Sunday Breakfast Menu, Aug. 11

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

Tensions between the United States and Russia came to a head last week after Russia granted temporary asylum to Edward J. Snowden, the National Security Agency leaker, with the White House announcing President Obama would not meet with President Vladimir V. Putin next month.

Lon Snowden, Mr. Snowden’s father, will appear on ABC’s “This Week” with Bruce Fein, a lawyer. Then, the chairmen of the Senate and House foreign relations committees â€" Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, and Representative Ed Royce, Republican of California â€" will discuss the American response to Russia and the terror threat that shut down diplomatic missions around the world.

With potential 2016 presidential candidates already flocking to Iowa, ABC will have an interview with Donald Trump, the real estate mogul who weighed a run in 2012.

In a news conference Friday, Mr. Obama announced plans for increased transparency in the government’s surveillance efforts. Representative Mike McCaul of Texas, the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, joins NBC’s “Meet the Press” to talk about this and other security concerns.

Also on the program will be Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, discussing sexual assault in the military.

Michael V. Hayden, former head of the N.S.A. and the Central Intelligence Agency, will talk about the week’s news on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York and a member of the House Intelligence Committee, and Representative C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, ranking Democrat on that committee, will also weigh in on the president’s N.S.A. proposal.

Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona and a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, talks about Russia on “Fox News Sunday.” Chip Saltsman, a Republican strategist, and Joe Trippi, a Democratic strategist, join the program to talk about whether the 2016 race has already begun.

Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, will appear on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday to talk about the questions members of Congress are facing in their districts about implementation of the president’s health care law. Also, Representative James E. Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat who supported a House proposal to defund the N.S.A.’s surveillance program, will talk about Mr. Obama’s proposal to improve transparency.

Representative Dana Rohrabacher, Republican of California, weighs in on the decision by Russia to grant Mr. Snowden asylum, appearing on C-Span’s “Newsmakers.”

Lulú Martínez and María Peniche, two of the nine Mexican immigrants who provoked a debate about immigration by trying to enter the United States without valid documents last month, will be on Univision’s “Al Punto,” which airs at 10 a.m. Eastern.

Jerry Howard, chief executive of the National Association of Homebuilders, and Mark A. Calabria, director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute, will appear on Bloomberg’s “Capitol Gains” to debate the government’s role in housing. Also on the program, which airs at noon Eastern, will be Alex Stamos, chief technology officer at Artemis Internet Inc. Mr. Stamos will discuss the dilemma among hackers over working with the intelligence community in the wake of the case of Mr. Snowden.

Dimitri K. Simes, president of the Center for the National Interest, appeared on Bloomberg’s “Political Capital” on Friday to talk about Russian-American relations. Repeats of the program air throughout the weekend.

Q&A: Using ‘Do Not Track\' Options

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Gadgetwise: Candy-Colored Headphones From Monster

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Gadgetwise: A Waterproof Cover for the Samsung Galaxy S III

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Gadgetwise: A Travel Organizer for Families and Frequent Fliers

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Gadgetwise: Getting the Right Light, Even Indoors Looking Out

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An Ardent Video Gamer Recalls How He Got Hooked

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App Smart: Apps to Send Smartphone Files Into the Cloud

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

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Pogue\'s Posts Blog: A New and Improved Nexus 7

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Bits: Happy Birth Data! A New App Tracks Fertility

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‘Like\' This Article Online? Your Friends Will Probably Approve, Too, Scientists Say

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Patent Case Has Potential to Give Apple the Upper Hand

Over the last couple of years, Apple and its competitors have fought so many patent cases against one another in so many courts that keeping score has nearly become a fool's errand.

Apple's iPhone 4.

The Samsung Galaxy S4. The International Trade Commission is expected to rule on Friday whether Samsung violated a handful of Apple patents.

But if a final ruling in a case against Samsung goes Apple's way on Friday, Apple would clearly hold the momentum in the patent disputes engulfing the mobile market.

The federal International Trade Commission is expected to say on Friday whether it will uphold a preliminary finding that Samsung mobile products violated a handful of Apple patents. A decision against Samsung by the commission could result in an import ban on some of the company's mobile devices.

A decision for Apple would be its second major legal win against Samsung in less than a week. On Saturday, the Obama administration vetoed the federal commission's ban on Apple mobile products in a separate case brought by Samsung.

That rare move - the first time for such a veto since 1987 - was a major victory for Apple and other companies that had argued that disputes over a class of patents known as standards-essential patents should not lead to import bans by the trade commission.

Carolina Milanesi, a Gartner analyst, said that if Apple were to score a second victory with the International Trade Commission this week, the company would climb to a significant position of power in patent feuds - not just against Samsung, but against other companies as well.

“Apple can use that as a warning and say, ‘Look, if it hasn't worked with Samsung, why would it work with you?' ” she said. “It's not real power. It's more like a mind game.”

The patent disputes have led to a possible political skirmish between the United States and South Korea, where Samsung is a celebrated hometown legend. The decision on Saturday vexed the South Korean government, which issued a statement expressing concern that the ruling may have violated Samsung's patent rights. The government pledged to watch the commission's ruling on Friday in the separate case for fairness.

Essential patents, like those at the center of the dispute in Saturday's veto, cover basic technologies that companies have to support in their products to comply with industry standards. In the case between Apple and Samsung, the standard involved wireless communications. The Obama administration said it overruled the decision on Saturday partly because it feared essential patents, which holders agree to license on reasonable terms, were being used in ways that could hurt competition and consumers. Apple and Samsung disagreed on whether Samsung was offering to license it essential patents on reasonable terms.

The decision on Friday is not over essential patents. But if the commission hands Apple another victory, Robert P. Merges, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said the Obama administration could again overrule any import ban the commission puts in place, as part of a strategy to diminish the power of patent litigation as an industry weapon.

“I think there are a lot of political implications,” he said, referring to the possible reaction by other governments. “You'll have the obvious favoring-the-home-team problem. But I would be shocked if they didn't think this through carefully.”

Kristin Huguet, an Apple spokeswoman, declined to comment on the case before the commission's decision. David Steel, an executive vice president for Samsung, declined to comment.

Already, Apple has scored the biggest legal victory by far, by winning against Samsung in a federal court last year. In that case, a jury awarded Apple $1 billion in damages for violations of mobile patents related to the iPhone and iPad. That award was later reduced to $599 million by a judge, though the figure could go back up as the case drags on in court.

Although the case was a decisive win for Apple, the judge overseeing it denied a request by Apple for a permanent injunction against the sale of some Samsung mobile products. A Federal Appeals Court is expected to hear arguments on Friday from Apple about why such an injunction should be granted.

In another positive development for Apple, a Federal Appeals Court sent a patent case that Apple brought against Motorola Mobility, which is owned by Google, back to the trade commission this week. The ruling gives Apple another shot at winning an important ban on Motorola mobile products after the commission dismissed Apple's complaint.

Apple has long argued that companies making smartphones based on Google's operating system, especially Samsung, are copycats that have swiped many of the technical innovations that, at one point, gave the iPhone and iPad a huge edge.

But the wheels of justice grind along slowly, and as Apple's suits have snaked their way through the courts in the last several years, the popularity of Android phones has continued to grow, swallowing much of the mobile market. In the second quarter of the year, Android phones accounted for almost 80 percent of global smartphone shipments, up from just under 70 percent the year before, according to IDC, the research firm.

The iPhone accounted for 13.2 percent of smartphone shipments in that same period, while Samsung's share was 30.4 percent, IDC estimated.

It is unclear whether a series of legal setbacks would be more than a speed bump for Samsung, now the world's largest mobile phone maker. Samsung has argued that it can modify the software in its phones so they steer clear of Apple's patents, which could allow it to dodge sales bans.

Still, if the tide of legal battles begins to shift decisively in Apple's favor, the company could extract a juicy financial settlement from Samsung and put the distraction of fighting its biggest rival behind it.

A version of this article appeared in print on August 9, 2013, on page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: Patent Case Has Potential To Give Apple Upper Hand.

Bits: YouTube\'s Founders Challenge Vine and Instagram With New Video App

After months of teasing, the wait is over: Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, who brought us the video-sharing site YouTube, are taking the wraps off their newest project, a video creation app called MixBit.

Versions for Apple mobile devices and the Web will be going live on Thursday, and an Android version is due in several weeks.

On the surface, MixBit resembles two other leading video apps, Twitter's Vine and Facebook's Instagram. As with those apps, users press and hold the screen of their smartphone to record video. Instagram users can capture up to 15 seconds of video, a bit longer than Vine's six-second maximum. MixBit allows 16 seconds.

But as the name suggests, MixBit is all about mixing and editing video. Both the app and a related Web site, MixBit.com, are aimed at making it easy to clip and stitch together snippets of video. Simple tools built into the app allow users to edit each 16-second clip and combine up to 256 clips into an hourlong video. The final product can then be shared on Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus or the MixBit Web site.

Think of it as “shoot, mix, share.” You don't even have to do the shooting - the MixBit site allows anyone to snip and remix any publicly shared video content.

In fact, Mr. Hurley said, encouraging users to remix other people's videos to create new works is the principal goal of the service, which is the first big product to emerge from Avos Systems, the start-up he co-founded with Mr. Chen two years ago. (The company has received funding from the venture arm of Google, which bought YouTube, as well as from Innovation Works, Madrone Capital and New Enterprise Associates.)

“The whole purpose of MixBit is to reuse the content within the system,” Mr. Hurley said in an interview. “I really want to focus on great stories that people can tell.”

The ability to create those more complex video stories could give MixBit an edge, at least momentarily, over Vine and Instagram, which are growing rapidly. Vine has no editing tools and Instagram introduced rudimentary ones on Wednesday.

In a recent interview, Laura Krajecki, chief consumer officer of the advertising company Starcom MediaVest Group, said that neither Twitter nor Vine were quite fulfilling the desire of young consumers around the world to play around with video, mixing and mashing their own work with that of others.

“Create an app that lets people edit it, and that's where people are going to go,” she said, speaking generally of the market opportunity and not about MixBit in particular.

But one crucial decision by Avos is likely to hold it back: the app is totally anonymous and communal. Users cannot post their videos under a name, and they cannot comment on each other's work.

A video produced using MixBit.

Showing off is a big part of modern Internet culture. The competition to create popular videos helped build YouTube into the powerful force that it now is, and it propels social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

“Everyone wants to be recognized,” Mr. Hurley acknowledged. He said MixBit would add identity features at some point.

But for now, it's all about sharing, commune-style.

“We wanted to do that to first build a community within MixBit,” he said. “To see how that unfolds will be pretty interesting.”

Q&A: Locating a Missing Amazon Order

Locating a Missing Amazon Order

Q. How do I check on an order I placed with one of Amazon's independent sellers if I didn't get a shipping e-mail or tracking number?

A. You can check the status of any order placed through Amazon - even if it was with a third-party seller - in your account settings. To do so, go to Amazon.com, log in and click the Your Account link at the top of the page. Select “Your Orders” from the menu.

Your Amazon orders will be listed, starting with the most recent purchases, including those from independent sellers. Next to the order description are buttons for things like tracking information, product returns, reviews and seller feedback. There should be a button labeled Contact Seller if no tracking information for was provided.

Click the Contact Seller button to create and send a message to the person or company through Amazon's Buyer-Seller messaging service.

If you are not satisfied with the response (or do not get one), you can file a claim with Amazon, which guarantees your order if it is not delivered - or arrives damaged or defective. Amazon has more information on third-party sellers on a customer help page.

Leaving a Facebook Group Conversation

Q. Is there a way to turn off a multiperson message on Facebook if I don't want to participate anymore?

A. Facebook allows group conversations among two or more members, which can be useful for planning events and gatherings. If you do not wish to be included or receive notifications about a particular group message, you can unsubscribe from it. The other participants will be notified that you have left the conversation, however, so you cannot really sneak out.

To be on your way, log into Facebook, click the Messages icon at the top of the page and select the conversation you wish to leave. Click the Actions menu at the top and select Leave Conversation.

The same Actions menu also includes a Mute Conversation command. If you do not want to leave the conversation - but would prefer not to get a notification every time someone posts a new message - choose the mute option.

Tool Kit: Leica Cameras Have Eye-Popping Prices, With Photos to Match

Leica Cameras Have Eye-Popping Prices, With Photos to Match

Nick Bilton/The New York Times

A 30-second exposure of a train entering a tunnel in San Francisco, taken with assistance from Aaron Durand, a photographer and Twitter employee. A complete Leica setup, including a camera and lenses, can cost as much as $20,000.

Today's smartphones can take pretty crisp pictures, so buying a regular camera might sound like a waste of money. Now imagine buying a fully manual Leica digital camera that, with a body and lens, can cost as much as $20,000.

Ridiculous? Perhaps. But the hard-core photographers who own a Leica swear by its craftsmanship, lens quality and lack of bells and whistles even as they acknowledge that their beloved camera gear is, well, not for everyone.

The question is whether your love of photography - and perhaps your skill - runs deep enough to justify dropping enough money to buy a car, on a camera.

“For most people, the Leica is absolutely the wrong camera. But if you're really, really dedicated to the craft, then the pictures it can take are beautiful,” said Christopher Michel, a photographer and investor with Nautilus Ventures.

Leica, based in Germany, released its first high-end digital camera in 2006, the M8, but the company has been in the camera business for almost a century. In the 1950s, Leica rose to fame when it introduced the M-System camera.

Although it had a rough start crossing into digital, Leica now sells almost a dozen varieties of digital cameras, including some point-and-shoots. But the most coveted models are still in M-System series, with the range finder body that was introduced in 1932.

Unlike D.S.L.R. (digital single-lens reflex) cameras, in which a photo subject is viewed through a mirror, range finders offer crisper images because the lens is closer to the sensor of the camera. The shutter on a range finder is also incredibly still and quiet - unlike the D.S.L.R., in which the mirror flips up and down at the moment a photo is snapped - so little vibration is added to a photo when the shutter is pressed.

Still, focusing with a Leica range finder is not as easy as just snapping a picture with your iPhone.

First, the camera focus is completely manual. A Leica viewfinder shows two versions of the scene before you. The trick is to line up the images and make them overlap over the area to be in focus.

Leica offers several digital camera bodies. The Leica M-E is the lowest-priced model of the M-System. The bare-bones M-E body costs $5,450. It has an 18-megapixel sensor and can shoot at an ISO of 160 to 2,500 (the ISO number measures the sensitivity to light). Photos taken during the day will be flawlessly clear, while in very low light the images will deteriorate and become grainy without a flash.

The latest high-end camera from the company, the Leica M, was announced late last year and costs $6,950. It features a newly designed 24-megapixel CMOS sensor (CMOS stands for complementary metal-oxide semiconductor), which makes it possible for the camera to shoot in lower-light situations while keeping a crisp image. The Leica M is the only M-System camera that can shoot video.

Leica also offers the Leica M Monochrom, an 18-megapixel camera that can shoot only black and white. Some people might ask why anyone would buy a camera that cannot even take a color picture, but Leica has poured years of research and development into optimizing the sensor on this camera for the subtlety of black-and-white photography.

The results from the Leica M Monochrom are astounding. Pictures have the tonality and contrast that make them look as if they were shot with real black-and-white film. The M Monochrom can also shoot at an ISO up to 10,000, which allows pictures to be taken in extremely low light.

Keep in mind that once you buy a Leica camera body, it still needs a lens. But this, professional photographers say, is where Leica excels.

“Leica makes a lens the way it should be made, with metal and glass, while everyone else is making plastic lenses that are meant to be thrown away in a couple of years,” said Ken Rockwell, a photographer and expert on cameras and lenses. “The Leica lenses are so special because they are smaller, faster and sharper.”

Mr. Rockwell notes that Leica's lenses, which are still assembled by hand in Germany, do not have the added features of modern D.S.L.R.'s, like motors, and that the company uses the highest-grade glass available.

“The Leica glass,” Mr. Michel said, “adds that special ethereal quality to the image that no D.S.L.R. can match.”

I have tested almost all of the company's cameras and lenses. The control I have with a manual Leica makes me realize that today's abundance of buttons and features on most cameras often makes people take poorer pictures.

Leica's lenses can vary in price from $1,650 for the Leica 50mm f/2.5 Summarit-M, to the Leica 50mm f/0.95 Noctilux-M, which costs $10,950. Once you have recovered from seeing the price of the Noctilux-M, keep in mind it is considered one of the best low-light lenses in the world and has such a wide aperture it can shoot almost in darkness.

The company names all of its lenses based on the amount of light a lens can let in through the aperture; these include the Summilux, Summicron, Summarit and Noctilux.

If you have been doing the math, you might have noticed that the best Leica setup will cost almost $20,000. My personal Leica setup is half that. I own a used Leica M9-P with a Leica 50mm f1.4 Summilux lens, which cost almost $10,000, and although the price might make you choke on your morning coffee, I would give up my iPhone before I'd part with my Leica.

This was true decades ago and is still true today. Henri Cartier-Bresson, considered by many to be the father of photojournalism, said in his biography, “The Mind's Eye,” that when he discovered the Leica camera in the beginning of his career, “It became the extension of my eye, and I have never been separated from it since I found it.”

But be forewarned: Although Leicas are tough and rugged, if your camera does break, be prepared to wait a couple of months for it to be fixed, because the company's repair facilities are only in Germany. If you do buy a Leica, it will also take a long time to become completely used to the range finder and manual setup. Leicas are in such high demand that there is a three-month wait to purchase several of the latest models.

“Don't think that if you buy a Leica you're going to be taking the same photos as the world's best photojournalists,” Mr. Rockwell said. “The camera doesn't take good pictures; the person holding it does.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: August 8, 2013

An earlier version of the this article misstated when Leica first released a camera with its range finder body. It was in 1932, not in the 1950s, which is when the company introduced its M-System cameras. (The M-System cameras have the range finder body.)

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: August 9, 2013

The earlier version of an introduction to a slide show with this article incompletely described the cameras used to take the photographs. The Leicas used to take the pictures were digital models, not film cameras.

A version of this article appeared in print on August 8, 2013, on page B7 of the New York edition with the headline: Eye-Popping Prices, With Photos to Match.