5 Portable Gadgets That Solve Everyday Problems

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It's a bad time to be alive if you've got an impulse-buy problem, because you're living in the age of Amazon's two-hour same-day deliveries. Tech nerds suffer most of all. Digital storefronts are awash with cheap, small, nifty gadgets that you can take anywhere. We've previously looked at these 13 tiny, useful palm-sized gadgets, or, for those with a bit more wanderlust, 13 USB-charged travel gadgets that will come in handy for your next trip. This time, though, rather than recommend something that's just cheap and maybe cool, we're recommending actually useful portable gadgets that you could use on a daily basis.

We had to think outside the box for this one, ensuring we're not doing what you could do yourself by taking the first-page results that Amazon might spit out. The items on this list serve a very narrow purpose, but they serve it well. We've made sure to do our due diligence: Each of these products has high ratings that confirm they do what they say they do. Without further ado, here are five gadgets that (may) solve one of your everyday problems.

Bug bites seem like a harsh truth of life that must be accepted, something you either prevent with a liter of foul-smelling DEET or endure in itchy agony until the bites heal. That paradigm may be wrong. It may be possible to stop the itching quickly, easily, and effectively. That's the sales pitch of the heat it Smartphone-Powered Insect Bite Healer. The company backs this up with a 2023 study that concluded that this unique heat-based treatment reduces itching by nearly 80% and only takes a few minutes to activate. Alas, it's only one study, and studies need to be replicated. But Amazon's glowing 4.6-star average from over 4,400 reviews suggests that something here is working — even if it's just a placebo.

So how does it work? You plug the heat it dongle into your smartphone (with both Lightning and USB-C options available) and set it up with the app. Then, you press it against a bug bite for a few seconds. A rapid blast of heat (124 degrees Fahrenheit, to be precise) staves off the itching without burning you or causing any discomfort.

It even works for small children, as long as they're at least three years old, and supports varying levels of treatment for people with more sensitive skin. heat it provides actual relief without any chemicals or ointments, in arguably the most convenient package ever made, and it's great for people who live in mosquito-infested areas or for campers in search of useful gadgets. And at $29.99, it's probably the cheapest, most effective long-term solution.

If you use battery-powered tools, you could probably find the right battery for your Ryobi tool in the dark with your eyes closed. But tool batteries are only for tools. You never once think, even for a second, that you could use them to power other things. And why shouldn't you be able to? These are high-capacity, high-output batteries that mostly just sit there. The Symik 100W Charger and 145W Power Source for Ryobi 18V Batteries turns any compatible battery into a powerful power bank that you could use to charge anything that plugs into a USB-C or USB-A port — phones, tablets, headphones, you name it. It's an ingenious concept, and it only costs $35.99.

Think of all the possibilities this opens up. Anytime you don't have a charger for your 12V socket or a power bank handy, you can just grab an unused Ryobi battery from your tool bag. Problem solved. Oh, and this charger converter is no slouch either. You can get up to 100W charging speeds. It includes a helpful OLED panel showing you input and output, a feature that would cost you a premium on dedicated power banks. It looks kind of cool, too. Even if you don't use it that much for charging non-tool devices, it could be used as a portable backup charger for the Ryobi battery itself when you don't have one.

Downsides? It's only for Ryobi 18V lithium-ion batteries. It appears Symik doesn't provide options for other kinds of batteries, so if you're not a Ryobi user, you're out of luck. Here's to hoping we get more of these in the future for other tool battery brands, because this has to be one of the cleverest, most unorthodox uses of an existing product we've seen.

Noise cancellation and transparency mode on earbuds have become commonplace. Even Apple now includes them on its non-Pro AirPods 4. More importantly, they work and are reliable; using the AirPods Pro, I sometimes can't tell the difference between transparency mode and my own actual hearing. However, some people want transparency all the time — everyone from parents to runners has a need for full situational awareness — and don't want to pay a premium to get the good stuff. That's where open-ear headphones come in. Think of these as little speakers that clamp onto your ears, letting you hear your surroundings and your music at the same time.

We've previously taken a look at the best open-ear headphones available. Options include the more premium Soundcore AeroClip, down to the budget-friendly Ohayo Open-Ear Headphones. One issue that open-ear earbuds introduce is that they leak sound, so people around you may be able to hear what you're listening to, particularly at louder volumes. To solve this, you might want to check out bone-conduction headphones. The Shokz OpenRun Bone-Conduction Headphones (and the pricier Pro version) are an easy recommendation, garnering a 4.5-star average across over 37,200 reviews.

Of course, you will have to commit to the bit. These are not exactly the headphones you buy if you want a pristine, bassy, immersive audio experience. Any noise in your immediate surroundings can and will spoil the music. If that concerns you, there are plenty of affordable noise-canceling earbuds that may offer the transparency mode you need. More expensive models make it worth your while, activating intelligently when you start speaking so you don't even have to press a button.

When your house leaks, the best-case scenario is that you pay for however many gallons have trickled out until the leak is patched. At worst, you suffer water damage that can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars to fix. IoT devices can help here. The Govee Wi-Fi Water Leak Detector is one example of how to fix this problem. Once you set up the sensors, they connect to an app and send you real-time updates anytime there may be water where it shouldn't be — and if you're at home, they can warn you with an alarm. That gives you time to rush to the main shutoff before the damage gets any worse.

For $54.99 MSRP, we'd argue this is an excellent price for peace of mind — and at the time of writing, it's on sale for almost half as much. Nothing sucks more than going to work or going on vacation with that nagging thought in the back of your mind that maybe when you get home, you'll be greeted by a couple of inches of water on the floor. With this, you can forget about it until (if) it happens.

Note, the first option on Amazon includes three sensors. You can buy cheaper versions that include only two or one. If you really wanted to, though, you could buy up to 10 sensors paired to the same base station and be 1,000% sure your house doesn't become an unwitting man-made reef.

A good Wi-Fi router can send internet across your entire home. Someday, you might even have a router that gives you Wi-Fi for miles. None of that matters, though, if your gigabit connection is hobbled by household objects ruining your Wi-Fi connection. But sometimes that can't be helped. Sometimes you have to leave the router where it is (and the obstructions where they are) and live with weak Wi-Fi — except not really. A Wi-Fi extender or booster may be just the ticket to improve coverage in a dead zone or an area of the house where the signal is weak.

Wi-Fi extenders are fairly affordable and easy to set up. Our recommendation is the TP-Link AC1200 Wi-Fi Extender. Find an open outlet in an area where the signal is strong, and it can extend your 2.4GHz and/or 5GHz network while still keeping respectable data speeds, supporting up to 30 devices. It even includes an Ethernet port for devices that need it.

Bear in mind, this is a Wi-Fi extender. It extends the signal, nothing more. This model in particular has a max of 867Mbps on the 5Ghz band and 300Mbps on the 2.4Ghz band. Some would argue that you're better off just relocating your router or running a very long cable to that part of the house where the signal is bad. However, an extender is an easy, quick option if you just need Wi-Fi in one dead-zone room and you're not too picky about speed and latency.