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Article snippet: Welcome to the Smarter Living newsletter. Editor Tim Herrera emails readers once a week with tips and advice for living a better, more fulfilling life. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Monday morning. I never would’ve thought a thin, black, six-foot iPhone charging cable would change my life. Yet here we are, and that magic cable is the Amazon Basics lightning-to-USB iPhone charging cable (also available in micro-USB). This little wonder of PVC and copper wiring solves an irritatingly modern non-problem problem: the three-foot leash that is the stock charging cable usually bundled with most smartphones. Cue the tiny violin. But once you’re able to roam just a little farther, you realize how much that three-foot leash affects the way you navigate your living space. How you orient yourself at home while charging your phone changes. The happiness of lying on my couch while charging far outweighed the cable’s $7.99 price tag. As with all of the items in this list, you never knew you wanted one, but once you have it there’s no going back. In collaboration with Wirecutter — a New York Times company — here are four other under-$50 items that might similarly improve your life. White Noise Machine It seems counterintuitive: For a better night’s sleep, turn on something noisy. But these little devices can make it easier to fall asleep and stay asleep by fighting noise with noise: “The white noise basically creates a wall of sound defense, protecting you from intr... Link to the full article to read more