A New Music Experience: Let Your Shower Head Sing to You

Kohler has brought a whole new meaning to “streaming audio.”

The company, which makes bathroom fixtures, has introduced a shower head with a built-in wireless speaker system called the Moxie.

Although it might seem simple to put a speaker in a shower head, there were a number of design challenges. The speaker displaces a lot of spray nozzles, and Kohler had to maintain a 2.5-gallon-a-minute water flow through a normal-size shower head. It accomplished the task by carefully sizing and re-aiming nozzles to provide a good dousing.

Kohler also had to ensure that the small speaker and amplifier could e removed for charging. It used a strong magnet to mount the cone-shaped module so it can be plucked easily from the shower head.

The shower head itself, which lists for $200, is plastic with a silicone face to make it easier to remove calcium deposits. The mounting hardware is chromed brass. The company says to expect up to seven hours of play time, but you will want to turn the speaker off when it is not in use. There is a surface mounted button for that purpose.

In a test, the shower head provided a strong, steady stream, and the sound quality was good for such a tiny speaker in a poor acoustical environment. Those hard tile surfaces create an echo, which improves the sound of your singing in the shower but degrades the music.

An Invisible Wetsuit for Phones and Tablets

Liquipel The nano coating is applied in a vacuum chamber to make electronics water resistant

It’s a little heart-stopping to watch someone purposely dunk a cellphone or tablet in a water tank. Seeing it continue to work underwater is astonishing.

It does because the components inside have been nano-coated. Such coatings are best applied to a phone’s components before assembly. You can have nano coating done afterward through Liquipel, but it will cost you.

A cellphone case can seal against most water, but it adds bulk and weight to a sleek device. Nano coatings render the parts themselves impervious to water damage, so the protection comes without added bulk.

Liqipel’s process will not make the device waterproof, but will make it water-resistant enough to survive short accidental dunkings and ordinary splashes.

You ship Liquipel your phone, which is then put into a vacuum chamber and treated with the coating in vapor form. The process takes about 30 minutes. If you can go to its facility in Santa Ana, Calif., the company will treat your phone while you wait.

The cost varies, starting at $90 to give a mobile phone a basic treatment. It goes up to $130 for a tablet with an added protective film covering and an expedited four-hour turnaround.

The cost is not outlandish compared with the price of a waterproof case, which typically run $40 to $130. It’s almost certainly less expensive than replacing your smartphone.

It’s not an outlandish cost compared to the price of a waterproof case, which typically run $40 to $130. It’s almost certainly less expensive than replacing your smart phone.

A Handy Power Possibility for iPhone 5 Owners

Battery life has been a common complaint of iPhone 5 owners.

The accessory maker Mophie claims to be the first to address the problem with a battery case, which is called the Juice Pack Helium.

The Helium is a plastic case with an integrated lithium-ion battery, and it is light, at under three ounces. And while it adds a bit of bulk â€" almost a third of an inch â€" it’s still easy to slide in a pocket.

The case holds a 1500 mAh battery that can almost double talk time. The case snaps over the phone. There are cutouts for the buttons, speaker and camera â€" some buttons are recessd such that it’s not easy for thick fingers to reach them, and anything other than a slim straight headphone plug won’t work (it comes with an adapter â€" don’t lose it).

Made with a gray soft-touch finish, the Helium is not very fingerprint-resistant. Those marks won’t come off without cleaning solution.

One peculiarity is the inability to sync the phone by cable. The case plugs into the Thunderbolt port in the phone, but the case itself has a micro- USB connection for charging.

The case is priced at $80. There are cheaper, more powerful batteries, but right now those aren’t integrated into a case.

New Poll Shows Obama in Strong Position on Spending Cuts

A new poll released Thursday suggests that after the last few years of repeated financial crises and wrangling between Congressional Republicans and the president, Americans may be increasingly inured to threats of economic doomsday.

With just one week to go before across-the-board spending cuts begin to take effect and a seeming impasse between President Obama and House Republicans, 49 percent say the automatic cuts should be delayed if no deal is struck by the deadline, but a full 40 percent say it would be preferable to let the cuts go into effect, according to the Pew/USA Today survey. Even about one-third of Democrats back letting the cuts go into effect while Republicans and independents are evenly split on the issue.

The weay public is not paying much attention to the issue as a plurality of Americans say they have heard “a little” about the so-called sequester on March 1, and about 3 in 10 each say they have heard nothing at all or a lot.

Looking at the big picture, the public continues to support a combination of tax increases and spending cuts as a means to cutting the deficit, and 7 in 10, including wide majorities across party lines, agree that it is essential for the president to enact major deficit legislation this year.

Americans continue to view Congressional Republicans much more negatively than the president, and 49 percent say will they blame Republicans if a deal is not reached in time to avoid the sequester. Thirty-one percent say they will blame Mr. Obama.

Mr. Obama’s approval rating stands at 51 percent while Republican Congressional leaders are holding steady at 25 percent. Yet, just 34 percent of Americans approve of Mr. Obama’s handling of the federal budget deficit. But he continues to hold a slight edge on the issue as the public prefers his approach on the deficit over that of the Republicans in Congress by 45 percent to 38 percent.

The nationwide telephone survey was the first for the Pew/USA Today partnership and was conducted on landlines and cellphones Feb. 13-18 with 1,504 adults. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points.

The Early Word: No thanks.

In Today’s Times:
The so-called “sequester,” an $85 billion bundle of across-the-board spending cuts, appears likely to take effect March 1, as House Republicans refuse President Obama’s call for Congress to enact a package of tax increases and spending cuts to prevent the reductions, Jonathan Weisman reports. Operating on the premise that the sequester will remain in effect for what may be the rest of the year, the House Appropriations Committee is expected to propose yet another stopgap spending measure as soon as next week to keep the government operating through Sept. 30.

Economic forecasters expect the sequester to have a lighter impact on the economy than going over the so-called “fiscal cliff” would have had, but they still expect the cuts to slow economic growh in the next year and push unemployment higher. Binyamin Appelbaum and Annie Lowrey explain that there are other factors clouding the forecasts.

Balancing a desire to see John O. Brennan, the deputy national security adviser, confirmed as director of the Central Intelligence Agency while protecting the confidentiality of the Justice Department’s advice to the president, the White House is trying a strategy that it hopes will produce a bipartisan majority vote for Mr. Brennan on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Scott Shane and Mark Mazzetti explain that the administration is willing to sacrifice the votes of some Democrats who are demanding full access to classified legal memos justifying the administration’s targeted killing program, making up for those votes by wooing Republicans and providing more information on the attack on an American dip! lomatic mission on Sept. 11 in Benghazi, Libya.

After some fits and starts, the two Senators from Arizona â€" John McCain and Jeff Flake, both Republicans â€" have returned to the fore of the contentious debate over immigration reform. Ashley Parker writes that the men, who have struggled with whether to focus on overhauling immigration laws or increasing border security, have joined a bipartisan group of eight lawmakers who hope to come up with a comprehensive plan by the end of March.

Raymond Hernandez and Sam Dolnick look at how Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, is fighting an ethics inquiry that threatens to strip him of the political power he has spent decades trying to build.

Former Representative Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. is awaiting sentening after he pleaded guilty on Wednesday to using campaign funds for personal expenses. Michael S. Schmidt details how court documents say Mr. Jackson used $750,000 from his campaign to finance his lavish lifestyle.

Happening in Washington:
Economic reports expected Thursday include weekly jobless claims at 8:30 a.m., followed at 10 a.m. by existing home sales for January and last month’s leading indicators.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack will give the keynote speech at the Agricultural Outlook Forum, which begins at 8:30 a.m.

At 2:30 p.m., the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee! will hol! d a hearing on the impact of sequestration on the American economy, middle-class families, and small businesses.

The Early Word: No thanks.

In Today’s Times:
The so-called “sequester,” an $85 billion bundle of across-the-board spending cuts, appears likely to take effect March 1, as House Republicans refuse President Obama’s call for Congress to enact a package of tax increases and spending cuts to prevent the reductions, Jonathan Weisman reports. Operating on the premise that the sequester will remain in effect for what may be the rest of the year, the House Appropriations Committee is expected to propose yet another stopgap spending measure as soon as next week to keep the government operating through Sept. 30.

Economic forecasters expect the sequester to have a lighter impact on the economy than going over the so-called “fiscal cliff” would have had, but they still expect the cuts to slow economic growh in the next year and push unemployment higher. Binyamin Appelbaum and Annie Lowrey explain that there are other factors clouding the forecasts.

Balancing a desire to see John O. Brennan, the deputy national security adviser, confirmed as director of the Central Intelligence Agency while protecting the confidentiality of the Justice Department’s advice to the president, the White House is trying a strategy that it hopes will produce a bipartisan majority vote for Mr. Brennan on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Scott Shane and Mark Mazzetti explain that the administration is willing to sacrifice the votes of some Democrats who are demanding full access to classified legal memos justifying the administration’s targeted killing program, making up for those votes by wooing Republicans and providing more information on the attack on an American dip! lomatic mission on Sept. 11 in Benghazi, Libya.

After some fits and starts, the two Senators from Arizona â€" John McCain and Jeff Flake, both Republicans â€" have returned to the fore of the contentious debate over immigration reform. Ashley Parker writes that the men, who have struggled with whether to focus on overhauling immigration laws or increasing border security, have joined a bipartisan group of eight lawmakers who hope to come up with a comprehensive plan by the end of March.

Raymond Hernandez and Sam Dolnick look at how Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, is fighting an ethics inquiry that threatens to strip him of the political power he has spent decades trying to build.

Former Representative Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. is awaiting sentening after he pleaded guilty on Wednesday to using campaign funds for personal expenses. Michael S. Schmidt details how court documents say Mr. Jackson used $750,000 from his campaign to finance his lavish lifestyle.

Happening in Washington:
Economic reports expected Thursday include weekly jobless claims at 8:30 a.m., followed at 10 a.m. by existing home sales for January and last month’s leading indicators.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack will give the keynote speech at the Agricultural Outlook Forum, which begins at 8:30 a.m.

At 2:30 p.m., the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee! will hol! d a hearing on the impact of sequestration on the American economy, middle-class families, and small businesses.

Tip of the Week: Search the Text on a Web Page

Search engines help find the Web pages you are looking for, but when it comes down to locating your keywords on the actual page, your browser can help. Most browser programs use the Control-F (Command-F on the Mac) to open a search box for finding certain words within the page itself, and most highlight the instances of the word (and number of time it appears). Google Chrome also displays yellow markers vertically along the scroll bar on the right side of the page so you can quickly see all the places the word or phrase appears.

Back and forward buttons in the search box let you click through the page for each occurrence of the word. Depending on the browser, you may be able to fine-tune your search results within the page. Internet Explorer includes an Options buton that can match the whole word only or just the typographical case; Firefox can also match the word’s case, making it easier to locate proper nouns and names within a page.