is a way for you to turn just about anything into a smart device by letting you control its power from anywhere with an internet connection. Setup is fairly straightforward, once you plug it in, just download the Casa app on your iOS or Android device, create an account, and follow the prompts to get acquainted with your home's Wi-Fi. It takes about five minutes, and once that's done, you can pick from an assortment of images to represent the device as well as name it. The Casa smart Wi-Fi plug mini is compatible with Google Home and Alexa, so you can use simple voice commands to control it. One really cool feature is a "way" mode, where you can set it to turn on and off intermittently over a certain period of time, which is really handy with lights when you're out of town.

**Sony XBA-1 Bluetooth Compact Portable Speaker**

I always appreciate a Bluetooth speaker that punches above its price range, and the Sony XBA-1 Bluetooth compact portable speaker more than performs that job. It's sleek, small, and attractive, and doesn't look or feel cheap. One pitfall for budget Bluetooth speakers is that they can be splash proof, but this little speaker more than makes up for it by being incredibly convenient to take with you on the go. You shouldn't have to worry too much about damaging it in the bathroom or on a day trip to the beach or river. The question is, how does it fare as far as audio quality? Now it's a mono speaker and it's exceptionally small, so you shouldn't expect to be blown away by the max volume or bass, but it definitely gets the job done. It can easily fill a modestly sized room I tried to at max and it did start to distort somewhat. The sound quality is primo at about 70 to 80% volume, and that's exactly what you want from a speaker in this price range.

**Anchor Power Core Fusion 5000**

The Anchor power core fusion 5000 is a combo portable battery and wall charger in one. It's extremely handy while traveling, basically reducing the number of charges you have to carry around by at least one. The name suggests the power core fusion has a five thousand milliamp hour battery, which for those of you who aren't phone nerds like me works out to about one and a half to two full charges of your average smartphone's battery. It has two standard USB outlets that both charge at the same speed, keep in mind neither of these are for fast charging so plan your day accordingly. The device itself charges via a microUSB port, and it takes about two-and-a-half hours for it to charge from empty. Most of the time. Ankur has built unique circuitry for this that intelligently charges your device first before going ahead and lending any power to the device itself. This makes it a great option for those who want to stay charged on the go without carrying around multiple devices.

**Conclusion**

That's it for this week's episode of "Tech For Less". We hope you enjoyed exploring these amazing smart home devices that won't break the bank. If you liked this video, be sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. Until next time, thanks for watching!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello and welcome back to tech for less the show where we talk about all the best tech you can get for cheap I'm your host Chris Tigre and today we're taking a look at five great finds under just twenty-five dollars I don't want to waste any more of your time except to say that yes I did get my hair done thank you for noticing anyway let's get into it kicking us off we have the Empowered Lucie outdoor 2.0 spring is here and here in the Pacific Northwest the nice weather is finally upon us as you start to plan your camping trips you may want to consider adding this super lightweight collapsible lamp to your gear kit it's inflatable and completely solar-powered so no matter how far off the grid your adventure takes you so long as you have some light during the day you've got the light you need at night the Luci outdoor 2.0 has four modes low bright super bright and one second flashing it also has an adjustable strap on the bottom making it easy to attach inside a tent or on a small tree branch the best part is just how seriously compact it is the slam collapses down to just one inch in height and weighs under five ounces naturally when you're exploring the outdoors every single inch of space counts and the Luci outdoor 2.0 adds about as little burden to your pack as humanly possible the Luci outdoor 2.0 sells for just fifteen dollars and I expect it will become an important companion to many of you in the coming months now that we've covered practical lights for the outdoors I want to show you some more fun lights for inside your home I'm talking about the wind top LED strip lights kit this kit is insanely simple to set up it features a five meter or roughly 16 and a half foot spool of adjustable LEDs which you can cut down to pretty much whatever lengths your project requires the strip has one adhesive side but depending on the surface you may need to supplement that with some tape of your own the included 44 key remote allows you to choose from a ton of colors that you can leave solid or set to breathe or flash between and they can get really bright you'll want to keep the infrared sensor within view of the remote but the power adapter and LEDs themselves can stay neatly tucked out of you so the only thing you really see when you're done is the light itself bouncing off whatever's around it these strip lights are great at accenting a home theater system kitchen bar computer desk YouTube backdrop really anywhere where you want to draw extra attention and at $20 they're one of the least expensive and most powerful ways to quickly transform a space let's switch gears this is the Casa smart Wi-Fi plug mini from tp-link basically this plug is a way for you to turn just about anything into a smart device by letting the control a power to it from anywhere with an internet connection setup is fairly straightforward once you plug it in just download the casa app on your iOS or Android device create an account and it'll walk you through four or five steps that get acquainted with your home's Wi-Fi all in all it took me about five minutes once that's done you can pick from an assortment of images to represent the device as well as name it and the name is more than just for show to the Casa smart Wi-Fi plug mini is compatible with Google home and Alexa so you can use simple voice commands to control it one really cool feature is a way mode of course like with most smart outlets you can schedule your devices to turn on and off at specific times but with a way mode you can set it to turn on and off intermittently over a certain period of time this is really handy with lights when you're out of town by setting them to turn on and off throughout the evening it'll deter any Merridew wells from scoping your place out and trying anything nefarious the Casa smart Wi-Fi plug mini sells for $20 and it will cost you a lot less than a full on smart bulb solution like Philips hue and it's a lot more versatile - next up we have the sony xba-1 bluetooth compact portable speaker i can always appreciate a Bluetooth speaker that punches above its price range and this little speaker more than performs that job it's sleek small and attractive and doesn't look or feel cheap where does it come and pitfall for budget bluetooth speakers it's also splash proof so you can take this with you into the bathroom or on a day trip to the beach or river and you shouldn't have to worry too much you're probably wondering though how it fares as far as audio quality now it is a mono speaker and it's exceptionally small as I've mentioned so you shouldn't expect to be blown away by the max volume or bass but it definitely gets the job done and it can easily fill a modestly sized of room I try to at max and it did start to distort somewhat I'd say the sound quality is primo at about 70 to 80% volume the sony xba-1 is the kind of speaker you'll want to strap through a backpack or take with you to a hotel or Airbnb it's at its best when you're just looking for decent audio in a convenient and portable package and at $23 it really is worth every penny finally we've got the anchor power core fusion 5000 this is a combo portable battery and wall charger in one it's extremely handy while traveling basically reducing the number of charges you have to carry around by at least one like the name suggests the power core Fusion has a five thousand milliamp hour battery which for those of you who aren't phone nerds like me works out to about one and a half to two full charges of your average smartphone's battery it has two standard USB outlets that both charge at the same speed do keep in mind neither of these are for fast charging so plan your day accordingly the device itself charges via a microUSB port and it takes about two-and-a-half hours for it to charge from empty most of the time it's not possible to charge a device and a power bank at the same time but Ankur has built unique circuitry for this that intelligently charges your device first before going ahead and lending any power to the device itself the anchor power core fusion 5,000 steps just above our budget at 26 bucks but I'm blown away enough by the sheer convenience this offers to be happy to give it a spot on our list that's gonna wrap up this week's tech for less as always you can buy any of the products I mentioned using the links in the description below be sure to give this video a thumbs up if you liked it and subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes until then I'm Cris DeGraw thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next timehello and welcome back to tech for less the show where we talk about all the best tech you can get for cheap I'm your host Chris Tigre and today we're taking a look at five great finds under just twenty-five dollars I don't want to waste any more of your time except to say that yes I did get my hair done thank you for noticing anyway let's get into it kicking us off we have the Empowered Lucie outdoor 2.0 spring is here and here in the Pacific Northwest the nice weather is finally upon us as you start to plan your camping trips you may want to consider adding this super lightweight collapsible lamp to your gear kit it's inflatable and completely solar-powered so no matter how far off the grid your adventure takes you so long as you have some light during the day you've got the light you need at night the Luci outdoor 2.0 has four modes low bright super bright and one second flashing it also has an adjustable strap on the bottom making it easy to attach inside a tent or on a small tree branch the best part is just how seriously compact it is the slam collapses down to just one inch in height and weighs under five ounces naturally when you're exploring the outdoors every single inch of space counts and the Luci outdoor 2.0 adds about as little burden to your pack as humanly possible the Luci outdoor 2.0 sells for just fifteen dollars and I expect it will become an important companion to many of you in the coming months now that we've covered practical lights for the outdoors I want to show you some more fun lights for inside your home I'm talking about the wind top LED strip lights kit this kit is insanely simple to set up it features a five meter or roughly 16 and a half foot spool of adjustable LEDs which you can cut down to pretty much whatever lengths your project requires the strip has one adhesive side but depending on the surface you may need to supplement that with some tape of your own the included 44 key remote allows you to choose from a ton of colors that you can leave solid or set to breathe or flash between and they can get really bright you'll want to keep the infrared sensor within view of the remote but the power adapter and LEDs themselves can stay neatly tucked out of you so the only thing you really see when you're done is the light itself bouncing off whatever's around it these strip lights are great at accenting a home theater system kitchen bar computer desk YouTube backdrop really anywhere where you want to draw extra attention and at $20 they're one of the least expensive and most powerful ways to quickly transform a space let's switch gears this is the Casa smart Wi-Fi plug mini from tp-link basically this plug is a way for you to turn just about anything into a smart device by letting the control a power to it from anywhere with an internet connection setup is fairly straightforward once you plug it in just download the casa app on your iOS or Android device create an account and it'll walk you through four or five steps that get acquainted with your home's Wi-Fi all in all it took me about five minutes once that's done you can pick from an assortment of images to represent the device as well as name it and the name is more than just for show to the Casa smart Wi-Fi plug mini is compatible with Google home and Alexa so you can use simple voice commands to control it one really cool feature is a way mode of course like with most smart outlets you can schedule your devices to turn on and off at specific times but with a way mode you can set it to turn on and off intermittently over a certain period of time this is really handy with lights when you're out of town by setting them to turn on and off throughout the evening it'll deter any Merridew wells from scoping your place out and trying anything nefarious the Casa smart Wi-Fi plug mini sells for $20 and it will cost you a lot less than a full on smart bulb solution like Philips hue and it's a lot more versatile - next up we have the sony xba-1 bluetooth compact portable speaker i can always appreciate a Bluetooth speaker that punches above its price range and this little speaker more than performs that job it's sleek small and attractive and doesn't look or feel cheap where does it come and pitfall for budget bluetooth speakers it's also splash proof so you can take this with you into the bathroom or on a day trip to the beach or river and you shouldn't have to worry too much you're probably wondering though how it fares as far as audio quality now it is a mono speaker and it's exceptionally small as I've mentioned so you shouldn't expect to be blown away by the max volume or bass but it definitely gets the job done and it can easily fill a modestly sized of room I try to at max and it did start to distort somewhat I'd say the sound quality is primo at about 70 to 80% volume the sony xba-1 is the kind of speaker you'll want to strap through a backpack or take with you to a hotel or Airbnb it's at its best when you're just looking for decent audio in a convenient and portable package and at $23 it really is worth every penny finally we've got the anchor power core fusion 5000 this is a combo portable battery and wall charger in one it's extremely handy while traveling basically reducing the number of charges you have to carry around by at least one like the name suggests the power core Fusion has a five thousand milliamp hour battery which for those of you who aren't phone nerds like me works out to about one and a half to two full charges of your average smartphone's battery it has two standard USB outlets that both charge at the same speed do keep in mind neither of these are for fast charging so plan your day accordingly the device itself charges via a microUSB port and it takes about two-and-a-half hours for it to charge from empty most of the time it's not possible to charge a device and a power bank at the same time but Ankur has built unique circuitry for this that intelligently charges your device first before going ahead and lending any power to the device itself the anchor power core fusion 5,000 steps just above our budget at 26 bucks but I'm blown away enough by the sheer convenience this offers to be happy to give it a spot on our list that's gonna wrap up this week's tech for less as always you can buy any of the products I mentioned using the links in the description below be sure to give this video a thumbs up if you liked it and subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes until then I'm Cris DeGraw thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next time\n"