Vulture Bytes: Social Media for TV, and a Personal Book Scanner

Recently, on Vulture Bytes’ fifth consecutive night in front of the TV, we were ashamed to check in to Foursquare from home yet again. If only we could tell all of our social networks why we were staying home — because our TiVo promised more fun than another turgid conversation with our friend who keeps telling us that dating six people at once was the only way we’re going to find love. Anyway, on that fifth night inside the house, we discovered Miso, a Foursquare for TV. Tell Miso what you’re watching and earn points for being a show’s biggest fan. And, if you’re into that sort of thing, it’ll toss you into an ad hoc support group of other people who organize their week around Grey’s Anatomy. PRICE: Free

Funded by Apple-owning taxpayers like you, the PBS app collects all the programming you always mean to watch but don’t get around to seeing. Frontline, Nova, and the NewsHour are all here, their full episodes waiting to fill your brain with actual, substantive knowledge. And for those who prefer the lighter fare — or as light as PBS gets — all of its entertainment programming, including Austin City Limits, Masterpiece Classic, and Antiques Roadshow, makes the cut, too. Download the app, if only to reap the full benefit of your tax dollars. PRICE: Free.

In Vulture Bytes’ hovel, there aren’t enough shelves to contain all the books we haven’t touched since we first brought them from the flea markets we scour every weekend. It’s gotten so bad they now litter the floor, a mosaic of things we’re never actually going to have the time to read. But Ion’s Book Saver can help reduce our clutter. It’s an ingenious cradle and camera that will take pictures of your books’ pages with the click of a button, far faster than struggling with a scanner. You have to turn the pages yourself, but Ion promises a 200-page book can get scanned in fifteen minutes. Then you can move the book to your e-reader or an SD card. PRICE: $199, coming soon.

We’re afraid to tell you about an app that could make Vulture Bytes obsolete, but Amazon’s Deals app is too good to ignore. It collects all those Gold Box deals that serve as limited-time clearance offers for Amazon’s inventory. As we write, you can get a Griffin car charger for an iPod/iPhone for 43 percent off, a 40-inch Toshiba LCD TV for 33 percent off, or a pack of twelve coconut waters for 30 percent off. Most intriguing, it lets you set reminders for Gold Box deals coming up later in the day. Never miss a chance at cheap electronics and/or boutique groceries again. PRICE: Free, until you buy the coconut water.

If you, like us, look at gadget blogs all week, you begin to appreciate the gadgets that are more than just a collection of metal and plastic. When a company decides to actually design a gadget, it’s a reminder that tech can be art, and something like a speaker can be a statement. For example: the Perch. It’s a wireless, portable speaker that folds up and fits in your purse, connecting to your MP3 player through Bluetooth. It stands up on its own hind leg, making it look like a Moleskine doing a party trick, and it has a microphone, so it will also work for the conference calls you’ll set up to brag about the Perch to your friends. It’s made and sold by the crowd-source design firm Quirky, which will start building them when enough people place an order. PRICE: $179.99