The Handy Magnet is an idea so simple it might not even be immediately apparent how neat it is, much less why somebody would need to claim having “invented” it: A strip of plastic with nine small magnets in it. So what, you ask? Well, once you have a strap of them in your hands you start thinking of all kinds of ways to use them. Doing a project in your driveway? Slap some magnets on the garage door to keep nuts and screws from rolling into the street. Need to keep a toddler from digging around in the fridge? The magnets’ combined strength is more than enough for an impromptu temporary lock. The product’s promotional site offers ideas both clever and — magnetized water, anyone? — totally kooky, but it emphasizes their versatility and (given the useful way the magnets are integrated into a watertight plastic enclosure, with hangers on either end for attaching to non-magnetized surfaces) might convince you they’re worth the 19 bucks each set costs. Don’t think this company has the corner on magnets as tools. You can find quite a selection from the Joe Tool Company , The Magnet Source (both primarily an assortment of telescoping magnet tools) and Ace Hardware, which offers pages of handy magnets for lots of uses.

Like cookouts, sunbathing and vacations, live music is a staple of summer. Get into the groove this season with the best concert-going gear on the Web. If you’re lucky enough to score tickets to a venue that permits coolers or picnic baskets, try the coastal basket from Picnicbaskets.com ($100, with free shipping).  The basket includes picnic supplies for four. Choose a gingham lining that’s red and white or blue and white. Igloo’s Playmate icy tunes gripper cooler (pictured) gets you jamming before the performer hits the stage ($66).  Hook up any MP3 player to this cooler, which is equipped with speakers and an amplifier. Stadium seating is often the norm for bigger-name acts like Bruce Springsteen or Coldplay. Keep your bottom comfy, while keeping your whistle, ahem, wet. The sippin seat has an internal flexible flask that holds 3 12 oz. cans worth of cold or warm beverages ($29).  Find your way back to your seat from the concession stand (or back to your car when the usher discovers your Sippin Seat) with this mini microbeam flashlight that attaches to any keychain ($20 each or 2 for $30). For those all-day outdoor gigs like Lollapalooza or Virgin Fest, sunscreen is a must.  MD Skincare’s SPF  30 individual towelettes are perfect for slipping into your bag and applying on the go (60 applications for $42).  Keep the sun out of your face and your head cool with one of the season’s trendy fedoras. This Spillane straw fedora from Urban Outfitters hits the right mix of cool and utilitarian ($28).  You never know when Mother Nature might unleash a thunderstorm.  Don’t be stuck scurrying for cover with thousands of fans : Be prepared with this stylish Marimekko “Ruusupuu” rain poncho ($75).  It comes with a small tote bag for easy storage.

One of the things that distinguishes amateur woodworking from serious projects is sanding. If you’re willing to spend some time smoothing the edges, a do-it-yourselfer can make decent looking bookshelves without getting into any fancy joinery tricks. Sanding is also a prerequisite if you want to paint your project and have it not look like yard sale junk. But sanding is a huge time drain, and it’s hard not to blame a guy for skipping it. A new piece of hardware is intended to eliminate that step without diminishing the final product: The ominously named Final Cut blade sands cuts automatically as they’re made. The heavy-duty table saw blade has discs of sandpaper affixed to either side so that it power-sands as it slices (replacement sanding discs are available without the blade). Not only does that leave users with clean pieces of freshly cut work, it also allegedly cuts down on “kick-back,” the dangerous moments in which a board is pushed backward when it hits the saw incorrectly. Looking over sample cuts made on moulding, solid wood, laminated sheets and composition board, it’s hard to believe they came straight off a table saw. At $75 per blade, the FC isn’t cheap, but it’s not much more than high-end discs made by Ridgid and Craftsman — and that difference will seem pretty trivial if woodworkers suddenly find their projects taking far less time than they once did.

Artists and designers have long embraced pen-based devices, such as those made by Wacom, which use tablets to translate your drawings into high-quality digital artwork. Wacom’s tools have brought professional quality to normal Joes, but some customers want something else out of a digi-pen — or at least, that’s what electronics companies hope. They’ve experimented with items like the Chatpen, which claimed to send SMS or email directly from what you wrote manually. They’ve built phones into them for wannabe Dick Tracys. Currently, there are two standouts among pen gizmos that don’t require computers to do their thing. The $50 FLY Fusion, which emphasizes built-in homework help, says it can record what you’re writing and do everything from spell-checking to translating to French or Spanish. The Pulse Smartpen ($150 to $200) has higher- and post-educational users in mind, offering to make MP3 recordings of a lecture or interview that are automatically linked to your ink-on-paper notes. Both require special paper to work their wonders, meaning that you’re not able, as one might assume, to simply slip all that helpful computer power into your shirt pocket and go.

One of the biggest disappointments faced by many new owners of handheld video devices is that you can’t easily transfer your favorite DVDs to them for on-the-go enjoyment. If you’ve already bought every season of Lost on DVD, why should you have to fork over two bucks an episode at the iTunes store just so you can watch it on your iPod instead of your TV? Enter the Pinnacle Video Transfer, a $130 gadget designed to address this very problem. The little black box plugs into a video source on one end, into a media player (or hard drive) on the other, and transfers any analog video signal with no computer required. You can transfer old home movies from VHS, save DVDs in iPod-friendly format, or — hard as it is to believe, I know people do this — record yourself playing your favorite video game so you can replay all the shoot-’em-up action for friends. All by pressing a single button when the program you want starts playing on your TV. As with many gadgets, this one may play better with PCs: My iPod is formatted to communicate with my Mac, and as a result I couldn’t record anything to it, even after following Pinnacle’s support instructions and reformatting the iPod’s hard drive (and losing tons of data as a result). The company says few users have this problem, but it has released a $100 device aimed solely at Mac users — the main difference being that the latter needs to be hooked up to your computer while you do transfers.

Aside from the cliché that guys aren’t supposed to sew, one thing that kept me from approaching a sewing machine for years was that threading them looked pretty intimidating — loop here, insert there, wind around this way and so on. I eventually overcame my fear years back, but might have done so earlier had Singer’s new Curvy machine been available. Selling online for around $300, the machine boasts two features designed to make setup easier: one for threading the needle and another for getting the bobbin thread set up. It also has an electronic stitch-selection device that cleverly informs you of the appropriate length and width settings for a given stitch. Combine all that with handy common-sense features like a spacious compartment for accessories and a built-in trimmer for loose threads, and you have a machine that’s very appealing for beginners and practiced users alike. Testing the machine for ease of use, I found that it took only around half an hour from the time I opened the manual and plugged in the machine to the end of my first job — hemming some pajama bottoms that were clearly designed for a much taller man. While the auto-threading feature wasn’t so intuitive you could do it without a manual, it did simplify things significantly, and must be a Godsend for anyone whose eyesight isn’t what it used to be. Since one assumes that’s a fair percentage of the sewing machine demographic, Singer has probably guaranteed itself a lot of sales with the innovation.