When you’re tearing downhill on your snowboard, it’s a little distracting to take off your glove and dig out your iPod just to, say, hit pause. Instead, build this simple radio-frequency ID system and control your iPod by waving your hand in front of your coat.
A tag sewn into your glove sends instructions to a reader stashed in your pocket.

Unwire Your iPod

Cost: $161
Time: 6
Hours
Easy | | | | |
Hard

Dept.: Geek Guide
Tech: DIY Internet Radio
Cost: Free—$2,850
Time: 10 minutes and up
Dabbler | | | | | Master

Outgoing Federal Communi-cations Commission chair Michael Powell once told an audience at the International Consumer Electronics Show that TiVo was “God's machine.” He's right. Once you've had one, you can never go back to dumb TV, where you're stuck watching whatever is actually on at that moment.

Today you can buy similar devices for radio—sometimes called RiVos—including Griffin's Radio Shark and Neuros's MP3 Computer, that connect to your computer and record programs to your hard drive.