The Early Word: Blocked

In Today’s Times:

• Senate Republicans blocked President Obama’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, Chuck Hagel, on Thursday before heading out for a 10-day recess, holding up a final vote while calling for more consideration, Jeremy W. Peters reports. The move is the first time in history that the Senate has forced a nominee for secretary of defense to clear the 60-vote threshold for a simple majority vote.

• When it comes to decreasing the number of troops in Afghanistan, getting the troops out is not the tough part,  Thom Shanker reports. Getting the more than 600,000 pieces of equipment out of a landlocked country is what poses the challenge.

• The two election lawyers who faced off while representing Mr. Obma and Mitt Romney will team up on a new presidential commission seeking to improve the voting process, Jeff Zeleny reports. The president, who announced the plan on Tuesday during his State of the Union address, hopes the bipartisan leadership could help it be successful, but some critics are skeptical.

• As Mr. Obama talked on Thursday about his pledge to expand access to high-quality preschool, conservatives questioned the proposal, suspicious that it would mean more big government and saying there was a lack of evidence that such programs help, Michael D. Shear reports.

Washington Happenings:

• Mr. Obama will meet with President Giorgio Napolitano of Italy at the White House Friday. Later he will ! welcome the recipients of the 2012 Presidential Citizens Medal, which is the country’s second-highest honor for civilians. Then he will travel to Chicago to discuss his State of the Union proposals before heading to Palm City, Fla., for the long weekend.

• Michael Daniel, cybersecurity coordinator for the National Security Council, will participate in a discussion at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

• Gen. Ray Odierno, chief of staff of the Army, will talk about global security at the Brookings Institution.

• A House science and technology subcommittee is scheduled to hold an oversight hearing at 10 a.m. on the use of unmanned aircraft systems.

The Early Word: Blocked

In Today’s Times:

• Senate Republicans blocked President Obama’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, Chuck Hagel, on Thursday before heading out for a 10-day recess, holding up a final vote while calling for more consideration, Jeremy W. Peters reports. The move is the first time in history that the Senate has forced a nominee for secretary of defense to clear the 60-vote threshold for a simple majority vote.

• When it comes to decreasing the number of troops in Afghanistan, getting the troops out is not the tough part,  Thom Shanker reports. Getting the more than 600,000 pieces of equipment out of a landlocked country is what poses the challenge.

• The two election lawyers who faced off while representing Mr. Obma and Mitt Romney will team up on a new presidential commission seeking to improve the voting process, Jeff Zeleny reports. The president, who announced the plan on Tuesday during his State of the Union address, hopes the bipartisan leadership could help it be successful, but some critics are skeptical.

• As Mr. Obama talked on Thursday about his pledge to expand access to high-quality preschool, conservatives questioned the proposal, suspicious that it would mean more big government and saying there was a lack of evidence that such programs help, Michael D. Shear reports.

Washington Happenings:

• Mr. Obama will meet with President Giorgio Napolitano of Italy at the White House Friday. Later he will ! welcome the recipients of the 2012 Presidential Citizens Medal, which is the country’s second-highest honor for civilians. Then he will travel to Chicago to discuss his State of the Union proposals before heading to Palm City, Fla., for the long weekend.

• Michael Daniel, cybersecurity coordinator for the National Security Council, will participate in a discussion at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

• Gen. Ray Odierno, chief of staff of the Army, will talk about global security at the Brookings Institution.

• A House science and technology subcommittee is scheduled to hold an oversight hearing at 10 a.m. on the use of unmanned aircraft systems.

App Smart Extra: Apps to Improve Your Singing

This week in my App Smart column, I talked about a few karaoke apps that can replicate many of the features of a full-fledged karaoke machine. I also mentioned one app that can help you train your singing voice.

There are, of course, numerous apps that try to help you improve your singing or let you groove to your own rendition of a popular hit.

One interesting app that can help teach you the subtleties of singing in harmonies is the $3 iOS app Sing Harmonies. This app is all about prerecorded adult voices singing harmony parts to well-known songs. The idea is that you can turn the backing music off at will, and also turn off each of the parts separately. In this way, you can learn the harmony parts by copying them individually, and perhaps teach yourself to listen to other singer’s voices when you’re peforming. It’s fun and pleasingly simple to use, but $3 only gets you a very short list of songs.

For an app that’s got an element of karaoke, check out the free iOS app StarMaker: Karaoke + Auto Tune. Like other apps of this sort, you have to spend in-app “credits” to access tracks. To add credits, you have to sing songs, perform actions like uploading and sharing your experiences or watch video advertisements. You can also pay, with unlimited access for $3 a week. When you are singing each track from this app’s impressively up-to-date archive, it scores how well you’ve performed by analyzing your voice. Thus, the Starmaker may help you be a better singer â€" or at least a better karaoke performer. That is, if you don’t turn on the auto-tune system, which automatically fixes the notes you sing!

For a bit of musical fun, singers may enjoy the free Android app Pitch Lab Pro-Chromatic Tuner. In part, this is an app aimed at helping you tune an instrument like a guitar. But its core function of listening to an input sound and reporting what musical note that sound matches may also be good for training your singing. To do this, it has an array of different graphical visualizations that show the note you are singing â€" including how accurately you’re hitting the right frequency.

Remember that for many singing apps, the microphone built into your smartphone or tablet might not be the best option; plugging in a dedicated microphone or your hands-free set could yield better results.

Quick call

Runkeeper is one of the better apps for helping runners, cyclists and walkers keep track of their exercise regimes. It’s just been upgraded to version 3.0 for Android devices, comlete with a more highly polished new look and extra features like in-activity splits.

Q&A: Creating Customized Shortcuts for Microsoft Word

Q.

I find the keyboard shortcut for adding a comment to a Word document cumbersome. Can I change it to different keys

A.

Microsoft Word’s keyboard shortcut for inserting an editorial comment into a document under review (Control-Alt-M in the Windows version or Command-Option-A for the Mac edition) does take three keys to execute, but you can reassign the command to fewer (or a more comfortable combination of) keys.

In recent versions of Word for Windows, click the File tab, then Options and then select the Customize Ribbon tab. In the “Customize the Ribbon and keyboard shortcuts” area, click Customize. Choose the name of the template or document name you want to use in the “Save changes in” area of box.

In thelist of Categories shown, select the menu name or category that contains the command you want to change, like “Insert.” In the Commands list, choose the name of the particular action you want to use, like “InsertNewComment.” The box shows the current keys that are assigned for the shortcut, provides a field to create a custom key combination and a button to assign it. Click OK when you have assigned the keys you want to use for the Insert New Comment command; your new command will replace any combinations already in use as shortcuts.

Microsoft has detailed instructions for making custom keyboard shortcuts for Windows on its site, as well as the equivalent steps for Mac users who want to make their own keyboard shortcuts. The box for creating custom keyboard shortcuts also includes a reset button so you can revert to Microsoft’s original shortcuts for the program’s commands if you choose.