A Big Swig of Extra Battery Power

There is not a lot that sets auxiliary batteries apart. A few more amps here, a few more USB plugs there, and that’s about it.

Digital Treasures, though, has taken the trouble to gussy up the basic battery, putting 13,000 mAh of lithium-ion power into what appears to be a flask.

Called the Power Flask, the case has a flask’s distinctive curve, for discreet pocket storage, and leather trim with red stitching. The end caps are chromelike polished aluminum.

The Power Flask, which retails for $90, has two USB ports, one supporting 1 amp charging for phones, and a second supporting 2.5 amp charging for tablets.

You can charge more low-demand devices at a time, though; two phones can be put into the 2.5-amp slot using an included Y cable, and another can be charged from the 1-amp slot for a total of three devices at once. The flask also comes with two 30-pin adapters. If you’re using a Lightning connector, you will have to supply your own.

The flask has blue LEDs to indicate he charge level and twin white LEDs on the top that work as a flashlight.

Iowa Congressman Says He Won’t Run for Senate

Did the Republican Party’s quest to win control of the Senate just become more difficult

It is too early to draw a conclusion, given that the midterm elections are 21 months away. But the decision on Wednesday by Representative Tom Latham not to make a bid to fill the seat of Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, who is retiring, disappointed many Republicans.

The Senate race in Iowa, for the state’s first open seat since 1974, has gained considerable attention as Republicans aim to pick up six seats to win a majority next year. The contest has become an early proxy for whether Republican leaders will be successful in their efforts to instill a greater sense of discipline into primary races.

Mr. Latham, a close ally of Speaker John A. Boehner, said in a letter to supporters on Wednesday that he did not want to run for the Senate so quickly after winning re-election.

“I cannot in good conscience launch a two-year statewide campaign that will detract from the commitment I made to the peple who elected me,” Mr. Latham wrote, “at a time when our nation desperately needs less campaigning and more leadership.”

Representative Steve King of Iowa, who has made a series of incendiary statements during his time in Washington, even while earning strong praise from his constituents, is considering a bid, and Republican officials believe he is inclined to run. The decision by Mr. Latham only increases the likelihood that Mr. King will enter the race, two of his close supporters said.

His potential candidacy could be the first test of the Conservative Victory Project, a group founded by Karl Rove and the “super PAC” American Crossroads to take an aggressive role in Republican primaries next year.

The project is being waged with last year’s Senate contests in mind, particularly the one in Missouri, where Representative Todd A! kin’s comment that “legitimate rape” rarely causes pregnancy complicated Republican campaigns across the country.

Steven J. Law, the president of American Crossroads, who is overseeing the Conservative Victory Project, cited Iowa as an example for why Republicans needed to intervene in primary fights.

“We’re concerned about Steve King’s Todd Akin problem,” Mr. Law said in an interview this month. “This is an example of candidate discipline and how it would play in a general election. All of the things he’s said are going to be hung around his neck.”

For his part, Mr. King said this month that he would not be bullied out of a Senate race. He asked his supporters to make contributions to his campaign account, saying, “Karl Rove and his army have launched a crusade against me.”

Chris Chocola, the president of the Club for Growth, a conservative group that hs taken an active role in Republican primaries, criticized the Conservative Victory Project on Wednesday. He said it was incorrect to assume that Mr. King could not run a viable candidacy and win the Senate seat.

“We don’t think King is like Akin,” Mr. Chocola said in an interview. “We don’t think he has an Akin problem.”

Still, the decision by Mr. Latham not to run for the Senate caused ripples from Iowa to Washington. Republican officials in both places said they were searching for other prospective candidates to enter the race.

Representative Bruce Braley is the only Democrat to enter the race. He has already locked up the support of several state Democratic leaders and is expected to avoid a contested primary campaign.

New Partnership Brings New Design for Sol Republic

Sol Republic’s latest Tracks on-ear headphones, designed by tokidoki.

Sol Republic knows a good partnership when it sees it. After Michael Phelps wore a pair of Sol Republic headphones during the Summer Olympics last year, the company quickly signed an endorsement deal with the swimmer.

Its latest collaboration is with Tokidoki, the Japanese-inspired lifestyle brand created by the Italian designer Simone Legno. Sol Republic, known for making headphones wth interchangeable components, released two new designs Tuesday that are infused with Tokidoki’s distinctive style.

The new designs are part of Sol Republic’s Tracks line of on-ear headphones that allow users to mix and match headbands and cables to create their own look. The line starts at $100 for Sol Republic’s V8 sound engines, a virtually indestructible headband and cable with an inline microphone. The headbands come in a rainbow of colors and slide into the ear cups, which hold the sound drivers. The cable connects to the bottom of the right and left ear cups, with an inline microphone and music controls that are set in a yoke at chest level. Each component is also sold separately at Sol Republic’s Web site.

For an extra $30, you can upgrade to the Tracks HD, which come with V10 sound engines. The sound of the Tracks HD headphones that I tested was clear with a deep bass, and it got even better at higher volumes, especially for electronic and rock music.

The Tokidoki h! eadphones, which cost $150, have the V10 sound engines, but also come with a custom Tokidoki bag. Sol Republic also offers a brightly hued design from deadmau5 and an U.S.A. theme inspired by Mr. Phelps, both for $150. The Tracks line also includes a pair of $180 headphones called Ultra that are geared toward audiophiles.

The interchangeability of the Tracks headphones is a clever idea, especially if you like to wear your headphones as a fashion statement, but it comes with a drawback: the fit. The ear cups don’t swivel, and although they were comfortable, I could not get them to sit on my ears properly. The fit wasn’t perfect, but at least they looked stylish.

Union Leaders Call for Repeal of Automatic Spending Cuts

ORLANDO, Fla. â€" With President Obama and Congressional Republicans making little progress toward reaching a budget deal, the nation’s union leaders on Wednesday began pushing a new proposal to prevent the automatic spending cuts, known as sequestration: immediately repeal the law that put them in place.

At the annual winter meeting of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s executive council, labor leaders - alarmed that large-scale cuts and layoffs would begin on Friday - abandoned their previous call for Congress to embrace a balanced approach toward rducing the deficit. Instead, the labor leaders said repealing the sequestration law was the best route to prevent what labor leaders fear will be disastrous cuts, potentially involving hundreds of thousands of layoffs, many of them unionized government workers at the federal, state and local levels.

The A.F.L.-C.I.O., a federation of 57 labor unions, has strongly backed Mr. Obama in his standoff with the Republicans. The labor federation has taken an approach diametrically opposed to the Republicans - it has said the $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction should be done totally by increasing taxes on the wealthy and on corporations. Having agreed to a tax increase on the wealthy in the last round of deficit talks, Republicans have said they want all deficit reduction now done through spending cuts.

The A.F.L.-C.I.O. attacked the Republican approach, accusing Congressional Republicans of engaging in hostage-taking.

“Republicans in Congress once again are ! threatening to harm the economy unless Democrats agree to cut Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare benefits,” the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s executive council said in a unanimously backed statement. “We urge President Obama and members of Congress of both parties to reject te Republican ransom demands and disarm the hostage takers instead. Only then can we focus on the urgent challenge of fixing the economy, raising wages, investing in our people and putting America back to work.

The federation’s executive council then added: “The solution is to disarm the hostage-takers so they no longer can hold the economy hostage to get their way. Disarming the hostage takers means repealing ‘sequestration’ â€" not replacing it. Across-the-board cuts would increase unemployment and harm the economy, but so would replacement cuts of the same size.”

Republican leaders say that budget cuts are needed to reduce a dangerously large deficit. They resist further tax increases on the grounds that they would slow economic growth and discourage job creation.

A Wireless Speaker With a Wi-Fi Connection

When we talk wireless speakers, we still generally mean speakers that connect to players by Bluetooth.

There is nothing wrong with Bluetooth, but Wi-Fi, which can carry a lot more information, can sound a lot better. That is part of the reason we are seeing more Wi-Fi and Apple AirPlay speakers on store shelves.

Among them is the Libratone Zipp, a 10-inch tall canister with a fuzzy cover that makes it look like a small, colorful roll of carpet.

The Zipp’s Wi-Fi connection is supposed to be Apple- and Android-friendly. The connection with the iPhone was easy; in my test I set the iPhone’s Wi-Fi network to Libratone, then went to the music player, hit the AirPlay button, picked Libratone again and was connected through the play direct feature. That feature broadcasts directly from the phone to the speaker without going through your larger Wi-Fi network.

Connecting with a Android phone was did not work so easily, which is to say a all. Even with help from support and a software update, I was unable to get a Motorola RAZR Maxx to connect. Support said the problem seemed to be a faulty speaker.

The Zipp says it also supports DLNA, which should make it work with Windows, but I didn’t test that feature.

The Zipp is portable - it claims four hours of battery life when using Wi-Fi - but it isn’t exactly light weight, tipping the scales at four pounds.

The sound quality is good, thanks partially to a 4-inch woofer and a pair of 1-inch ribbon speakers, although I don’t know if it’s fair to call a monaural speaker “high fidelity,” as Libratone does.

There is one major drawback to using Wi-Fi to connect a player and speaker. Once the Wi-Fi is occupied by the Zipp, you can’t use it to connect to your Pandora, Slacker or other streaming audio account. So no streaming audio. You could get around this by connecting the device using a USB cable, which also doubles the Zipp’s battery life.

The Zi! pp, which comes in any of eight colors, starts at $400 list price online.

From Energizer, Big Light in a Compact Package

The Energizer Folding Lantern pivots open for 360-degree lighting.

Hurricane season doesn’t start until June 1, but after Hurricane Sandy caused so much destruction and left millions without power, it’s never too early to start preparing for the next big storm.

To help, Energizer is introducing a new portfolio of innovative lighting products this spring that use “light fusion technology,” which distributes light uniformly through laser-etched acrylic panels.

The line consists of four portable, multipurpose lanterns and flashlights that incorporate what Energizer calls “smart dimming technology,” which is basically a dimmer switch that alows users to lower the intensity of the light and conserve battery life.

The Energizer Folding Lantern that I tested uses light from tiny LEDs spread across a flat, plastic panel to illuminate a broad area when it is opened. But it also doubles as concentrated task light when closed and can be stored and transported easily. The durable lantern, which has a kickstand for support and an easy-grip handle, is intended for outdoor lighting, but when I opened it in my apartment at night, it gave my living room a warm glow. The light was clean and vibrant, but not harsh, and seemed to reach every dark corner.

Energizer claims the lantern output provides up to 300 lumens and can run for up to 100 hours. The lantern, which costs $40 and can run on four or eight AA batteries, is expected to be available at Target in late March, followed by other retailers! later. Whether you’re an outdoor enthusiast or a city dweller, the Energizer Folding Lantern is handy to keep around.

Fight Over Spending Cuts a Prelude to Budget Battles Ahead

It may be hard to believe, given the intense partisan strafing already ignited by the automatic government spending cuts that begin on Friday, but this year’s budget wars have yet to fully get under way.

In the next month, Democrats and Republicans, so at odds with one another that they are not even negotiating to avert the across-the-board cuts set to kick in at the end of the week, will have to find a way to agree on spending levels for the remainder of this year. If they fail, they could risk a government shutdown starting March 27, when the current authorization for spending runs out.

From the White House to Capitol Hill, no one claims to have any idea about how things will play out or particular confidence that a crisis can be averted.

As that drama unfolds, another argument will erupt, over a plan to be presented in mid-March by Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee last year, to balance the budget in 10 years through spending cuts far deeper than anything adopted so far.

Mr. Ryan’s task will be made easier because his budget, which the House is likely to adopt largely unchanged as its tax and spending blueprint, will accept as a given the tax increases won by President Obama over Republican objections at the beginning of this year. But to give one indication of the kind of deep spending reductions necessary to achieve balance in a decade, last year’s budget plan from Mr. Ryan did not eliminate the deficit until almost 2040.

March will also bring the belated unveiling of Mr. Obama’s budget for next year, which will serve as a counterpoint to Mr. Ryan’s proposal. To make things even more interesting, the two parties will also take up the first budget plan to be produced by Senate Democrats in four years, forcing vulnerable red-state Democrats into some tough votes.

Then, assuming no flowering of peace, love and understanding in the months following fiscal policy’s March Madness, the White House and Congress could then find themselves in July back where they were two years earlier: deeply divided over both long- and short-term budget measures and confronting the need to raise the government’s debt ceiling again amid calls from conservatives to se that leverage to further cut spending.

The succession of showdowns mirrors to a great degree those that played out tumultuously in 2011, leading to the ungainly compromise that produced this week’s automatic spending cuts.

Two years ago, the unfolding conflicts were a test of the Tea Party movement’s ability to drive the Republicans into a more aggressive posture on reducing the size and scope of government.

This time around they are a test of whether Mr. Obama’s re-election shifted the political dynamic in Washington in a fundamental way.

Having prevailed in getting a tax hike in January, Mr. Obama is now trying to break a cycle in which conservatives regularly thwart his hopes of a legacy-enhancing bipartisan deal that would bring down the deficit through a combination of further tax increases and cuts to the entitlement programs. And he is still trying, with a notable lack of success so far, to return budget negotiations to a normal legislative process in Congress rather than lurching from one crisis-infused deadline to the next.

“The American public has been very clear that they do not want us to manage this country by crisis,” said Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, the chairwoman of the Senate Budget Committee.

But for the next few weeks and months, brinkmanship could be more the rule than the exception.

At this point, the White House and both parties in Congress expect across-the-board cuts to domestic and military programs to take effect as scheduled on Fridayand to remain in force for some relatively extended period.

House Republicans intend to move as early as next week to the next stage of the confrontation. They want to pass a continuing resolution to keep the government operating, probably through the end of the current fiscal year on Sept. 30.

The measure would authorize discretionary spending of $1.04 trillion - the legal cap for this year - with the understanding that the total would automatically be reduced by the amount of the automatic cuts for this year, effectively yielding a discretionary spending authorization of around $970 billion. House Republicans say the measure is clean and simple, and that if the Democratic-controlled Senate or the White House choose to reject it, then the responsibility for shutting down the government would fall to them.

Senate Democrats and White House officials declined to say exactly how they would respond, preferring to see how votes on a Senate Democratic alternative play out this week. Senat! e Democra! ts, saying they want to avoid indiscriminate spending cuts but still achieve the same amount of deficit reduction, have proposed swapping the cuts mandated by the sequester for a package of cuts to farm-subsidy programs and tax increases. That package has little chance of clearing the Senate.

Congress and the administration could have as little as three weeks to sort things out or risk a government shutdown. Congress is scheduled to leave town around March 22 for its spring break; in addition to resolving spending levels for this year, Congressional leaders are hoping to push budget plans for next year through the House and Senate before they leave town.

The experience of the past several years suggests that nothing will truly get settled in the next month. That would kick the big fights â€" over the composition of spending cuts, the willingness of Republicans to go along with Mr. Obama’s demand for further tax increases and the prospects for a long-term deficit reduction deal â€" into the summer, when the federal government will again reach its legal borrowing limit.

Many analysts say the prospects for a comprehensive deal this summer are no better than they were in 2011, when talks between Mr. Obama and the House speaker, John A. Boehner, collapsed.

“I don’t think there’s a grand bargain out there - not this year, not next year, maybe not until after 2016,” said Stan Collender, a veteran budget analyst.

If that pessimistic view proves correct, the two parties will have to fall back again on temporary measures and gimmicks to av! ert total! fiscal gridlock and the risks of further economic and financial damage to the country - exactly the sequence of events that put them where they are today.

Follow Richard W. Stevenson on Twitter at @dickstevenson.

Union Leaders Call on Obama to Fill Labor Board

ORLANDO â€" The nation’s union leaders are voicing alarm that the National Labor Relations Board might remain paralyzed for a year or more as a result of a federal appeals court ruling that found President Obama’s recess appointments to the board to be unconstitutional.

Gathering here for the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s winter meeting, union leaders on Tuesday called on Mr. Obama to immediately nominate a slate of five members to fill all of the board’s seats.

Labor leaders asserted that the court ruling could badly undercut unions because a paralyzed N.L.R.B. would not be able to intervene if employers engaged in unlawful tactics during unionization drives, including illegally firing union supporters or intimidating workers into voting against having a union.

In January, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that three recess appointments - two Democrats and one Republican - that Mr. Obama made to the board in January 2012 were illegal because they were not made during the intersessi! on period between Congresses. The ruling would leave the board with just one member, its chairman, meaning that it would not have the three members needed to have a quorum for it to operate.

In response to the ruling, some business groups have recommended that employers found by the N.L.R.B. to have engaged in unlawful labor practices ask the appeals court in Washington to freeze those actions on the grounds that the board has not had a legitimate quorum for more than a year.

On Tuesday, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s executive committee approved a statement saying the court ruling “has seriously undermined enforcement of the law and made an already weak law more lopsided against workers exercising their rights.”

The United States Chamber of Commerce and other business groups have criticized the N.L.R.B.’s chairman, Mark G. Pearce, a Democrat, for saying the board wold continue to operate with two of its remaining recess appointees, both Democrats, staying on until the Supreme Court rules on whether those appointments were legal. (The Republican recess appointee had previously resigned after facing allegations of illegally leaking board materials.)

Union officials say the earliest the Supreme Court might rule on such an appeal would be a year from now. Some Republicans are backing a bill that would strip the labor board of funding unless the recess appointees step down. The board’s acting general counsel, Lafe E. Solomon, is also a recess appointee - Senate Republicans have blocked his confirmation.

The Chamber of Commerce has said the board under Mr. Obama has been consistently antibusiness and has been far too aggressive in overturning previous board decisio! ns that f! avored employers.

The A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s leaders called on Mr. Obama to immediately name a slate of nominees - including Mr. Pearce and the two Democrats whose names Mr. Obama resubmitted after the court’s ruling, as well as two new Republicans - and also to renominate Mr. Solomon as general counsel. They said that the Senate should vote to quickly confirm those nominees, adding that if Republicans filibustered the nominations, then Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, and Senate Democrats should adopt new rules to stop filibusters that are far stronger than the modest changes recently adopted.

Larry Cohen, presient of the Communications Workers of America and chairman of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s organizing committee, said in a news briefing that Senate Democrats had various options on how to get those nominees approved and “we expect you to use all the options.”

Mr. Cohen warned that if Senate Republicans filibustered to block the nominations and Senate Democrats did not then adopt tougher rules to overcome filibusters, “we will mobilize and take action against the Senate Democrats like we never have before.”

“We will be mobilizing across the country in every state in every one of their offices,” he added.

In its statement, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s executive council said the Republican “aim is to tie up the N.L.R.B., render it inoperable and keep it from enforcing! workersâ! €™ rights.”

Q&A: Moving iTunes Libraries

Q.

How do I transfer my iTunes library from a desktop PC to a laptop, neither of which are Apple computers

A.

All the items in your iTunes library, like music, TV shows and podcasts, are stored in folders on the computer. The iTunes software itself, which is basically a big database program crossed with a media player, displays the items in your library in lists and makes it relatively easy to manage your collection.

To move your library to a new computer, you just need to move your iTunes library folder from the old machine to the new one with a copy of the iTunes software installed. You can do this in several ways depending on how you use iTunes â€" including transferring all the files over your network with the Home Sharing feature, copying your iTunes folder to an external hard drive or set of DVDs for transport between computers, or transferring content from the iTunes Store with an iPod, iPad or iPhone.

Apple has step-by-step, illustrated instructions for all these moving methods (and others) on its site. If you plan to get rid of the old computer, be sure to deauthorize it for use with your iTunes purchases, as explained here.

The Early Word: Losses

In Today’s Times

• President Obama’s trip to the Newport News shipyard in Virginia on Tuesday was intended to draw attention to the automatic budget cuts beginning Friday, which officials say would have a far bigger financial impact at home than abroad, Michael D. Shear and Thom Shanker report.  Mr. Obama warned that private companies doing contract work for the military could begin to shed jobs amid an overall loss of economy activity.

• The cuts will only accelerate what are already considered unusually severe cutbacks by the federal government, the nation’s largest consumer and investor, Binyamin Appelbaum reports.

• Federal immigration officials have arranged for hundreds of detainees to receive a supervisd release in another highly unusual effort to save money as the so-called sequester cuts loom in Washington, Kirk Semple writes. Republicans called it a political gambit by the Obama administration that jeopardizes public safety and undermines negotiations over comprehensive immigration reform.

• The Senate confirmed Chuck Hagel as defense secretary on Tuesday, approving him by the smallest margin for a defense secretary since the position was created, Jeremy W. Peters reports. Mr. Hagel’s confirmation, along with the bipartisan support for Jack J. Lew to become Treasury secretary, suggests that the Republican blockade against the administration’s second-term nominees is beginning to ease.

Happenings in Washington

President Obama will deliver remarks at the unveiling of a Rosa Parks statue at the Capitol.

• Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. will speak with Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York and to the National Association of Attorneys General about reducing gun violence. Later, he and his wife, Jill Biden, will host a Black History Month reception at the Naval Observatory.