Adobe Sends Boxed Software to the Cloud

Adobe Systems this week announced that its popular Creative Suite, which bundles Photoshop, Illustrator and a number of its other products, will be available only by subscription through Adobe’s cloud service, Creative Cloud. No more boxes and disks.

Although Creative Suite was really designed for graphics professionals, this news affects hobbyists because the stand-alone $700 version of Photoshop will also be available by subscription only, but at a subscription price of $240 for a year.

There are a few advantages to using a cloud service, Adobe said. It simplifies sharing and collaborating on projects. If you have customized your settings on one computer, you can access them from any computer. It also means that updates and upgrades are easier for Adobe to carry out.

But calling it a cloud service is a tad misleading. When you subscribe to the service, the software is downloaded to your computer. You can work on images and illustrations even if you don’t have Internet access.

You need to connect occasionally to get updates and to make sure your account doesn’t expire, although an Adobe spokesman said he was unsure how often that connection would have to be made.

There are many price plans, based on the number of products you want to use, which products you have owned before, and how long you are willing to subscribe.

For instance, for the full Creative Cloud Service, which includes all the software in Creative Suite 6 plus 20 gigabytes of free storage and other improvements, it costs $75 a month for a month-to-month subscription. If you are willing to commit in advance for a full year, it’s $50 a month. If you owned Creative Suite 3, 4 or 5, a subscription is $30 a month for the first year if you commit to a year’s subscription. If you owned Creative Suite 6, it’s $20 a month for the first year if you commit to a year’s subscription.

There are similar discounts for single products. For instance, if you had Creative Suite 3 or later, you can get Photoshop alone for as little as $10 a month for the first year.

Adobe said it will continue to sell a boxed version of Creative Suite 6, but will no longer provide software updates for it. The price will remain $1,300 to $2,600, depending on the version.

Lightroom 4, a powerful photo editing program that is sufficient for most photographers, is still sold in a box for $150. Lightroom 5 will soon be released in a boxed version, but the price has not been announced.

Adobe Sends Boxed Software to the Cloud

Adobe Systems this week announced that its popular Creative Suite, which bundles Photoshop, Illustrator and a number of its other products, will be available only by subscription through Adobe’s cloud service, Creative Cloud. No more boxes and disks.

Although Creative Suite was really designed for graphics professionals, this news affects hobbyists because the stand-alone $700 version of Photoshop will also be available by subscription only, but at a subscription price of $240 for a year.

There are a few advantages to using a cloud service, Adobe said. It simplifies sharing and collaborating on projects. If you have customized your settings on one computer, you can access them from any computer. It also means that updates and upgrades are easier for Adobe to carry out.

But calling it a cloud service is a tad misleading. When you subscribe to the service, the software is downloaded to your computer. You can work on images and illustrations even if you don’t have Internet access.

You need to connect occasionally to get updates and to make sure your account doesn’t expire, although an Adobe spokesman said he was unsure how often that connection would have to be made.

There are many price plans, based on the number of products you want to use, which products you have owned before, and how long you are willing to subscribe.

For instance, for the full Creative Cloud Service, which includes all the software in Creative Suite 6 plus 20 gigabytes of free storage and other improvements, it costs $75 a month for a month-to-month subscription. If you are willing to commit in advance for a full year, it’s $50 a month. If you owned Creative Suite 3, 4 or 5, a subscription is $30 a month for the first year if you commit to a year’s subscription. If you owned Creative Suite 6, it’s $20 a month for the first year if you commit to a year’s subscription.

There are similar discounts for single products. For instance, if you had Creative Suite 3 or later, you can get Photoshop alone for as little as $10 a month for the first year.

Adobe said it will continue to sell a boxed version of Creative Suite 6, but will no longer provide software updates for it. The price will remain $1,300 to $2,600, depending on the version.

Lightroom 4, a powerful photo editing program that is sufficient for most photographers, is still sold in a box for $150. Lightroom 5 will soon be released in a boxed version, but the price has not been announced.

Judge Criticizes Obama Administration as It Appeals Contraception Decision

A federal judge on Tuesday angrily accused the Obama administration of hurting poor and minority women by seeking to restrict their access to morning-after contraceptive pills.

Lawyers for the Justice Department appeared before Judge Edward R. Korman in an effort to delay his previous order that the drug be made available to girls of all ages without a prescription. The department announced last week that it planned to appeal the ruling.

Judge Korman, of United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, said he would decide this week whether to freeze implementation of his order while the appeal proceeds. But for the second time in a month, he used his perch on the bench to lecture the Food and Drug Administration and President Obama for their efforts to restrict access to the drug by very young women.

“The poor, the young and African-Americans are going to be put in the position of not having access to this drug,” he said, according to The Associated Press.

Judge Korman said that the Justice Department lawyer was guilty of “intellectual dishonesty,” according to The A.P., and that the government’s effort to further delay implementation of his order with its appeal was “a charade.”

In December 2011, Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, blocked a decision by the F.D.A. that would have allowed morning-after contraceptive pills to be distributed to young teenagers over the counter. She said there was not enough data to show that the drug would be safe for girls as young as 11 years old. Instead, over-the-counter access was limited to girls and women aged 17 or older.

In his ruling last month overturning Ms. Sebelius’s decision, Judge Korman was highly critical of the Obama administration, saying it had put politics over science and health. In that ruling, he called Ms. Sebelius’s action “politically motivated, scientifically unjustified and contrary to agency precedent.”

Last week, the F.D.A. agreed to allow the sale of the drug to girls 15 and over, even as the administration sought to appeal Judge Korman’s earlier ruling.

Judge Korman said that move by the F.D.A. was an attempt to “sugarcoat this appeal of yours,” according to The A.P. He also suggested that the administration’s decision to appeal his ruling could have dire consequences for young women. When a Justice Department lawyer asserted that a delay of Judge Korman’s order was in the public interest, the judge replied, according to The A.P., “Is there a public interest in unwanted pregnancies … that can often result in abortions?”

A spokeswoman for the Justice Department declined to comment on Judge Korman’s remarks.

Follow Michael D. Shear on Twitter at @shearm.

Congress Set to Begin Work on Farm Bill

The Senate Agriculture Committee announced on Tuesday that it would begin working on a new farm bill next week, reviving efforts to pass the once-every-five-years spending bill that sets the nation’s food and farm policy. The last farm bill was passed in 2008.

The announcement comes after House leaders announced recently that they also would begin work on a farm bill next week. Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the majority leader, sent a memo to his fellow House Republicans last week saying that a farm bill produced by the House Agriculture Committee, led by Representative Frank Lucas, Republican of Oklahoma, would be on the legislative agenda for the summer.

Mr. Lucas and committee members came up with a bill and passed it last year, but it was never voted on by the full House.

The Senate passed its version of the farm bill, but failure to take it up in the House doomed any chance of getting it through the last Congress. Lawmakers extended the current farm bill until September. But even though the bill was extended, several farm programs expired, leaving hundreds of cattle and poultry producers without critical support programs during the worst drought in 50 years.

No one knows what the new bills will contain, but several farm groups believe the bill will contain many of the programs and reforms from the failed bills in the last Congress. Although the Senate bill made significant changes to some farm programs and eliminated or consolidates others, it left in place several Depression-era programs, like supports for American sugar growers, that set prices and limit imports.

The bill eliminated about $5 billion a year in controversial direct payments that have been given to farmers and farmland owners, whether or not they grew crops. It made the highly subsidized crop insurance program the primary safety net when crop prices drop. Currently, the government subsidizes about 62 percent of the crop insurance premiums, and the policies typically guarantee 75 percent to 85 percent of a farmer’s revenue. The crop insurance subsidy would cost about $9 billion a year. The bill saved about $23 billion over 10 years and cut about $4.5 billion in food stamps.

The House bill contained similar provisions to the Senate version, but added deeper cuts to the food stamp program, about $16 billion, and it would have saved about $35 billion over the same time. The House bill was also friendlier to Southern farmers, adding subsidies for rice and peanut planters, who say they would be harmed by the elimination of direct payments.

Congress Set to Begin Work on Farm Bill

The Senate Agriculture Committee announced on Tuesday that it would begin working on a new farm bill next week, reviving efforts to pass the once-every-five-years spending bill that sets the nation’s food and farm policy. The last farm bill was passed in 2008.

The announcement comes after House leaders announced recently that they also would begin work on a farm bill next week. Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the majority leader, sent a memo to his fellow House Republicans last week saying that a farm bill produced by the House Agriculture Committee, led by Representative Frank Lucas, Republican of Oklahoma, would be on the legislative agenda for the summer.

Mr. Lucas and committee members came up with a bill and passed it last year, but it was never voted on by the full House.

The Senate passed its version of the farm bill, but failure to take it up in the House doomed any chance of getting it through the last Congress. Lawmakers extended the current farm bill until September. But even though the bill was extended, several farm programs expired, leaving hundreds of cattle and poultry producers without critical support programs during the worst drought in 50 years.

No one knows what the new bills will contain, but several farm groups believe the bill will contain many of the programs and reforms from the failed bills in the last Congress. Although the Senate bill made significant changes to some farm programs and eliminated or consolidates others, it left in place several Depression-era programs, like supports for American sugar growers, that set prices and limit imports.

The bill eliminated about $5 billion a year in controversial direct payments that have been given to farmers and farmland owners, whether or not they grew crops. It made the highly subsidized crop insurance program the primary safety net when crop prices drop. Currently, the government subsidizes about 62 percent of the crop insurance premiums, and the policies typically guarantee 75 percent to 85 percent of a farmer’s revenue. The crop insurance subsidy would cost about $9 billion a year. The bill saved about $23 billion over 10 years and cut about $4.5 billion in food stamps.

The House bill contained similar provisions to the Senate version, but added deeper cuts to the food stamp program, about $16 billion, and it would have saved about $35 billion over the same time. The House bill was also friendlier to Southern farmers, adding subsidies for rice and peanut planters, who say they would be harmed by the elimination of direct payments.

Congress Set to Begin Work on Farm Bill

The Senate Agriculture Committee announced on Tuesday that it would begin working on a new farm bill next week, reviving efforts to pass the once-every-five-years spending bill that sets the nation’s food and farm policy. The last farm bill was passed in 2008.

The announcement comes after House leaders announced recently that they also would begin work on a farm bill next week. Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the majority leader, sent a memo to his fellow House Republicans last week saying that a farm bill produced by the House Agriculture Committee, led by Representative Frank Lucas, Republican of Oklahoma, would be on the legislative agenda for the summer.

Mr. Lucas and committee members came up with a bill and passed it last year, but it was never voted on by the full House.

The Senate passed its version of the farm bill, but failure to take it up in the House doomed any chance of getting it through the last Congress. Lawmakers extended the current farm bill until September. But even though the bill was extended, several farm programs expired, leaving hundreds of cattle and poultry producers without critical support programs during the worst drought in 50 years.

No one knows what the new bills will contain, but several farm groups believe the bill will contain many of the programs and reforms from the failed bills in the last Congress. Although the Senate bill made significant changes to some farm programs and eliminated or consolidates others, it left in place several Depression-era programs, like supports for American sugar growers, that set prices and limit imports.

The bill eliminated about $5 billion a year in controversial direct payments that have been given to farmers and farmland owners, whether or not they grew crops. It made the highly subsidized crop insurance program the primary safety net when crop prices drop. Currently, the government subsidizes about 62 percent of the crop insurance premiums, and the policies typically guarantee 75 percent to 85 percent of a farmer’s revenue. The crop insurance subsidy would cost about $9 billion a year. The bill saved about $23 billion over 10 years and cut about $4.5 billion in food stamps.

The House bill contained similar provisions to the Senate version, but added deeper cuts to the food stamp program, about $16 billion, and it would have saved about $35 billion over the same time. The House bill was also friendlier to Southern farmers, adding subsidies for rice and peanut planters, who say they would be harmed by the elimination of direct payments.

How to Tell Google Now to Stop Peeking

It used to be that every new phone was heralded as “the iPhone killer.” Now the preoccupation is with “the Siri killer,” the app that will replace the sometimes frustrating Siri personal assistant on the iPhone.

The latest and most notable entry is Google Now, an app that anticipates what information you might want and puts it on your phone screen before you ask for it. Google Now has been on Android phones since June of last year, and it was added to the iPhone Google Search app last month.

It can seem wonderfully prescient or intrusively creepy, but there is an easy adjustment if you don’t like the feeling that Google is watching your every move.

Google Now guesses what you will want based on your Google searches, your Google calendar, where you are and things like travel confirmation messages in your Gmail account, among other things.

When I first went to Google Now on an iPhone, it showed me stock quotes for a company I recently looked up on my computer, gave me the local weather and recommended nearby restaurants. Curiously, it also showed me a map with directions that said it would take me 16 minutes to get home, even though I was already home.

It is no replacement for Siri, but it is something you might use in addition to Siri â€" if you aren’t creeped out knowing that Google Now is looking over your shoulder at everything you do online.

You can reduce that feeling, though.

To do so, go to the Google Search app and swipe your finger up from the bottom of the screen. That puts you in Google Now. Scroll to the last box and at the bottom you will see a little gear icon on the right. Touch it and you will see a list of Google Now categories, like weather, traffic, Gmail and sports. Those categories let you further manage what information it will give you.

For instance, touch “Sports” and it gives you the option of seeing posts before a game, during a game or after a game, or you can turn sports off entirely. You can also touch “Teams” and only get news of specific teams.

If managing the app seems like too much work, you can always just turn Google Now off entirely.

Of course, just because the app doesn’t tell you what it’s looking at anymore doesn’t mean it’s not looking.

The Early Word: Protégé

Today's Times

• Though Jim DeMint, a former Republican senator, helped squelch a previous attempt at overhauling the immigration laws, his one-time protégé, Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, is now leading the charge on the issue, Ashley Parker reports.

• Sheryl Gay Stolberg reports on an annual poll by the Institute of Politics at Harvard University that documents what analysts see as a troubling trend: the declining idealism of youth, which is being replaced by a mistrust of government and a growing partisan divide among voters under 30.

• President Obama announced on Monday that he would nominate Anthony R. Foxx to be the next transportation secretary,  to succeed Ray LaHood as manager of the nation's roads, bridges and airports, Peter Baker and Michael D. Shear report.

Around the Web

•  A resolution from Representative Barbara Lee of California, and a dozen other Democrats warns that  climate change could lead vulnerable women with limited socioeconomic resources to “sex work” and “transactional sex,” The Hill reports.

Happenings in Washington

• Mr. Obama, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden are expected to announce employment-related news concerning veterans and military spouses in the East Room of the White House.

• Later, Mr. Biden will attend an event for his son, Beau Biden, the Delaware attorney general, in Washington.

The Early Word: Control

In Today's Times

• The Obama administration plans to contest a judge's order for the Food and Drug Administration to make a morning-after birth control pill available to girls under 15 without a prescription, the administration's current age limit. The appeal reaffirms the administration's election-year decision to block such sales, “and puts the White House back into the politically charged issue of access to emergency contraception,” Pam Belluck and Michael D. Shear explain.

• Americans overwhelmingly agree on the need for background checks for gun buyers and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, but split on partisan lines on whether President Obama or Congressional Republicans are better suited to make the best decisions on those and other domestic issues, Ashley Parker and Allison Kopicki write, summing up the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. They add that the gap could explain why Mr. Obama and Democrats “are still struggling to translate public support into tangible political backing for their initiatives.”

• Immigration is on President Obama's agenda on Thursday as he begins a three-day trip to Mexico and Costa Rica to meet with Latin American leaders. Michael D. Shear and Randal C. Archibold write that discussions between Mr. Obama and President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico on Thursday, which will also encompass economic and trade matters as well as the drug war, come as lawmakers in Washington are considering an immigration overhaul that would affect millions of Mexicans who are in the United States illegally.

• The death of gun legislation in Congress last month hangs over efforts on Capitol Hill to overhaul immigration laws, portending a bumpy ride, Jennifer Steinhauer writes.

• Edward Wyatt gets a feel for Tom Wheeler, President Obama's pick to lead the Federal Communications Commission, while Annie Lowrey examines the president's choice of Representative Melvin Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, to lead the regulator that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Around the Web

• Attempts by Republican governors to reduce income taxes have been blunted by their allies in Republican-led legislatures, where lawmakers have raised concerns about revenue losses, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Happening in Washington

• Economic reports expected Thursday include first-quarter productivity and weekly jobless claims at 8:30 a.m., followed at 10 a.m. by weekly mortgage rates.

• Adm. William H. McRaven, the commander of the United States Special Operations Command, will discuss his vision for Special Operations and the command during a program at the Woodrow Wilson Center that begins at 12:30 p.m.

• At 1 p.m., Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. will hold a closed-door meeting on gun safety with law enforcement officials at the White House.

Sessions Says Immigration Bill Is a Threat to U.S. Workers

Senator Jeff Sessions, the Republican from Alabama who may be the most determined and energetic opponent of an immigration overhaul bill now before the Senate, said on Friday that the legislation is “dangerous” for American workers, and he vowed to offer amendments in coming weeks to “confront the fundamentals of the bill” and slow its progress.

On a conference call with reporters, Mr. Sessions made it clear that he hopes to reprise the leading role he played in 2007, when he helped rally popular resistance that defeated a similarly sweeping immigration bill by President George W. Bush.

The senator warned that the bill would bring “explosive growth” in immigration, providing work authorization and legal status to more than 30 million immigrants over the next 10 years. Mr. Sessions said it would also “drastically increase low-skill chain migration.”

He pointed to a fast-track, five-year path to citizenship in the legislation for more than 2 million young immigrants brought here without authorization as children, who call themselves Dreamers. Mr. Sessions said that after they gained permanent legal status, those immigrants would be able to bring any of their family members, adding as many as 2 million more immigrants in future years. He also warned about the future impact of new guest worker programs for farm laborers and other low-wage migrants.

“This large flow of workers will impact working Americans significantly,” Mr. Sessions said, adding that the immigrants would lower salaries and compete for jobs. “These numbers give a real warning to the American people of what is about to occur.”

The bill introduced last month by a bipartisan group of eight senators provides a 13-year path to citizenship for most immigrants here illegally, tightens border security, clears backlogs in the immigration system, creates new guest worker programs and expands visas for high-skilled immigrants. Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has said the process of adding amendments would begin next week.

“There are so many problems with this bill, it is hard to know where to start,” Mr. Sessions said. He said he planned amendments to increase local and federal immigration enforcement, curb future immigration and tighten visa background checks.

The senator, who was in Alabama for the Congressional recess, acknowledged that supporters of the bill appeared to have the initiative so far. But as its details emerge, he said, “I do feel there is a change in this momentum.”

A demographer on the conference call, Steven A. Camarota from the Center for Immigration Studies, a study group in Washington that advocates lower immigration, estimated the American economy would have to create 35 million new jobs over the next 10 years to absorb new Americans in the labor force and new immigrants under the bill.

“The coming decade would have to be the biggest job bonanza in American history,” Mr. Camarota said.

The senators sponsoring the bill have predicted far lower numbers of new immigrants. They note that most parents and many other family members of young Dreamers, for example, are already in the United States, most of them illegally but some with legal papers.

The Weekend Word: Loyalty

Today's Times

• Cecilia Muñoz, a longtime immigration activist, was denounced and called a traitor after she joined the Obama administration and defended its deportation policy, Michael D. Shear writes. But now, as President Obama becomes the first president in decades with a chance to get an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws through Congress, Ms. Muñoz's loyalty in the face of public criticism appears to have paid off.

• The dearth of candidates for open Senate seats reflects what former and current senators say is a sad truth: the chamber, which was once considered an apex of national politics, is so riven by partisanship and gummed up by its own arcane rules, Jeremy W. Peters reports, that potential candidates from across the nation are loudly saying, “Thanks but no thanks.”

• A group of academics joined a gathering of former government and military officials in Washington this week to discuss their commitment to ending the government's “truth embargo” on the existence of extraterrestrial life, Andrew Siddons reports. The lawmakers were there in hopes that their presence and political credibility would be enough to persuade Congress to take the issue seriously.

Weekly Address

• President Obama delivered this week's address from Mexico City, where he spoke about “working with our neighbors on our common security and our common prosperity.” He said that Latin America presented an opportunity for him to expand on his top priority of creating jobs for the middle class. “One of the best ways to grow our economy is to sell more goods and services made in America to the rest of the world,” he said. “That includes our neighbors to the south.”

  The president also discussed border security and the immigration legislation that has been introduced in the Senate. “This bill is a compromise, which means that nobody got everything they wanted - including me,” he said. “It would modernize our legal immigration system so that we're able to reunite families and attract the highly skilled entrepreneurs and engineers who will help create good-paying jobs for our economy.”< /p>

Happenings in Washington

• Samuel Winstead, a World War II Marine combat veteran, has been on a 350-mile biking journey called the Ride for Peace. He is scheduled to end the trip, which started on April 28 in Raleigh, N.C., in Lafayette Park in Washington on Saturday.

 

 

Sunday Breakfast Menu, May 5

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

With April's jobs report easing concerns about an economic slowdown, Warren E. Buffett, chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, joins ABC's “This Week” to share his thoughts on the economy.

In addition, the program will have a roundtable discussion on the president's first 100 days of his second term with James Carville, Democratic strategist; Mary Matalin, Republican strategist; Jim DeMint, president of the Heritage Foundation and former South Carolina senator; and Bill Richardson, the former New Mexico governor.

As the debate in Washington intensifies over how to handle the civil war in Syria and with Israel's airstrike on Thursday, Representative Darrell Issa of California, chairman of the oversight committee; Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan, chairman of the Intelligence Committee; and Representative C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, will join CBS's “Face the Nation.” The program will feature a segment on gay athletes in professional sports.

President Obama gave interviews to Univision's “Al Punto” and Telemundo's “Enfoque” during his trip to Mexico and Costa Rica. The programs will air at 10 a.m. Eastern and noon Eastern, respectively, offering his perspectives on trade, border security and immigration. Univision will also have an interview with President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico, about his meeting with Mr. Obama.

As the investigation into the Boston Marathon bombings continues, NBC's “Meet the Press” features a discussion on national security with Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, which has oversight over the F.B.I.; Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor; Jane Harman, the former ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; and Representative Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas and a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

CNN's “State of the Union” talks to Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York and a member of the Homeland Security Committee, about this week's hearing on the bombings in Boston, as well as a panel on radicalization. Also, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat and a member of the bipartisan group that proposed legislation to overhaul the immigration system, will talk about the push for reform on immigration and guns.

After the F.B.I. released photos Wednesday of men wanted for questioning in the September attacks on a United States diplomatic mission and C.I.A. outpost in Benghazi, Libya, two members of the House oversight committee will join “Fox News Sunday” to talk about the continuing search for answers: Representatives Jason Chaffetz, Republican of Utah, and Stephen F. Lynch, Democrat of Massachusetts.

In addition, Senator John McCain of Arizona, the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee and a member of the so-called Gang of Eight, will weigh in on several issues, including Syria, immigration and Benghazi.

Representative Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat of Maryland, and William E. Spriggs, chief economist at the A.F.L.-C.I.O., are among the guests on TV One's “Washington Watch” at 11 a.m. Eastern. They will discuss the effects of the broad, automatic spending cuts known as sequestration on the African-American community.

On Bloomberg's “Capitol Gains” at noon Eastern, Charles F. Bolden Jr., the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, will share how sequestration will halt space launches in the United States and increase the agency's reliance on Russia.

Representative Jeff Miller of Florida, chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, will talk about the challenges facing veterans, including the backlog of disability claims, on C-Span's “Newsmakers.”

Richard G. Lugar, the former ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Zbigniew Brzezinski, who served as national security adviser in the Carter administration, joined Bloomberg's “Political Capital” on Friday, talking about the situation in Syria, tensions with China and Mr. Obama's foreign policy. The program will be repeated over the weekend.

Estimate of Immigration Overhaul\'s Cost Gets Mixed Reviews on Right

A researcher whose fiscal calculations have provided crucial support in the past for conservative opponents of an immigration overhaul released a report on Monday, predicting that a proposal now in the Senate would vastly increase the government deficit in coming decades. But this year the estimates, by Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation, have received decidedly mixed reviews from conservatives.

Mr. Rector and his co-author, Jason Richwine, estimated that offering a pathway to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants, which is part of a plan by a bipartisan group of senators to overhaul the immigration system, would generate a “lifetime fiscal deficit” for the government of $6.3 trillion.

An earlier, similarly high calculation by Mr. Rector of the cost of giving legal status to illegal immigrants was a powerful organizing tool in 2007 for opponents of a comprehensive immigration reform bill proposed by then-President George W. Bush. Citing Mr. Rector's warnings of a huge drain on taxpayer resources, conservative activists rose up to defeat that legislation.

This year, Mr. Rector had somewhat different findings, and they received a very different reception from leading conservatives.

The new study assumes that large numbers of immigrants formerly in the country illegally would eventually use government programs for low-income Americans, after a 13-year period in which they would not be eligible for those benefits under the terms of the bill.

The steepest costs Mr. Rector projects would come toward the end of the immigrants' lives, after they had become United States citizens and retired. At that point, he estimates, the difference between what they would pay in taxes and what they would use in government services would leave a fiscal deficit of $22,700 a year for each immigrant.

“You simply do not want to give illegal immigrants access to the welfare state,” Mr. Rector said during a conference call with reporters. Doing so, he said, would be “ruinously expensive.”

Hours after Mr. Rector presented his findings at a news conference at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, Haley Barbour, a Republican leader and former governor of Mississippi, convened his own press call to dismiss the study.

“This a political document,” Mr. Barbour said. “This gigantic cost figure that the Heritage Foundation puts out is actually the cost over 50 years. If you put the 50-year cost of anything in front of the public, it is going to be a huge number.”

Mr. Barbour, who is among a growing number of Republican leaders who have urged the party to take a less hard-line approach to immigration, criticized Mr. Rector for failing to estimate the economic benefits of bringing immigrants into the legal system, and for underestimating the potential for economic improvement over time among immigrant families.

Grover Norquist, the conservative anti-tax crusader, has also spoken out in recent days to pre-emptively dispute Mr. Rector's claims. An analysis posted Monday on the Web site of his organization, Americans for Tax Reform, called the cost estimate “wildly overblown,” arguing that the study had, among other things, lumped native-born Americans into many of its calculations.

Surprisingly, some of Mr. Rector's findings echoed what the senators sponsoring the immigration bill have said about its fiscal impact over the 13 years before formerly illegal immigrants would be allowed to become American citizens. He estimated that “tax payments would increase more than government benefits” during that period, reducing the deficit.

Obama\'s Latest Senate Outreach: Monday Golf Date

Kevin Lamarque/Reuters President Obama lined up his putt while playing golf at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Monday with Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee. Senators Saxby Chambliss, the Georgia Republican, and Mark Udall, a Colorado Democrat, also joined.

7:50 p.m. | Updated Washington was overcast and rain threatened on Monday. But President Obama figured it was a good day for golf nonetheless, inviting three senators to complete his foursome rather than the usual staff aides.

In the latest bit of outreach to Congress to press for his troubled domestic agenda, Mr. Obama invited two Republicans, Senators Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Bob Corker of Tennessee, and one Democrat, Senator Mark Udall of Colorado, to golf with him at Joint Base Andrews.

The nearly four hours of golf ended memorably, though not, apparently, with any legislative breakthroughs. Mr. Chambliss hit a hole-in-one on the 11th hole, allowing him and Mr. Corker to beat the Democratic team of Mr. Obama and Mr. Udall. “That ball will be quite a keepsake,” said Mr. Chambliss's spokeswoman, Bronwyn Lance Chester.

According to the White House, the president had the highest handicap of the foursome and Mr. Udall, who was once singled out in Golf Digest as top-ranked among elected officials, the lowest.

“The president enjoyed the chance to spend some time on the golf course with the senators,” the White House said in a statement. “Most of the talk centered on the round of golf and not the latest round of legislative negotiations in Congress. The president was pleased that the rain held off, despite the damp forecast.”

All three of his Senate guests are the sort who are willing to work with colleagues of the other party on bipartisan legislation - just the sort of legislators Mr. Obama is hoping to build into a super-majority, at least 60 votes, in the Democrat-led Senate to pass second-term priorities like budget, immigration and gun measures. If the Senate passed such legislation, the strategy holds, the Republican-led House would be under pressure to compromise in turn.

Mr. Chambliss has worked with Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, toward a bipartisan deficit reduction package that would both cut spending and increase tax revenue. And from his days in the House, Mr. Chambliss remains a close confidant - and golf companion - of Speaker John A. Boehner.

Q&A: Breaking the Bluetooth Bond

Q.

How do I “unpair” a Bluetooth mouse from my Mac?

A.

Bluetooth, a wireless technology often used to replace USB cable connections, requires that the two compatible devices be “paired” before they can communicate with each other. This pairing creates a secure connection and typically involves running a setup program or typing in a code when you get the new hardware.

Once you pair two Bluetooth-enabled devices, they stay paired until you break them up. When you want to dissolve the connection, open the Mac's Bluetooth settings. In Mac OS X 10.8, one way to get there is to click the System Preferences icon in the dock and then click on the Bluetooth icon. You may also see a small Bluetooth icon (which resembles the letter B in a runic typeface) on the right side of the Mac's menu bar. Clicking it reveals a menu with an option for opening the Bluetooth preferences.

Once you have the Bluetooth preferences box open, you should see a list of paired devices on the left. Select the mouse you wish to unhitch from the Mac and click the minus sign (-) underneath to remove the device. If you ever wish to use the same mouse with the Mac again, you will need to re-pair them.

The Bluetooth preferences box also displays information about each paired device and includes a check box for turning on the Bluetooth menu bar icon if your Mac does not already display it. The Bluetooth menu bar icon itself has some useful commands for quickly sending files from the Mac to connected devices like phones or other computers, and information like battery-charge levels. Apple's site has more information on using Bluetooth with OS X.

A version of this article appeared in print on 05/02/2013, on page B11 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Breaking A Bluetooth Bond.

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).

The Fisher-Price Apptivity Gymsnap works by snapping phone or iPod Touch into a child-proof container.

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 version of this article appeared in print on 05/02/2013, on page B11 of the NewYork edition with the headline: At Play in a Baby Gym, Assisted by an App Wrinkle.

Q.& A.: Finding and Using Windows Contacts

Q.

I tried to follow your instructions for printing out my Windows 7 contacts, but I didn't find a Contacts app when I searched for it or looked in my Programs menu.

A.

Windows Contacts, which works as a stand-alone address book or companion to the Windows Mail program, arrived with Windows Vista and replaced the older Windows Address Book feature of previous versions of the operating system. Some e-mail programs, like Windows Live Mail and others, may not automatically share their own address books with the Windows Contacts, which may account for missing contacts files in the Contacts folder. (These other e-mail programs, like Microsoft Outlook for example, have their own methods for printing as well.)

If you search for Contacts and find none from the Start menu's search box, try searching for wab.exe instead. An alternative method for getting to the Contacts folder is to go to the Start menu, search for (or open) the Run box, and type in C:\Users\YourUserName\Contacts (put your own user name in that string, of course). Press the Enter key. Even if your e-mail program's contacts are not in the Contacts folder, you should see one for yourself that was created when you set up your user account on the computer.

Once the Contacts folder is open on screen, you should see a menu bar along the top edge of the folder window with commands for creating new contacts, editing contacts, printing them and importing contacts from other programs. (Maximize the window or click on a contact if commands seem to be missing.) The contacts themselves appear as individual files within the folder.

If your e-mail program has not stored its addresses in the Contacts folder and you did not manually add them yourself, you might be able to import the information into Contacts so you can manage and print them. Microsoft's steps for importing and exporting address files between Windows Contacts and other programs outline the process. CSV (Comma Separated Values), vCard and Outlook Express contacts are among the compatible formats; the HowTech.PC site has a YouTube video that demonstrates how to export Windows Live Mail contacts as a CSV file if you want to see the procedure in action. The page also has links to articles for managing contacts and using them with other mail programs in Windows Vista and later.

Exporting and importing contacts between programs may seem like a hassle just to print them out, but it does give you a backup of your address book in case something happens to the computer or your e-mail program. Having a stand-alone manager like Windows Contacts can also save time if you want to look up someone's mailing address or phone number quickly with a Start menu search for the name without having to switch to your e-mail program.

Seal Your iPhone in a Vault

The ProGear Vault iPhone 5 case from Pelican.

Pelican has made a name for itself as a maker of protective gear for industrial and military equipment. Last year, it enlisted outdoor adventurers to endorse ProGear, a new line of products aimed at everyday consumers.

Recently, Pelican expanded the ProGear line to include two cases for the iPhone 5, the Vault and the Protector.

The Vault is indeed a sturdy case; my iPhone would not feel more secure if it were locked in an actual vault. But it takes a bit of effort to attain that level of protection.

For starters, you have to seal your phone into the case with four tiny, stainless steel hex screws. Fortunately, Pelican includes a tiny hex wrench for the task. If I had tiny hands, I'd be set - but I have large, clumsy hands, so it took some time fumbling with the screws before I could close the case.

Once a phone is sealed inside, Pelican claims that the Vault's elastomeric copolymer rubber provides impact protection from a drop of as much as 72 inches. The case's design defends against wind-driven snow, rain and dust. A durable screen cover protects from scratches but does not interfere with the iPhone's touch-sensitive technology. And the case is guaranteed for life.

All that security comes with a tradeoff: the phone is slightly heavier and a little harder to use. The case weighs nearly 3 ounces, and it covers all the buttons and ports. The ports are accessible by way of water-resistant caps, and the case incorporates an aircraft-grade aluminum dial and several buttons to control the iPhone's functions. They worked well enough, but after a few days, my thumbs grew weary.

At $80, the Vault provides top-notch protection for outdoor enthusiasts. For iPhone owners not planning to scale the Alps, the $40 Protector case offers excellent protection but with less hassle. Cases for the iPad and Samsung Galaxy S phone are forthcoming.

Three Noteworthy Apps for Children

Here are three noteworthy apps for children.

The Little Red Riding Hood app by Nosy Crow.

One is a re-telling of Little Red Riding Hood in a funny, easy-to-control app by Nosy Crow that costs $4.99. The app, for iPhone and iPad, is full of surprises, including an ending you help create. It also treats a dark topic with a note of humor: the wolf locks Grandma in a closet instead of eating her, for example. You can take eight paths through the woods, where you collect various items you’ll need to trick the wolf and free Grandma from the closet.

Fairytale Maze 123, for the iPad, is a collection of 20 well-made mazes, each with a popular fairytale theme. In one maze, you lead the prince to Rapunzel; in another you help the three little pigs visit their homes in the correct order to avoid the wrath of the wolf. The mazes vary in complexity, sometimes containing multistage features. All in all, this is a solid app, costing $2.99, that is well worth the download. Need to know: The background music can get annoying but you can toggle it off in the parent settings.

StoryBots Tap & Sing is a free app for the iPad.

StoryBots Tap & Sing, a free app for the iPad, is a living xylophone with keys that can teach you how to play songs. Each note on the two-octave scale is represented by one of JibJab’s StoryBot characters. You can toggle among four voices in three songs â€" Mary Had a Little Lamb, This Old Man and Row Row Row Your Boat. For more songs,  you need to subscribe for $4.99 a month, a feature that is sold as an in-app sale, so be careful: if your child knows your password, an accidental subscription could be activated.

Q.& A.: Setting the iPad’s Side Switch

Q.

Is there a way to lock the iPad Mini’s screen into the horizontal orientation?

A.

Like the larger iPad, the iPad Mini has a small switch on the right edge. It can be used as a rotation lock to keep the screen from automatically reorienting itself as you move around, but you need to have the tablet’s settings configured properly. That same switch, right above the volume buttons, can also be set to function instead as a mute button to silence certain types of audio.

If the Mini’s side switch is set to work as a mute button, you can change its purpose to “screen-rotation lock” by tapping the Settings icon on the home screen. On the Settings screen, tap General on the left side, and on the right side of the screen flick down to “Use Side Switch to.” Tap to select Lock Rotation or Mute to set the button’s function.

Even if you set the side switch for your preferred use, you can still mute the Mini or lock the screen. Just double-click the Home button, and when the panel of apps appears along the bottom edge of the screen, flick the row from left to right with your finger. Tap the icon on the far left side of the row to either lock the iPad’s screen or mute the Mini’s alerts, notifications and sound effects. Music, podcasts and video are not muted unless you turn the volume all the way down.