Baby Toys Get an App Extension

As more of the very young reach for their parents’ smartphones, toy companies are responding with motion-sensing, app-infused toys like the Fisher-Price Apptivity Gym ($35, www.fisher-price.com).

Here’s how this particular toy works. After you download one of the free Apptivity apps and adjust the timer and music settings, you snap your phone or iPod Touch into a child-proof container attached to the plastic “gym’’ on which the child plays. If you search iTunes for “Apptivity” you can find several free apps, including B ‘n W High Contrast in which interesting animals peek from the sides of the screen with large faces. You can speed things along with any bump or a random touch of the screen.

The dirty little secret is that the free apps work perfectly well on their own, with no toy. In fact, a resourceful parent might attach an old iPod Touch onto the side of a playpen with Velcro. But Fisher-Price is banking on the idea that its toys extend the screen interface, and that the motion-sensing graphics make things more engaging. The Apptivity Gym doesn’t fit larger iPhone 5 devices, and it’s worth noting that when your device is removed, say, for a phone call, a low-tech mirror steps in.

A Tablet Stand That Is a Sound Improvement

It is no surprise to anyone with a tablet that the tiny rear-facing speakers aren’t very good.

Definitive Technology has produced a clip-on improvement, the Sound Cylinder.

As its name implies, it is a cylindrical speaker system. What its name leaves out is that it clamps onto a tablet and acts as a stand as well as a speaker system.

There aren’t many features, so it is simple to use. It has a rubber clamp to attach it to a 7- or 10-inch tablet, and a pull-out kickstand so it can sit on a tabletop with the tablet in place.

A button on one end turns the Cylinder on and tells it to sync to Bluetooth. That end also has a volume control. That’s it for the features.

The sound is certainly better than what you get from a tablet. It produces respectable volume without much distortion, certainly enough for a couch full of friends to watch some YouTube.

It reproduces highs and midtones well enough, although as you might expect from a 7-and-a-half-inch-long speaker, bass is lacking. As you would also expect, that tiny enclosure doesn’t give you much stereo separation.

It sounds more like a good 1970s transistor radio than a good 1990s boom box, although both are superior to the sound of a 2013 tablet.

There are some design quirks. On smaller tablets, like the iPad Mini, the clamp covers part of the screen if it is attached horizontally. That made it impossible for me to get to the iTunes controls. On the larger iPad, the clamp blocked the magnetic cover from turning off the screen.

Since the Cylinder connects via Bluetooth, you can use it with devices other than tablets. It’s lightweight and portable, so it might be something to carry to bolster the sound of a phone or music player. You could even clip it to a laptop screen.

The Sound Cylinder claims 10 hours of battery life and lists for $200 from online retailers.

With Upgrade, Headphones Have New Sound, and New Parts

The Master Tracks over-ear headphones from Sol Republic.

Sol Republic, maker of headphones with swappable parts, recently expanded its offerings with the release of its Master Tracks line, which incorporates over-ear headphones for the first time.

Like the company’s on-ear headphones, the Master Tracks components are interchangeable. You can swap out the headband or cables for parts of different colors, allowing you to customize the look, and the Master Tracks are compatible with Sol Republic’s on-ear headphone lines.

Sol Republic updated all the components for Master Tracks. The headband has extra cushion, and volume controls were added to the inline mic, which is in the yoke of the cable. The ear cushions fit comfortably and are articulated for better positioning. But the biggest upgrade was to the speakers in the ear cups, which accentuate the bass.

According to Sol Republic, the X3 Sound Engines in the headphones are intended to recreate the experience of being in a nightclub. The Master Tracks are indeed impressive for the heavy thump of rock and club music, and they deliver midrange vocals clearly. But the pumped-up bass tends to overshadow the subtleties of quieter music. Classical music, like Claude Debussy’s “Clair de Lune,” for instance, sounds as if it was recorded in a cavernous, empty concert hall.

The headphones come in three premium finishes - gray, blue and white - with additional headband colors in green, purple and red. Accessories include a water-resistant carrying case and a quarter-inch adapter for the 3.5-millimeter jack.

At $200, the Master Tracks headphones are a little expensive, but unlike some competitors, Sol Republic offers a durable product that is designed to last years. You can twist the headband and tug the cable, but you would have a hard time breaking either of them.

Gun Law Proponents Focus Ads on 2 Senators

WASHINGTON â€" With members of Congress back in their home states for recess this week, activists pushing for tougher gun laws are hitting two senators with new appeals on television, asking them to change their votes.

A liberal group, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said Wednesday that it was spending $50,000 on a television ad in Montana to pressure Max Baucus, the state’s retiring Democratic senator, to support an enhanced background check system for gun buyers.

A woman identified as Claire Kelly, a Montanan and a gun owner, looks into the camera as she describes defending herself from a home invasion as she hid in a closet with a handgun. “Guns can protect us, but we’re less safe with guns in the wrong hands,” she says, adding that 79 percent of voters in her state support background checks. “So why did Senator Max Baucus vote against us?”

She closes the ad saying, “Now that you’re retiring, please put Montana first.”

In New Hampshire, Senator Kelly Ayotte is the subject of a new ad from Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the group financed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York City. The ad features a cast of real New Hampshire voters who express dismay that Ms. Ayotte, a Republican, voted against strengthening background checks.

The ad hits Ms. Ayotte on her strongest credential with New Hampshire voters: her background as an attorney general with a tough-justice approach.

“Why didn’t she listen to us in New Hampshire?” says one. “Senator Ayotte is giving criminals a pass,” says another. “Police support background checks. Why didn’t she side with them?” asks a third.

Since the beginning of the year, television advertising in the campaigns for and against gun control has added up to about $8.5 million, according to the Kantar Media Campaign Media Analysis Group. That was spent on 19,875 ads that ran in states from Missouri to Massachusetts to Illinois.

The biggest advertiser by far was Mr. Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which put $4.5 million to run nearly 11,000 spots. The second-biggest spender was also Mr. Bloomberg, who through his “super PAC,” Independence USA, spent another $1.8 million to run about 1,500 commercials.

The overwhelming majority of the money and airtime devoted to gun ads were on commercials that pushed for greater gun control, the Kantar data shows.

By contrast, the National Rifle Association spent just $105,000 on television ads that ran just 57 times. Another pro-Second Amendment group, the National Association for Gun Rights, spent about $165,000.

Q.& A.: Protecting Your Twitter Account

Q.

How does a Twitter password get hacked?

A.

Twitter, like other sites and accounts that require typed passwords, is vulnerable to a number of traditional ploys. These include malicious software collecting personal information on the computer, vulnerable third-party Twitter apps, and using the machine on an insecure network.

Clicking on links and inadvertently entering your Twitter name and password on a phishing site can also result in a compromised account. Twitter has a help guide for those who think their accounts may have been hacked, as well as general security information.

Q.& A.: Protecting Your Twitter Account

Q.

How does a Twitter password get hacked?

A.

Twitter, like other sites and accounts that require typed passwords, is vulnerable to a number of traditional ploys. These include malicious software collecting personal information on the computer, vulnerable third-party Twitter apps, and using the machine on an insecure network.

Clicking on links and inadvertently entering your Twitter name and password on a phishing site can also result in a compromised account. Twitter has a help guide for those who think their accounts may have been hacked, as well as general security information.

Q.& A.: Protecting Your Twitter Account

Q.

How does a Twitter password get hacked?

A.

Twitter, like other sites and accounts that require typed passwords, is vulnerable to a number of traditional ploys. These include malicious software collecting personal information on the computer, vulnerable third-party Twitter apps, and using the machine on an insecure network.

Clicking on links and inadvertently entering your Twitter name and password on a phishing site can also result in a compromised account. Twitter has a help guide for those who think their accounts may have been hacked, as well as general security information.

Q.& A.: Protecting Your Twitter Account

Q.

How does a Twitter password get hacked?

A.

Twitter, like other sites and accounts that require typed passwords, is vulnerable to a number of traditional ploys. These include malicious software collecting personal information on the computer, vulnerable third-party Twitter apps, and using the machine on an insecure network.

Clicking on links and inadvertently entering your Twitter name and password on a phishing site can also result in a compromised account. Twitter has a help guide for those who think their accounts may have been hacked, as well as general security information.

The Early Word: Try Again

Today’s Times

• Describing it as a waste of taxpayer money that has had a damaging effect on American foreign policy, President Obama said on Tuesday that he would recommit himself to closing the Guantanamo Bay prison, a goal that he had all but abandoned in the face of Congressional opposition, Charlie Savage reports.

• Though the law represents one of the biggest changes in domestic policy in decades, President Obama played down concerns that his health care legislation would disrupt coverage or lead to higher premiums for people who already have health insurance, Robert Pear writes. In fact, the law is “working fine,” Mr. Obama said.

• Senator Kelly Ayotte, Republican of New Hampshire, has become a focus of advocates on both sides of the debate over firearms, Jeremy W. Peters reports.  Gun control supporters focusing on a handful of Republican senators are pushing her hard to flip, and gun rights advocates are working to keep her where she is.

• Though grappling with the implications of their historic losses last fall, Charles and David Koch have no intention of backing down from electoral politics, Nicholas Confessore reports. The brothers, who organized conservative “super PACs” and spent heavily to defeat President Obama and the Democrats in 2012, are learning from their mistakes, testing new strategies and preparing for the 2014 elections, with control of Congress once again at stake.

Around the Web

• Those who were waiting for the weekend to see certain exhibits within the Smithsonian Institution have waited too long, Politico reports. The Smithsonian Castle’s Commons, National Museum of African Art’s “African Mosaic” and some Hirshhorn Museum galleries will be closed starting Wednesday because of the automatic budget cuts known as sequester.

Happenings in Washington

• Mr. Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. will have back-to-back meetings with Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew.