The Buzz: tools, trends, and gizmos

Plug the Neuros OSD video into your PC, TV, or media center and archive all of your DVD and video content. Featured at last month's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the slick little unit records MPEG-4 files, so you can watch your shows on various devices, from an iPod to a PDA. With an open-source hardware platform and Linux-based software, the recorder is also wide open to hacking. In fact, Neuros Technology has set up a wiki dedicated solely to developers, who are encouraged to improve the device and share their work. $200. www.neurostechnology.com.

Hacker Igor Skochinsky made short work of the Kindle, the highly touted new ebook reader by Amazon. Just a few weeks after its release, he devised a workaround of the Kindle's DRM (digital rights management), which prevented users from loading non-Amazon ebooks from Mobipocket. Skochinsky's work is detailed on his blog “Reversing Everything” (igorsk.blogspot.com). There, anyone can download the scripts that he used to attach Amazon's DRM to other Mobipocket titles, which make them compatible with the Kindle.

Many online videos creatively adapt copyrighted materials in ways that constitute fair use. Even so, this legal exercise of freedom-of-speech rights is currently threatened by antipiracy measures online. That's the finding of a new study conducted by American University Professors Pat Aufderheide and Peter Jaszi. The study (centerforsocialmedia.org/recut) identifies legal uses of copyrighted material, ranging from incidental—a video maker's family sings “Happy Birthday”—to parody—a Christian takeoff on the song “Baby Got Back.”

Book contraptions come and go, but this being a gadget section, we bring you yet another. The Book Gem will keep a book or magazine open to the desired page, even in bed. Spring-loaded clips attach to the top or bottom of the book, depending on your desired angle and trim size of your content. Whether you're perusing The Joy of Cooking, a mass-market paperback, or a repair manual, the Book Gem promises to work with any sized volume. Two legs on back snap open to provide support. Ready to turn the page? Simply secure it with the rubber-tipped page clip and voila, you're reading hands-free. $14.95. To order, visit www.bookgem.com.

The oohing and ahhing persist post-MacWorld and the annual unveiling of new Apple products. Stuff like iTunes rentals, Apple TV upgrades, and oh, yes, the MacBook Air. In another hardware announcement, there was Apple's Time Capsule. Simply plug it in and the wireless storage unit automatically backs up the data on every Mac in the house. Built to work with Time Machine, the Leopard OS backup software, Time Capsule is also a Wi-Fi base station. Two models: 500GB ($299) and 1TB ($499). www.apple.com.

Video games shouldn't really hurt—or should they? To experience the full impact of gaming, a vest by TN Games enables players to feel what it's like to get shot, body slammed, or flattened by g-forces. Resembling a flak jacket, the accessory contains embedded sensors and microcompressor technology, which deliver precise impact where it happens, and it's not a mere rumble or buzz that you feel. “It's enough to make a game fun and interesting, but it's not going to hurt people,” says Mark Ombrellaro, TN's founder, who is also a vascular surgeon, according to Scientific American. If you're up for more punishment, a matching helmet debuted at CES. $170 for the vest. www.tngames.com.

Much of the buzz around CES this year was about open source. Among the most talked about such products was a build-it-yourself device called BUG. Winner of CNET's Best of CES Award for emerging technologies, it's a collection of snap-on modules that include a camera, keyboard, and an LCD screen. Start with the BUGbase, a minicomputer, then add your modules or since it's open source, create your own. Educator discounts are available. Buglabs.net.

Online tutoring vendor TutorVista now offers its live one-on-one homework help service in public libraries across the U.S. and Canada. The Library Advantage Program provides both voice-based and text/chat tutoring. Students may utilize the program's IP telephony service to speak with a tutor from a library location or from home. www.tutorvista.com.

Who says old-timers aren't up on technology? Take Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, who, among his other accomplishments, can now brag on 4,889 books on LibraryThing. Sixteen members of the social book-cataloging site helped input Jefferson's library—the title set that he donated to restore the Library of Congress destroyed by the British in 1815—according to the LibraryThing blog. Check out TJ's tag cloud, compare books you have in common, and friend him. Other dead folk in the cataloging pipeline: William Faulkner and Tupac Shakur. www.librarything.com.

We all know that seeking a diagnosis or treatment via Google is ill-advised, so to speak. Still, few among us hesitate to reach for the keyboard when looking for medical advice. For the hypochondriac in all of us, there's MEDgle, which provides a personalized search based on your symptoms. Notable here is the visual interface—click on the body part or symptom and get a list of possible conditions. www.medgle.com.