 I'm sorry. I've been so preoccupied with useless, expensive crap lately, that I've been neglecting the stuff that actually works and does so on the cheap. Well, I'm getting back to my roots today. Welcome to Handy Tech Under $100, episode 11. Full Sail University offers degree programs both on campus and online, combining creative problem solving with real-world experience. Learn more at the link below. So first up, I've got a bit of an odd one. I have to confess, I just take my disposable batteries with me for recycling whenever I have the hankering for Swedish meatballs from the cafeteria of the local IKEA. I had never heard of recharging alkalines, but apparently it's been a thing for over two decades with the first consumer disposable battery recharger, the Buddy L. Supercharger, having been released in 1993. Now that one didn't really last, thanks to its tendency to stop charging the batteries early and the extremely difficult battery insertion process. But I have its great-great-grandson, the Mighty Charger. If you throw away disposable batteries, you're throwing away money. As far as I'm concerned, an as-seen-on TV badge might as well read shoddy useless gimmick. But I figured, what the hey, let's give it a shot. So I devised a test putting a set of three Kirkland AA batteries in one of my kid's toys, recording the discharge time, and then with all those warnings about leakage or explosions in my mind, I set up a safe space to recharge them with nothing flammable within four feet in my garage. My recharged batteries ran for less than half of the time of my original test, but I've since done a lot more research on the topic and yes, alkaline batteries can be recharged. Nah, you can't recharge disposable batteries. Now you can with Mighty Charger. It needs to happen in bursts to keep the battery acid from leaking out the pressure release valve, and it works best if the batteries aren't fully drained, and then even so, you'll only get 10 consecutively shorter cycles. Recharges dead disposable alkaline batteries up to 70 times. That's right. If you're lucky compared to hundreds or thousands on a proper NIMH, but for items like kids toys where I don't want to invest in expensive rechargeables that I'll probably end up losing when they leave their junk outside in the rain, this is a great solution. Here's how to order. Moving on. It's no secret that I love high-end audio crap. The most expensive headphones I own is a pair of Odyssey LCD 2s that I picked up used for still over a thousand dollars Canadian a couple of years ago. But that doesn't mean that I can't also appreciate value, and item number two is both the cheapest pair of headphones that I've ever gotten from anywhere other than a dollar store and arguably the best bang for the buck audio device I have ever laid my hands on. As far as packaging, product appearance, and included accessories go, the Venture Electronics Monk Plus is actually pretty comparable to those dollar store earbuds. You get the earbuds themselves, these marvelous foam pads that serve to, well, pad your ears a little bit and increase friction, helping keep them in your ears, complete with bonus color coding, red for right, blue for left, and you get this carrying bag that, dank means aside, is just a bag. It's actually made out of shockingly thin plastic and doesn't even reseal. It's not much better than the free bags at the grocery store for putting your apples in. Funny story though, when they first started charging for the regular shopping bags at our local grocery store, my wife would actually take a bunch of those free ones and then put our groceries in them at the checkout. She only stopped doing it when I refused to continue to go shopping with her out of embarrassment. Anyway, I digress. What's remarkable about the Monk Plus is that they actually sound pretty darn good. The closest thing to a fair point of comparison that I have would be Apple EarPods, which have more thump at the low end and that I personally find a touch more comfortable, but whose mids are relatively veiled, making vocalists get a little lost by comparison. So yes, in spite of the price difference, I found the Monk Plus more pleasing to listen to than Apple EarPods. Wait, what's that? I didn't tell you the price yet? Oh, they're five bucks on AliExpress plus a few bucks for shipping. I mean, sure, the build quality is nothing special and they don't include an inline microphone or controller, but at one seventh the price, if you're one of those people, and you know who you are, who loses your earphones all the time, come on, man, just buy seven of these and then don't stress about it anymore. Am I right? I'm right. Moving on. Have you ever wanted to recharge your AA batteries only to go, damn it, I don't have a battery charger on me. And even if I did, there isn't a wall outlet for miles. Yes, the next handy tech is another battery item. These are called USB cell batteries and they're made by Moxia Energy Limited. The difference between these and any other nickel metal hydride batteries are several. First, they are only 1300 milliamp hours, which both theoretically and in practice is much less than the 2000 milliamp hour rating of Amazon Basics rechargeables and closer to one third the capacity of a disposable alkaline. Second, they are about $10 per battery or about five times the price of the aforementioned Amazon Basics. So Linus, why? Well, this is pretty cool. Don't let its appearance deceive you. The USB cell includes, in addition to its internal cell, DC to DC voltage conversion circuitry, a charging indicator LED, and a USB plug under the positive terminal. They can be recharged in about five hours over USB. And while I wouldn't recommend buying a ton of them, the capacity to cost ratio just doesn't justify it. If there was a AA battery that I was going to carry around in my bag with me for emergencies, the convenience here is undeniable. The last item is another always with me, always with you item and charging related again. In the old days, every device used a different proprietary VIL charger, which was a total nightmare. Then everything switched to micro USB, a completely different nightmare. One that's finally almost over with Lightning having taken over all of Apple's mobile devices and USB type C riding in on its white steed covered in shimmering armor for everyone else. One small problem. It means for techies, you're carrying around a minimum of three charging cables if you want to be ready for your own needs and those of your friends. So pick up one of these. I'm not married to a particular brand here, but these converter tips are available individually or individually. Individually or in packs and are much less bulky to carry around than a bunch of cables. I keep them in my at all times bag. All right, so then as always with handy tech, here's the disclosure bit. The mighty charger was purchased by me out of morbid curiosity. I wanted to know what melted batteries look like and I was pleasantly surprised when I didn't see them. The USB cell batteries were a similar story and the Monk Plus earphones were provided by Massdrop. A conflict of interest if I ever saw one. I mean, $5 of sponsorship here. Yeah, that's right. As for my two examples of cable tip adapters, one was included with a ZTE Axon 7 engineering sample and the other was purchased by Brandon for his own personal use and was then stolen by me when he showed it to me. What a f***ing chump. Which brings us to today's episode sponsor, Full Sail University. Virtually every industry relies on software technology and Full Sail University offers undergraduate degree programs that address the need for skilled tech professionals through a curriculum that blends code and theory with real world experience. They have undergraduate programs offered for web and tech, including software development, which teaches programming fundamentals, mobile development, which teaches students how to develop through project-based coursework, allowing their students to graduate with multiple completed software products, web design and development, which teaches front-end design, back-end development, along with coding formats, programming languages, and more. And all students have hands-on access to technology from day one. They receive a laptop computer at an institutional discount along with relevant software and tools. So to learn more about Full Sail's web and technology programs, visit fullsail.edu slash Linus Tech Tips linked in the video description. So thanks for watching, guys. If this video sucked, you know what to do. But if it was awesome, get subscribed, hit that like button, or check out the link to where to buy all this stuff that we featured at Amazon in the video description. Also linked in the description is our merch store, which has cool shirts like this one, and our community forum, which you should totally, totally join. Now that you're done doing all that stuff, whoops, you're wondering what to watch next, probably. So click that little button in the top right corner to check out our latest video over on Channel Superfun.