Obama Tells Leno Closure of Embassies Is No Overreaction

For a late-night comic Jay Leno certainly covered some serious ground with President Obama on Tuesday evening.

Mr. Obama, making his 6th appearance on NBC’s “Tonight Show,” and his fourth as president, told his host that the government is not overreacting in locking down nearly 20 diplomatic posts and issuing a worldwide travel warning after intercepted electronic conversations raised concerns of terrorist attacks abroad.

Americans should proceed with vacations in a “prudent way, “ Mr. Obama said during the taped appearance, and check the State Department Web site for updates. “The odds of dying in a terrorist attack,” he added, “are a lot lower than they are of dying in a car accident, unfortunately.”

While the White House has declined to use the latest reports of terrorist threats to justify the administration’s broad intelligence surveillance programs in the United States and in foreign countries, Mr. Obama did reiterate that such government surveillance is a “critical component to counterterrorism.” In both parties in Congress, however, lawmakers are trying to limit the intelligence-gathering.

The president stated flatly that he would attend the G-20 summit of the world’s wealthiest countries and developing nations in St. Petersburg, Russia, next month. His attendance was in question after Russia granted temporary asylum to Edward J. Snowden, the former intelligence contractor who disclosed the surveillance programs of the National Security Agency, igniting a global controversy. Still up in the air, however, is whether Mr. Obama will scrap plans to meet Mr. Putin in Moscow separately.

Mr. Obama seemed to dismiss Russia’s action as the predictable blip in an otherwise constructive relationship. “There are times when they slip back into Cold War thinking and Cold War mentality,” he said. “What I continually say to them and to President Putin â€" that’s the past.”

The president also said he did not think a controversy over Russia’s anti-gay policies would disrupt next year’s Winter Olympics in that country, despite calls from some gay-rights activists for international boycotts.

On domestic politics, Mr. Obama, still in the same dark suit and blue tie he had worn hours earlier in a steamy Phoenix high school gym for a speech on housing policies, repeated some of his talking points on that subject. And he commiserated with Mr. Leno about the inability to get bipartisan agreement in Congress on initiatives like federal assistance for public works projects and road repairs.

Mr. Obama’s press secretary, Jay Carney, when he was asked earlier in the day why Mr. Obama so often resorts to such unorthodox media outlets, said, “We’re trying to communicate with Americans where they are. And the viewers of late-night shows are not necessarily the readers of newspapers or wire services, or necessarily viewers of cable or broadcast news shows.”

“Some of his more substantive interviews have appeared in non-traditional settings,” Mr. Carney added. “So you never know what you might get.”

One of the lightest moments came when Mr. Leno questioned Mr. Obama about his budding “bromance” with his bitter 2008 Republican rival, Senator John McCain of Arizona.

“That’s how a classic romantic comedy goes,” Mr. Obama quipped. “Initially you’re not getting along and then you keep bumping into each other.”

As for his other 2008 rival-turned-ally, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Mr. Obama said that she arrived for their recent lunch in the White House with “that post-administration glow.” He and Mrs. Clinton were “genuinely close,” he said.

When Mr. Leno asked if Mrs. Clinton was measuring for drapes at the White House, Mr. Obama was quick to reply, “Keep in mind she’s been there. She doesn’t have to measure them.”

Mr. Leno had begun the show by wishing Mr. Obama a happy birthday - the president turned 52 on Sunday - but it was Mr. Leno who got a present at the end of the taping. Mr. Obama gave Mr. Leno, a car enthusiast, a toy model of the presidential limousine known as “The Beast.”

“Oh, cool!” Mr. Leno said and repeated, predictably enthused.

Obama Tells Leno Closure of Embassies Is No Overreaction

For a late-night comic Jay Leno certainly covered some serious ground with President Obama on Tuesday evening.

Mr. Obama, making his 6th appearance on NBC’s “Tonight Show,” and his fourth as president, told his host that the government is not overreacting in locking down nearly 20 diplomatic posts and issuing a worldwide travel warning after intercepted electronic conversations raised concerns of terrorist attacks abroad.

Americans should proceed with vacations in a “prudent way, “ Mr. Obama said during the taped appearance, and check the State Department Web site for updates. “The odds of dying in a terrorist attack,” he added, “are a lot lower than they are of dying in a car accident, unfortunately.”

While the White House has declined to use the latest reports of terrorist threats to justify the administration’s broad intelligence surveillance programs in the United States and in foreign countries, Mr. Obama did reiterate that such government surveillance is a “critical component to counterterrorism.” In both parties in Congress, however, lawmakers are trying to limit the intelligence-gathering.

The president stated flatly that he would attend the G-20 summit of the world’s wealthiest countries and developing nations in St. Petersburg, Russia, next month. His attendance was in question after Russia granted temporary asylum to Edward J. Snowden, the former intelligence contractor who disclosed the surveillance programs of the National Security Agency, igniting a global controversy. Still up in the air, however, is whether Mr. Obama will scrap plans to meet Mr. Putin in Moscow separately.

Mr. Obama seemed to dismiss Russia’s action as the predictable blip in an otherwise constructive relationship. “There are times when they slip back into Cold War thinking and Cold War mentality,” he said. “What I continually say to them and to President Putin â€" that’s the past.”

The president also said he did not think a controversy over Russia’s anti-gay policies would disrupt next year’s Winter Olympics in that country, despite calls from some gay-rights activists for international boycotts.

On domestic politics, Mr. Obama, still in the same dark suit and blue tie he had worn hours earlier in a steamy Phoenix high school gym for a speech on housing policies, repeated some of his talking points on that subject. And he commiserated with Mr. Leno about the inability to get bipartisan agreement in Congress on initiatives like federal assistance for public works projects and road repairs.

Mr. Obama’s press secretary, Jay Carney, when he was asked earlier in the day why Mr. Obama so often resorts to such unorthodox media outlets, said, “We’re trying to communicate with Americans where they are. And the viewers of late-night shows are not necessarily the readers of newspapers or wire services, or necessarily viewers of cable or broadcast news shows.”

“Some of his more substantive interviews have appeared in non-traditional settings,” Mr. Carney added. “So you never know what you might get.”

One of the lightest moments came when Mr. Leno questioned Mr. Obama about his budding “bromance” with his bitter 2008 Republican rival, Senator John McCain of Arizona.

“That’s how a classic romantic comedy goes,” Mr. Obama quipped. “Initially you’re not getting along and then you keep bumping into each other.”

As for his other 2008 rival-turned-ally, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Mr. Obama said that she arrived for their recent lunch in the White House with “that post-administration glow.” He and Mrs. Clinton were “genuinely close,” he said.

When Mr. Leno asked if Mrs. Clinton was measuring for drapes at the White House, Mr. Obama was quick to reply, “Keep in mind she’s been there. She doesn’t have to measure them.”

Mr. Leno had begun the show by wishing Mr. Obama a happy birthday - the president turned 52 on Sunday - but it was Mr. Leno who got a present at the end of the taping. Mr. Obama gave Mr. Leno, a car enthusiast, a toy model of the presidential limousine known as “The Beast.”

“Oh, cool!” Mr. Leno said and repeated, predictably enthused.

State of the Art: The Moto X From Google, iPhone’s Latest Challenger

The Moto X From Google, iPhone’s Latest Challenger

60 Seconds With Pogue: The Moto X Phone: The Times's David Pogue examines the Moto X smartphone, Google's collaboration with Motorola.

It’s getting harder and harder to invent the iPhone Killer. Even for Apple.

The Moto X is the first phone that Motorola has produced since Google bought it a year ago for $12.5 billion.

The one truly huge, magnificent, radical idea of the iPhone, back when it was introduced in 2007, was to get rid of buttons. Make the whole phone a black rectangular touch screen.

By now, every company and its brother has done that. Everybody’s added voice recognition, GPS and navigation. Everybody’s sharpened up the screens to the point where you need a microscope to tell the difference.

So now what? How do you distinguish your phone from the more than 4,000 other touch-screen phones? (That’s not a joke. There have actually been 3,997 different Android phone models so far. And six iPhones and a motley assortment of Windows and touch-screen BlackBerry phones. Heaven help the landfills.)

With much fanfare, Google proudly presents its answer: the Moto X.

This phone ($200 with contract, 5.1 x 2.6 x 0.4 inches) is the first that Motorola has produced since Google bought it a year ago for $12.5 billion.

By looking at it, you’d never guess that this is the Android phone that Motorola hopes will change everything. Its curved back is plasticky, not classy metal (like the HTC One) or glass (like the iPhone 5). Its comfortably 4.7-inch screen looks great, but it isn’t as big or sharp as the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One. The phone is plenty fast, but its processor isn’t the latest and greatest.

But the Moto X does offer five features that no phone has offered before.

Feature 1: You can design your own color scheme. You’re offered a choice of 18 colors for the back panel, black or white for the front, and seven colors for the accents (the buttons and ring around the camera lens). The color choices are excellent; the odds of you and your frenemy showing up at a party with an identical Moto X phone are one in 252.

Later this year, you’ll even be able to order a back panel made of real wood â€" in bamboo, teak, ebony or rosewood. Motorola’s testing shows these beautiful panels to be just as tough as plastic (although more susceptible to termites, I’m guessing).

While you’re online, you can also order color-matched cases and earbuds, specify the wallpaper you want or request an engraved message for the back. For now, only AT&T offers the color choices. Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile will offer only black or white until later this year.

You get your customized phone within four days, courtesy of Feature 2: it’s assembled right here in these United States. The components are still made in Asia, but they’re put together in Texas â€" you can lose less sleep worrying about underpaid Chinese workers.

Feature 3 is the most useful: touchless mode. As with Siri on the iPhone, you can command the phone to dial a number, send a text, open an app, set your alarm, look up a fact on the Web, and so on.

But unlike Siri, you don’t hold down a button to speak. The phone is always listening, even when it’s in your car’s cup holder.

It works remarkably well, as long as you precede your command with the salutation, “O.K., Google Now.” Without ever taking your eyes off the road, you can say, “O.K., Google Now. Give me directions to the Empire State Building.” Or, “O.K., Google Now. Remind me at 8 p.m. to give the dog his pill.” Or, “O.K., Google Now. Make an appointment for Thursday at noon with Bob.”

This truly inspired idea is a leap forward in both safety and convenience. It owes its success to a special chip that does nothing but listen all day long. It does, however, come with fine print.

For example, you have to train the phone to recognize your voice. In a silent room, you have to say “O.K., Google Now” exactly the same way three times.

If you’ve password-protected your phone, this feature loses much of its power. It won’t execute most commands until you first pick it up and unlock it. So much for touchless.

And Android’s voice commands are still no match for Siri. The phone recognizes the basics, like “Wake me at 7:30 a.m,” “Open Angry Birds,” “What’s Google’s stock price?” and “Check the forecast for Memphis on Friday.”

10 Questions for Rand Paul

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky has drawn more attention than most Republican politicians lately, as his party searches for a winning national formula. Clashing with the likes of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie - a potential 2016 presidential rival - he has promoted a libertarian brand of Republican politics featuring a less aggressive foreign policy, a more tolerant social policy, and smaller government.

John Harwood of The Times and CNBC interviewed Mr. Paul for the NPR program “On Point,” produced by WBUR-Boston. What follows is a condensed, edited version of their conversation.

Q.

What is the goal that you’ve set for yourself in your political career?

A.

If we want to grow and be a dominant national party, or even a competitive national party, we need to look like the rest of America. We need black people, brown people, white people. People with tattoos, without tattoos, with ties, without ties - we need to look and represent a broad spectrum of people from working class to business class. We don’t do a good enough job on that. My goal over the next year or two is to try to broaden our appeal.

Q.

Beyond the next year or two, do you plan to run for president?

A.

I’m thinking about it, and we’re talking with family. We’ll look at it over the next year or so and see how successful we are basically at trying to grow the party before making a decision.

Q.

How would you distinguish the philosophy of your father, who ran for president three times, from yours?

A.

I have a great deal of respect for my father. I think he’s one of the few genuinely honest people that ever went to Congress. We don’t agree on everything. We have some things in common: we believe in limited constitutional government, a very strict interpretation of that, we believe in privacy, a less aggressive foreign policy. There will be distinguishing characteristics. I just don’t think it’s useful to go through a list of that.

Q.

What did the overwhelming defeat of your amendment cutting off [aid to] Egypt tell you about how much progress you’re making?

A.

I’ve got a long ways to go. It tells me really, though, the Senate’s out of touch. Because if you take that same question, and we poll your audience and ask them: Should we continue to send money to Egypt when they burn our flag, or do you think we should try to take care of some of the roads and projects we’ve got in our country, I think you’d get a reverse result.

We don’t have enough money to be everywhere all the time around the world. Should we be sending arms to Islamic rebels in Syria? I think you’ll find the vast majority of Republican Party voters at the grass roots are opposed to that, and I know most Democrats are opposed to it. And yet the leaders of both parties are eager to send more money to Egypt, and have more arms and more involvement in war.

Q.

You’ve invoked the rights of black Americans, you spoke at Howard University and you’ve talked about commitment to outreach. What conclusion should people draw from the presence of that former shock jock Jack Hunter on your staff, who was identified as the Southern Avenger?

A.

He’s no longer on my staff. Many of the things he wrote were stupid, and I don’t agree. They weren’t things that I was aware of, or reasons why I hired him.

I do think, though, that he was unfairly treated by the media and he was put up as target practice for people to say he was a racist, and none of that is true. He got along fine with everybody in the office, and treated everyone fairly regardless of race or religion. We have a very varied office staff.

It’s also unfair to paint a broad brush and say that’s who I am. I think there is no greater defender, truly, of minority rights if you include minorities to be color of your skin or the color of your ideology than myself.

Q.

Let me read you something that The Economist, the British magazine, wrote: “The only notable libertarian-leaning politicians to generate real excitement among conservative voters have risen to prominence through alliances with racist and nativist movements.”

A.

I don’t accept all of that. And I don’t really need to spend the time. If you want to talk about issues, and what I stand for, I’m happy to. But I’m not going to really go through an interview responding to every yahoo in the world who wants to throw up a canard.

Q.

But if somebody sees the record of Jack Hunter, who wrote a book with you …

A.

Why don’t we talk about Rand Paul? I’m the one doing the interview. You can go ahead and beat up on an ex-employee of mine, but why don’t we talk about Rand Paul, what I’m trying to do to grow the party? And then we might have an intelligent discussion. Why don’t we talk about what libertarian Republicanism means and what it would do for the party?

Q.

There was a Pew study which concluded that only 10 percent of the electorate was libertarian. How do you take a core that small and turn it into a majority?

A.

No candidate or person or voter is purely any one segment. You may be libertarian on some issues, you may be conservative on other issues. Politics is about fusing together the best elements of different ideologies.

The ideas that I represent - talking about no longer sending money overseas to countries that hate us, talking about a less aggressive foreign policy, a balanced budget - you’ll find that actually represents a large segment of the Republican Party. And I think it’s attractive to independents as well.

Q.

What about the fact that the two biggest domestic spending programs, Medicare and Social Security, are highly popular, and the libertarian movement at its core doesn’t believe in those programs?

A.

You paint with a broad brush, and you try to make libertarianism to be something you want to beat up on. No one that I know of who is a libertarian conservative is advocating abolishing Social Security or Medicare. We are advocating that they be paid for.

Medicare is $35-to-40 trillion short, in the hole. For every retiree, we pay $3 for every $1 they paid in. It’s an untenable entitlement and the way you have to fix it is to go through reform. But the president’s been unwilling to step forward and be a leader on these issues.

To build up a straw man and argue against a straw man, you’re just making stuff up.

Q.

How do you think the exchange you had with Gov. Christie came out?

A.

If we want to have a strong national defense, we have to be fiscally conservative and cut in other places. You can’t ask for a blank check â€" even for disaster aid. So I think that point is loud and clear for conservatives.

Gadgetwise: A Travel Organizer for Families and Frequent Fliers

A Travel Organizer for Families and Frequent Fliers

The TripIt Pro app for the iPad.

August is a time for families to wind down the summer with a final trip before school starts. Keeping on top of travel arrangements and changes is crucial.

To help with a recent trip, I signed up for TripIt, a travel organizer from Concur. The service has a free version, but I tested its paid subscription version, which has several extras.

The free TripIt service keeps travel arrangements like flight, hotel and car rental confirmations organized and available on the Web, a smartphone or a tablet (iOS, Android, BlackBerry or Windows). An upgrade to TripIt Pro, at $49 a year, offers useful features like reminders about travel plans and alerts about flight delays, gate changes and fare refunds.

Other extras with TripIt Pro include maps and driving directions, and the service will automatically share your itinerary with others in your circle, like family members or co-workers. It also keeps track of frequent-flier points.

I used TripIt Pro a few weeks ago for a trip to San Diego. I’m not a frequent flier and I was going solo, so a lot of the TripIt services were unnecessary this time. But I was eager to use the tracker that allows a user to check for open seats. Unfortunately, no seats became available, so I put it out of my mind.

But on the way to the airport to catch my flight home, Delta called to tell me that the second leg of my return flight had been canceled. I had to scramble to make other arrangements. When I checked my e-mail, TripIt said everything was status quo. Fortunately, a helpful Delta agent at the airport was able to rebook my flight. Hours later, while I was flying high over the Midwest, TripIt Pro finally sent me an e-mail notifying me that my original flight had been canceled.

When travel plans can change at a moment’s notice, it helps to have an organizer that can adapt quickly. TripIt Pro may offer some great features, and I will use it again, but I prefer a service that keeps up with shifting travel plans.

Fishing License Becomes Issue for Liz Cheney in Wyoming Senate Race

It sounds like a small-bore infraction: Liz Cheney, a United States Senate candidate in Wyoming, bought a state fishing license last summer even though she had not lived in the state for a year, as required.

But the matter has inflamed her critics in the state, who have already labeled her an interloper and taken issue with her challenge to Senator Michael B. Enzi in next year’s Republican primary. Mr. Enzi is a popular three-term incumbent who is as conservative as Ms. Cheney.

“It’s a serious misstep,” said Liz Brimmer, a Republican strategist in Wyoming and former chief of staff to former Senator Craig Thomas, a Republican. “Allegedly poaching in a state where being a resident sportsman is, by law, an earned privilege. Wyoming people will take this very seriously.”

According to state records, Ms. Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, bought the $24 game and hunting license in August of 2012 at Westbank Anglers in Teton Village. She had moved to the state the previous May. She is also listed on the application of having lived in Wyoming for 10 years.

Ms. Cheney and her spokeswoman declined requests for an interview. But she told the Star Tribune in Casper, which first reported the story with The Associated Press, “The clerk must have made a mistake. I never claimed to be a 10-year resident.”

She also said she was unaware of the one-year residency requirement.

Alan Dubberley, a spokesman for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, said the agency was not ready to declare whether Ms. Cheney faced fines. “We have an ongoing investigation,” he said. “The law is extremely complicated.”

In recent interviews in the Jackson Hole area, near where Ms. Cheney lives, many Republicans questioned her candidacy, accusing her of not truly understand Wyoming. She had long lived in Virginia, outside Washington, D.C.

Mark Newcomb, an environmental economist who supports Mr. Enzi, dismissed the Cheney campaign’s contention that she would bring new energy to the state.

“She’s probably as much old guard as anyone else,” he said. “She comes from a political family and she can’t fool me.”

Ms. Cheney, mindful of such criticism, is crisscrossing the sprawling state and keeping her distance from the city she called home until last year. Despite the presence of many friends and former colleagues in the Washington, D.C., area, she has purposefully not held a fund-raiser in the capital in the weeks since she announced her bid.

“She has made multiple visits to all the counties and is now making another round; doing visits and events with Wyoming voters,” said Mary Matalin, a close friend of Ms. Cheney, when asked about the notable absence of Beltway fund-raisers. “To everything there is a season.”

Jonathan Martin contributed reporting.

Gadgetwise: Candy-Colored Headphones From Monster

Candy-Colored Headphones From Monster

The N-Tune Candy Collection of on-ear headphones from Monster.

With its Beats by Dr. Dre line, Monster helped lead the charge that made headphones fashionable for millions of young listeners. And when Beats and Monster parted ways in 2012, Monster wasted no time signing a partnership with NCredible Entertainment, a multimedia management brand founded by the entertainer Nick Cannon.

The latest offering in Monster’s NCredible line, which is aimed at young people, is an assortment of brightly hued, durable on-ear headphones called the NTune Candy Collection. They come in five vibrant colors â€" blue, green, purple, red and tangerine â€" and have a $170 sticker price, but you can find them cheaper at many retailers and even at Monster’s e-commerce site.

The headphones deliver Monster’s signature sound, which emphasizes heavy bass, making them great for rap, pop and rock music. I found the audio quality fairly good, even at high volumes, although the throbbing bass tended to overwhelm the vocals.

Monster says that the headphones are noise-isolating. Typically, I don’t pay much heed to claims like that, but the headphones’ swivel ear cups provided a good fit and blocked a lot of the outside noise. And they are light enough that I was able to wear them comfortably for a couple of hours.

I was impressed by the durability of the NTune headphones. They can be turned and twisted without cracking or breaking. It appears Monster designed them to last.

The tangle-free cord includes a universal in-line remote that can play and pause music as well as take phone calls. However, the remote does not include volume controls.

With its candy colors and booming bass, the NTune headphones are clearly intended for a younger crowd. Whether they are right for you depends on how badly you want to fit into that crowd.

Gadgetwise: A Waterproof Cover for the Samsung Galaxy S III

A Waterproof Cover for the Samsung Galaxy S III

The LifeProof Nuud are the thinnest, most rugged cases available for the Galaxy S III, iPhone 5 and the iPad.

Now your Samsung Galaxy S III can go swimming with your iPhone 5.

The LifeProof Nuud cases, previously available for Apple products only, are now available for the S III and the iPhone 5.

What makes the cases unusual is that they are waterproof but have no membrane covering the phone’s glass. Instead the cases have a gasket that forms a seal against the phone’s glass to keep water from seeping past the screen, which is itself waterproof.

This design makes the Nuud line among the thinnest, most rugged cases available for these phones and for the iPad as well.

While the case promises to be waterproof, snowproof, dirtproof and shockproof, the phones cannot be used underwater. (There are cases, like the one from DriSuit Technologies, that allow the phone to be used while submerged). Water on the screen can make it impossible for the phone to detect your touch.

The case requires careful assembly to seal the bead around the screen. I found it best to assemble it on a hard surface and work my way around the phone, pressing down along the edges from the top to the bottom.

At the base of the case is a hatch that opens to the charger, so you don’t have to remove the case to update the phone or top off the battery. Microphone and speaker ports are covered with a membrane that keeps water out (up to six feet down) but lets sound pass.

The Nuud is $90 for the S III and the iPhone 5.

George W. Bush Undergoes Heart Procedure

Former President George W. Bush underwent a surgical procedure Tuesday morning in which doctors inserted a stent to open a blocked artery, aides said.

Me. Bush, 67, went for an annual physical check up at the Cooper Clinic in Dallas on Monday, and doctors discovered the blockage. He agreed to have the stent inserted at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.

Aides said the procedure was completed without complication and added that Mr. Bush was awake and in high spirits. They said he was set to be released from the hospital on Wednesday and would resume a normal schedule on Thursday.