Temu is the fastest grown shopping app on the Apple Store and Android Play. Based in China it blew up on social media in the last two years, offering crazy cheap deals. They gamify your online experience letting you “spin to win” coupons like $10 off or 20% off orders that are time limited (you must order within the hour).
This has driven a viral trend of people posting deals they’ve gotten on Temu. Some customers and influencers have reported short-term Hot deals like Baofang radios for $2 or Nintendo Switches for $80. While there is always a risk of buying counterfeit products, it appears the majority of items sold on Temu are brand-less OEMs or knock offs. On Amazon you’d get the same products but with key mash names like “Hihhy”, “VCELINK” or “Aukey”.
Temu can offer products cheaply because they sell products direct from manufacturers in China, cutting out middle men distributors and retailers. AliExpress and Wish also have a similar business model which often make them cheaper than Amazon. AliExpress has a larger selection of sellers than Temu. Wish.com has lower prices and many items but of also lower quality.
Temu, AliExpress, and Wish all offer “free shipping” on many of their items. Temu offers free shipping on all of their products with a minimum order amount. Temu really blew up a year ago when they started offering “free expedited delivery” via air freight. AliExpress and Wish charge extra for air fright.
My Temu order took 8 days to arrive and some users have reported delivery times of 2-3 days. “Free shipping” from AliExpress and Wish via ship cargo, takes about 30 days. This puts Temu closer to Amazon’s 2-7 day delivery expectation.
Temu can offer “Free Air Express” because they worked out a deal with an Asian air cargo company, who offered them a huge discount on their air freight rates. This deal is temporary (likely 6 months to 1 year at most) but Temu is leveraging this opportunity by pumping huge amounts of money into marketing, including a Super Bowl commercial.
As to my order, the items were mostly clothing and accessories picked out by my wife and daughter from Temu’s Hot Deals. The quality was about the same quality of fashionable budget clothing found at Target or H&M. The electronics I ordered were USB cables and chargers which all worked.
Overall, our experience with Temu has bas been positive. So much so that I’ve been confident enough to begun placing additional small $25-$50 orders in the days since. I do find myself succumbing to the gamified coupons and spending way too much time and effort to search for some additional item that I may or may not really need to get that slightly higher discount.
I did find one disappointing and one defective item amongst my orders thus far. I’ll follow up in a few days with my experience with Temu’s “Free Return” policy. Be sure to check back for that video soon.
My friend Tony works in maintenance for the MTA (New York City’s Subway system), a job where a flashlight is vital to inspect trains, tracks, and just check under seats and dark spaces. He uses the a Mini-One flashlight as a backup at work and swears by it for its small size, affordability, and reliability. He sent me a Jetbeam Mini-One as a gift and while not to seem ungrateful, I still thoroughly tested as I do with any other flashlight.
Keychain flashlights are not a new. I fondly remember owning a AA powered Disneyland keychain light that ran a small incandescent bulb. But today’s rechargeable LED powered flashlights are brighter than some AA powered tactical lights from a dozen years ago.
I’ve been reviewing more compact keychain EDC lights recently, but Mini-One stands out for its stainless steel construction. The Mini-One’s polished metal surface gives the flashlight a higher perceived value than the comparably priced OLIGHT I1R (and with twice as brightness). The unit recharges via USB-C port kept water-tight with a silicone plug cover.
A single tap on the silicone button activates the main CREE illuminator and a double tap activates the body panel lights. This is where I find fault in the design. A single tap could accidentally occur in your pocket when attached to your keychain. On one occasion, I pulled out my keys and found the light was on; who knows for how long. I would have preferred that the main CREE activate with a double tap and the side light with a triple tap to avoid this potential problem.
Another disappointment was in the light output. The packaging claims 500 lumens max. In my testing, my flashlight managed approximately 300 lumens. Jetbeam should have lead with that number, which is twice the output of an OLIGHT I1R but instead seems to have opted for inflating numbers like many budget light brands.
If you can get past the controls and the middling light output and controls, I can say that the light is well built. It survived my IPX-8 water immersion test and had a run time in excess of 1.5hrs. For a light smaller than my pinky, that was laudable.
This is the first product I can’t recommend due to dangerous construction. This little flashlight sliced open my thumb while testing it. This EDC is unusual in that the head of the tube has a 45º cut which allows the head to swivel into a 90º position. Unfortunately, the edges of that 45º cut were left razor sharp by the factory.
I really wanted to like this budget EDC flashlight. It has is USB-C rechargeable with set of side LED lights for signaling and use as a table top lamp. In addition, it has a magnetic clickey tail allowing it to be wall or overhang mounted as a work light. In my testing it met the 500 lumen output it claimed and had a runtime just over 100 minutes on high mode.
The factory just didn’t take into consideration that the tube cuts need to be ground down. Perhaps they were kept sharp for aesthetic reasons but they are a safety hazard. I contacted the original Amazon seller NGOKPYD. If you’ve been injured by this product let me know. I don’t plan a class-action lawsuit, I’m just curious. This EDC is stil available elswehere online under the brand name BORUIT.
In the contest to make the smallest, brightest, EDC flashlight, the Fenix E03R isn’t the smallest or the brightest but this keychain sized flashlight offers a bit of both while being perhaps the most durable. This all-metal bodied flashlight looks like it feel straight out of the Star Wars universe. It is about the size of a car alarm remote fob (actually smaller than mine).
The light activates by pressing the activation button for about 1 second and immediately release upon activation. While on, tapping the button changes the brightness mode (4 levels). Pressing the button for longer than 1 second activates the red LED which has a constant and blinking submode. Tapping the button once shows you the battery charge level by the color of the illuminated ring around the button.
Tapping the button twice causes the battery illumination ring to slowly pulse; tapping in this mode switches colors from red, green, and cycling between both. The amount of light cast by the ring is very dim (less than 1 candela). It looks only bright enough to help locate the light in the dark, I’m not convinced this lighting mode has much utility in the real world?
In my lumen test, I recorded an output of 440 lumens on highest brightness which is well within the margin of error of the 500 lumens Fenix lists for the E03R. Fenix claims the light is IPX6 water resistance which I tested and confirmed. Fenix also claims the light has a runtime of 1hr and 20minutes on high; in my test it exceeded that mark by 18 minutes.
The light met all of its specifications and felt so solid in my hand, that I decided to give it a rare durability test out of curiosity. I ran it over with my SUV, twice. The flashlight survived without a dent (well more like a bunch of small scratches) but somehow the pressure activated the flashlights ‘lockout’ mode where the light doesn’t turn on when the button is pressed. The activate or deactivate lockout mode, simply keep the button pressed for 3+ seconds.
The E03R’s main drawbacks are in its controls. I don’t like having to turn on the unit in white light before it switches to red light mode which could spoil your eye’s natural nigh-vision. And the units 1/2 second press activation seems insufficient in preventing accidental activation in your pocket.
But overall I like this light a lot based on performance with those small caveats with the controls (which I have nitpicks with Fenix other lights). This is the Version 2 of this light and perhaps they can address this in a future Version 3.
I recently reviewed a HiHHY corded stick vacuum. Much of my impression of that stick vacuum are repeated in this handheld cordless model: it looks and feels a bit cheap but despite appearances, it performs as well as my Dyson whilst being much quieter and costing hundreds less.
The overall design of this handvac is conventional. It features a cone-like clear collection canister with accessory brush and crevice nozzle attachments. Unlike the stick model is cordless, with an internal rechargeable battery. What makes this model particularly appealing and innovative is that it is recharged via a ubiquitous USB-C port.
The HiHHY comes with a USB-C cable but does not ship with an AC power adapter. Regardless, USB-C is now the standard with all new phones, one simply needs to borrow a phone charger and Bob’s your uncle, you can recharge this little handvac anywhere.
Moreover, this USB-C compatibility makes the HiHHY the perfect vacuum for a car. It is small enough to keep in a trunk or under a seat. When you need to, you can simply recharge it using your car’s phone USB-C cable.
Sunwayfoto offered me a new carbon fiber tripod to test out. I’ve tested their T3240CS hunting tripod and their TC2340CE travel tripod, so I was eager to try their Hermes which is heavy duty enough to handle heavy cameras and video gear, but nearly as light as a travel tripod at 3lbs (without a tripod head).
What arrived was on point. The entire package looks top notch and well made. The Hermes TL2340 CC tripod has solidly built carbon fibre legs with lever segment locks. The feet were broad rubberized pads that could be swapped with the included set of metal spikes.
The locking lugs for the legs offered 4 locking positions with one nearly 90º offer very low shooting positions. The central carbon fiber pillar is reversible allowing added flexibility for camera mounting the positions. Sunwayfoto cleverly added additional 1/4″ photo gear sockets to the hinge points of the legs allowing a multitude of mounting options for lights, monitors, or ball-head arms.
Fully extended the tripod stands at nearly 60″ tall. More than tall enough for most photo and video projects. The entire tripod stores in Sunwayfoto’s well padded nylon case (included).
All in all I’m well pleased with this medium-weight tripod that weighs like a light-weight. It’s going to be my go-to tripod for my future video reviews.
I needed a new tire gauge when my car was ransacked and my emergency tool bag was stolen from my car in front of our home in San Francisco. While surfing through Amazon, the Norshire caught my eye. This digital tire gauge is as thin as a pen.
When I got it, the package was scarcely larger than the product itself. The instructions were printed in minuscule lettering outside of the box obscured by a stuck-on UPC inventory label. Fortunately it proved easy to figure out.
The Norshire looks a 2000’s minimalist modern, black-on-black, squared plastic tube, reminiscent of a fancy fountain-pen or draftsman ruling-pen. It has a circular black button next to a black LCD screen. Pressing the button activates the system and tapping cycles through metric, Bar, and PSI settings. The unit also displays ambient temperature and air pressure.
It has powered by a single AAA NiMH battery which can be recharged through a USB-C port. One end of the gauge has black raised nub to use as a tire deflater. The other end, with a red rubber washer, pushes into a tires Schrader valve to measure the pressure.
The Norshire proved to be accurate. Comparing it against my car’s onboard tire sensors and to the analogue gauge of my tire inflator, the Norshire returned consistent readings which aligned with my other sources. And unlike any other pressure gauge I’ve ever used, the Norshire had such a good seal that I scarcely heard the hiss of any leaking air while pressing onto the tire’s valve.
The Norshire hovers around $15-19 on Amazon and I plan to purchase a few more when the price dips, as a backup and they would make great holiday stocking stuffers.
When I was asked to review a Hihhy vacuum I said, “Hihhy, who?” When I found out I was being sent a $35-$40 plug-in stick vacuum, I didn’t have high hopes. When I first opened the box, my first impression didn’t impress.
The vacuum looked and felt cheap. To be more accurate, it looked like a $40 vacuum. The body and accessories were a bit too light weight, flexing and bending in ways that a plastic bodied Dyson does not.
The vacuum is conventional looking hand-vac with a handle that screws into the rear of the motor body. Assembly was easy and straight-forward. The box included a packet of replacement internal dust filters and 3 vacuum heads: a rolling floor sweeper, brush nozzle, and a crevice funnel nozzle.
To test it’s performance, I emptied the contest of the waste canister of my Dyson stick-vac onto the floor. If my first impression was disappointment, my impression after testing was surprise. The Hihhy was able to suck up all of the debris and dust in under a minute.
The floor was as clean as if I had used my Dyson. This despite the fact that my Dyson has a motorized brush head to sweep up debris and costs a couple hundred more than this Hihhy. And it was quiter; much quieter. The Dyson is notoriously loud (an intentional design feature of the Dyson to make it appear more powerful than other hand-vacs)
It remains to be seen if this Hihhy is as durable as my Dyson or any other brand name vacuum. If I went by appearances, I doubt it. But if we go by performance, I may be surprised again.
The contest Prize will be chosen from all entries submitted from May 21, 2023 through May 27, 2023. Entries must be received no later than 12pm EST on May 27, 2023.
2. Take a screen shot of the channel screen showing you have subscribed/followedand email it to me
3. Email me with the Subject:May 28 Contest • Attach the JPG or PNG screen shot • Include your full name and ship-to address in the email (so I can confirm you live in the US or Canada)
4. BONUS: Share this with a friend and get them to enter the contest too. Ask them to reference your name and email address in the body of their message ie. “My buddy johndoe@gmail.com clued me into the contest”, and I’ll award you an extra-bonus entry to the contest. It’s important that they reference your email so I can easily look up your entry. Each friend that subscribes and refers to you in their email will earn you another bonus entry for a maximum of 10 entries (including yours).
NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY TO ENTER. YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING DO NOT INCREASE WITH A PURCHASE. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.
1. Eligibility
Void where prohibited by law. Must be legal resident within the USA or Canada. Moondog Industries employees, subsidiaries, affiliates, suppliers, advertising and promotion agencies, employees’ immediate family members, are ineligible participate in the contest/giveaway.
Entrants must be willing and able to appear on YouTube to discuss the contest and post images of the prize on their social feed should they win the contest.
2. Sponsors and Platforms
Moondog Industries (known as the SPONSOR) is a video Edutainment producer and game promotor based in San Francisco, CA. YouTube, TikTok, Rumble, and online video platforms (known as PLATFORMS) are not SPONSORS or in any way affiliated with the contest or content.
3. Agreement to Rules
By entering your contest, participants agree to abide by the SPONSOR’s Official Rules and decisions. The SPONSOR retain the right to refuse, withdraw, or disqualify entries at their sole discretion. By submitting an entry, the participant agrees to accept the decision of the SPONSOR as final and binding.
4. Entry Period
Contest email entries must be received between: 12:00pm EST 21 May 2023 and 12:00pm EST 27 May 2023
5. How to Enter
This contest requires your skill in navigating your phone or computer controls to screen capture an image of the following YouTube channels/Social Media accounts. Subscribe or Follow and make a screen capture of those pages showing a greyed out Subscribe button or indicator that your account is Following that page. Send a screen capture image file of any of those sites to contest@moondogindustries.com . One entry per person or per Social Media account. Fraudulent methods of entry, photo retouched, or other methods of circumvention of the rules may result in the SPONSOR invalidating a participant’s entries.
6. Prizes
Winner must be able to receive the prize by e-mail or by physical mail. Prize may be substituted at the sole discretion of the SPONSOR. Acceptance of the prize grants SPONSOR permission to use the Winners entry, name, and likeness for advertising, promotion, and trade without further compensation or remuneration unless prohibited by law.
7. Odds
Odds of winning is dependent upon the number of eligible entries received.
8. Selection and Notification of the Winner
The winner will be chosen at random by the SPONSOR from among the entrants that demonstrated the skill to navigate the electronic entry and have met the minimum requirements. Winners will be contacted via the email used to enter the contest no later than December 31, 2023.
SPONSOR are not liable for the winner’s failure to receive notification of winning if he or she provided a wrong email address or if their email security settings caused your prize notification to go into the spam or junk folder. If a winner does not respond within 24hrs of sending a notification, the SPONSOR will select an alternate winner. Receipt of the prize is upon the condition of compliance with federal, state, and local laws.
9. Rights Granted by the Entrant
The SPONSOR, upon submission of an entry into the giveaway or contest, has the right to use the participant’s submission, voice, likeness, image, statements about the contest, etc., for publicity, news, advertising, promotional purposes, trade, and so forth, without any further notice, review, consent, compensation or remuneration.
Participants shall defend or settle against such claims at their sole expense, and shall indemnify, defend and hold harmless the SPONSOR from any suit due to damage of or by the prize.
10. Terms & Conditions
The SPONSOR reserves the right to modify, suspend, cancel or terminate in the event that non-authorized human intervention, a bug or virus, fraud, or other causes beyond your control impact or corrupt the security, fairness, proper conduct, or administration of the contest/giveaway.
11. Limitation of Liability
Entry into this contest constitutes the participants agreement to release and hold harmless the SPONSOR and PLATFORMS, subsidiaries, affiliates, employees, etc., against all claims liability, illness, injury, death, loss, etc., that occurs directly or indirectly from participation in the contest or use/misuse of the awarded prize.
12. Disputes
As a condition of participating in the promotion, the participant agrees to resolve all disputes with an arbitrator designated by the SPONSOR in the state of California, without resorting to any form of class action. Entrants waive all rights to punitive, incidental, or consequential damages, and waive all rights to have damages multiplied or increased.
13. Privacy Policy
Participants agree to abide by all privacy and NDA laws in the State of California and any federal laws of the United State of America.
14. Winners List
Participants may request a list of winners by submitting a request in writing to Moondog Industries for up to 30 days after the contest ends.
15. Social Media Platform Rules
Winners will agree to post a photo of the prize on their social media channels in such a way as does not violate any rules of that platform. The winners also agree to appear for an interview where they will discuss the prize and its performance. If there are functional problems with the prize, the winner agrees to make a good-faith effort to resolve all issues with the SPONSOR prior to posting reviews or opinions about the prize.
16. Affirmation of Acceptance of and Agreement to All of the Official Rules
By entering the contest, the entrant has affirmatively reviewed, accepted, and agreed to all of the them.
The contest Prize will be chosen from all entries submitted from May 15, 2023 through May 20, 2023. Entries must be received no later than 12pm EST on May 20, 2023.
2. Take a screen shot of the channel screen showing you have subscribed/followedand email it to me
3. Email me with the Subject:May 21 Contest • Attach the JPG or PNG screen shot • Include your full name and ship-to address in the email (so I can confirm you live in the US or Canada)
4. BONUS: Share this with a friend and get them to enter the contest too. Ask them to reference your name and email address in the body of their message ie. “My buddy johndoe@gmail.com clued me into the contest”, and I’ll award you an extra-bonus entry to the contest. It’s important that they reference your email so I can easily look up your entry. Each friend that subscribes and refers to you in their email will earn you another bonus entry for a maximum of 10 entries (including yours).
NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY TO ENTER. YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING DO NOT INCREASE WITH A PURCHASE. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.
1. Eligibility
Void where prohibited by law. Must be legal resident within the USA or Canada. Moondog Industries employees, subsidiaries, affiliates, suppliers, advertising and promotion agencies, employees’ immediate family members, are ineligible participate in the contest/giveaway.
Entrants must be willing and able to appear on YouTube to discuss the contest and post images of the prize on their social feed should they win the contest.
2. Sponsors and Platforms
Moondog Industries (known as the SPONSOR) is a video Edutainment producer and game promotor based in San Francisco, CA. YouTube, TikTok, Rumble, and online video platforms (known as PLATFORMS) are not SPONSORS or in any way affiliated with the contest or content.
3. Agreement to Rules
By entering your contest, participants agree to abide by the SPONSOR’s Official Rules and decisions. The SPONSOR retain the right to refuse, withdraw, or disqualify entries at their sole discretion. By submitting an entry, the participant agrees to accept the decision of the SPONSOR as final and binding.
4. Entry Period
Contest email entries must be received between: 12:00pm EST 15 May 2023 and 12:00pm EST 20 May 2023
5. How to Enter
This contest requires your skill in navigating your phone or computer controls to screen capture an image of the following YouTube channels/Social Media accounts. Subscribe or Follow and make a screen capture of those pages showing a greyed out Subscribe button or indicator that your account is Following that page. Send a screen capture image file of any of those sites to contest@moondogindustries.com . One entry per person or per Social Media account. Fraudulent methods of entry, photo retouched, or other methods of circumvention of the rules may result in the SPONSOR invalidating a participant’s entries.
6. Prizes
Winner must be able to receive the prize by e-mail or by physical mail. Prize may be substituted at the sole discretion of the SPONSOR. Acceptance of the prize grants SPONSOR permission to use the Winners entry, name, and likeness for advertising, promotion, and trade without further compensation or remuneration unless prohibited by law.
7. Odds
Odds of winning is dependent upon the number of eligible entries received.
8. Selection and Notification of the Winner
The winner will be chosen at random by the SPONSOR from among the entrants that demonstrated the skill to navigate the electronic entry and have met the minimum requirements. Winners will be contacted via the email used to enter the contest no later than December 31, 2023.
SPONSOR are not liable for the winner’s failure to receive notification of winning if he or she provided a wrong email address or if their email security settings caused your prize notification to go into the spam or junk folder. If a winner does not respond within 24hrs of sending a notification, the SPONSOR will select an alternate winner. Receipt of the prize is upon the condition of compliance with federal, state, and local laws.
9. Rights Granted by the Entrant
The SPONSOR, upon submission of an entry into the giveaway or contest, has the right to use the participant’s submission, voice, likeness, image, statements about the contest, etc., for publicity, news, advertising, promotional purposes, trade, and so forth, without any further notice, review, consent, compensation or remuneration.
Participants shall defend or settle against such claims at their sole expense, and shall indemnify, defend and hold harmless the SPONSOR from any suit due to damage of or by the prize.
10. Terms & Conditions
The SPONSOR reserves the right to modify, suspend, cancel or terminate in the event that non-authorized human intervention, a bug or virus, fraud, or other causes beyond your control impact or corrupt the security, fairness, proper conduct, or administration of the contest/giveaway.
11. Limitation of Liability
Entry into this contest constitutes the participants agreement to release and hold harmless the SPONSOR and PLATFORMS, subsidiaries, affiliates, employees, etc., against all claims liability, illness, injury, death, loss, etc., that occurs directly or indirectly from participation in the contest or use/misuse of the awarded prize.
12. Disputes
As a condition of participating in the promotion, the participant agrees to resolve all disputes with an arbitrator designated by the SPONSOR in the state of California, without resorting to any form of class action. Entrants waive all rights to punitive, incidental, or consequential damages, and waive all rights to have damages multiplied or increased.
13. Privacy Policy
Participants agree to abide by all privacy and NDA laws in the State of California and any federal laws of the United State of America.
14. Winners List
Participants may request a list of winners by submitting a request in writing to Moondog Industries for up to 30 days after the contest ends.
15. Social Media Platform Rules
Winners will agree to post a photo of the prize on their social media channels in such a way as does not violate any rules of that platform. The winners also agree to appear for an interview where they will discuss the prize and its performance. If there are functional problems with the prize, the winner agrees to make a good-faith effort to resolve all issues with the SPONSOR prior to posting reviews or opinions about the prize.
16. Affirmation of Acceptance of and Agreement to All of the Official Rules
By entering the contest, the entrant has affirmatively reviewed, accepted, and agreed to all of the them.
