President Obama Cancels Congressional Picnic

He wooed Senate Republicans on a budget deal, tried to sweet-talk lawmakers from both parties to back him on a military strike against Syria, and is now hoping to reach an agreement that would keep the government from shutting down or defaulting on its debt.

But when it comes to Congressional outreach, President Obama will only go so far.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill received a blast e-mail on Wednesday evening that was curt and blunt:

Good evening,

The 2013 Congressional Picnic has been cancelled. The president and Mrs. Obama look forward to welcoming members of Congress and their immediate families at the Congressional Holiday Ball in December. More details regarding the Congressional Holiday Ball will follow at a later date.

Thank you,
White House Office of Legislative Affairs

The Congressional picnic, which had been scheduled for a week from Wednesday, is a lavish affair, with glad-handing and backslapping accompanied by live music. It is a moment when even the Louie Gohmerts of the world can put down their swords and fraternize with the enemy.

Not this year. In June, the picnic was postponed because of scheduling conflicts. This time, it was canceled because White House officials thought Congress would be consumed in the fight over a resolution authorizing military force in Syria.

One perk is still on offer: Members of Congress will be able to bring family members to the holiday party, which is usually open to lawmakers only.

Representative Justin Amash, Republican of Michigan and a thorn in the president’s side on national security issues, took to his well-used social media accounts to make a dig at the White House. “Congress cancels his war,” he wrote on Twitter. “He cancels our BBQ.”

State of the Art: A Good Office Chair, Not So Different From Others

A Good Office Chair, Not So Different From Others

90 Seconds With Pogue: Steelcase Gesture: The Times's David Pogue tests out Steelcase's Gesture, a chair that adapts to multiple positions.

The first time I had to buy a mattress, I remember being shocked at how much it cost. “Ah, but just remember,” the sales representative told me, “you’re going to spend a third of your life on it. Isn’t it worth investing in something you’ll use for a third of your life?”

When you think of it that way, maybe it’s not quite so crazy to spend $1,000 on a desk chair. You sit in that thing eight hours a day, too.

Actually, the term “desk chair” may be obsolete. That, anyway, is the conclusion that Steelcase has reached after conducting what it says was a study of 2,000 people in 11 countries â€" and how they sit. (The people, not the countries.)

Steelcase says people don’t just sit upright in their chairs anymore. In this age of phones, tablets and laptops, people slouch and lean back and curl up in all kinds of new ways.

Nine new ways, in fact, to which the company has given names like the Cocoon (reclining, feet on the seat, legs drawn in), the Take It In (slumped way back, arms relaxed while you watch a video) and the Strunch (a stretched hunch from chair edge to table, laptop pushed far away from you, chin propped up with nondominant hand).

According to Steelcase, if you don’t have the right chair, each of these new postures can lead to fatigue, pain and injury. For example, hunching forward to see your laptop “leads to disc compression, excess pressure on the neck and strain on the back and shoulders.” If your chair’s arms don’t support yours when you’re using the mouse for a long time, you can get “unnatural twisting of the wrists, hands, elbows and shoulders.”

And it’s important to move around, to shift, to avoid hours in the same position. Otherwise, you might “decrease blood flow in the legs.”

The fruit of all of this research, study and philosophizing is the new Steelcase Gesture chair, available later this fall for $980 and up (depending on whether you opt for leather, vinyl, cloth and so on). It’s supposed to be the ultimate work chair â€" “a new sitting experience,” the company asserts.

It certainly is comfortable. Both the seat and the back are deeply padded and expansive; you could even, if you wanted, sit with your legs tucked under you, or partly so. The arms are connected to the chair behind you, so they don’t block your thigh should you decide to swing it over the side.

And it certainly is adjustable. Like most office chairs, you can make this one taller or shorter when you press a lever on the chair’s stem. The chair spins easily and rolls extremely easily on its five ball-bearing feet, which, as my 8-year-old can attest, is loads of fun.

The back can recline very far â€" farther than any other Steelcase chair â€" without risk of toppling backward, which is never a good way to score points in the office. You can adjust the tension on the spring, too, so that it goes back and forward more or less easily. You can lock the back into one of five angles with the flip of a lever. All the controls are on the right side, below seat level.

By turning a knob, you can move the seat forward or backward relative to the back, to accommodate the longer or shorter of limb.

The armrests are miracles of mobility. By squeezing a lever under each one, you can move them fluidly and independently up or down, inward or outward. And in any of these positions, you can rotate the armrests.

The designers also put a lot of thought into where to end the chair’s various pieces. For example, the arms are short enough that they don’t get in the way when you want to pull up close to the table or desk. And the back doesn’t extend past your torso. It doesn’t block or restrict you when you turn to around to yell, “Hey, Frank! Do we have any C-120s in stock?”

Finally, a shout-out to whoever had the idea of wrapping the padding all the way around all four sides of the seat’s edges. Suppose, for example, that you wanted to assume a position that’s not among the Steelcase Nine. That’s entirely possible, thanks to this all-the-way-around padding; you can hang a limb over any of the seat’s edges without worrying about getting gangrene.

(Don’t try that with the famous Herman Miller Aeron chair. Its sharp, rigid seat edges could lop your leg right off.)

And, so, yes: This is a wonderful chair. It’s supremely comfortable, impressively adjustable, exceptionally supportive.

And yes, it’s also true that we work in weird new positions these days.

What’s not so clear is Steelcase’s claim that these two statements are connected.

House G.O.P. Delays Vote on Stopgap Budget Measure

Facing another revolt by the House’s most ardent conservatives, Republican leaders scrapped a vote this week on legislation that would keep the federal government financed through mid-December while ending financing for President Obama’s health care law.

The leaders say they will bring the measure up next week, but with just a handful of legislative days left until a government shutdown, Republicans are in a squeeze. Democrats are uniting in opposition to the bill, not only because of the resolution to starve the Affordable Care Act, but also because the level of financing for the government would reflect the across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration.

For their part, dozens of House conservatives have pledged never to vote for financing legislation that does not kill off the health care law â€" and they say the structure of the House legislation is a sleight of hand that would not impair the law at all.

In a sense, they are right. Under the complicated structure of the bill, lawmakers would be given a single vote to pass the short-term financing measure, with a separate resolution on the health care law. The health care resolution would then move to the Democrat-controlled Senate, where it would be voted down. After Senate action, the House would send over the financing bill with no attached policy prescriptions.

Some senior Republican aides say that as long as House Republicans remain united in opposition, they don’t see how the package can pass. But House leadership aides expressed confidence that the revolt could be cooled down by next week.

Michelle Obama Visits Wounded Veterans Family Center

Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press Michelle Obama, the first lady, exclaimed over children’s artwork during a visit to the U.S.O. Warrior and Family Center in Fort Belvoir, Va., on Wednesday.

FORT BELVOIR, Va. â€" Michelle Obama, in keeping with her continued focus on the families of wounded veterans, spent Wednesday afternoon at the new U.S.O. Warrior and Family Center here, visiting with the young children of veterans and touring the facility, which provides care for veterans with traumatic brain injuries and other disorders.

Dressed in a sleeveless turquoise shift dress and pink flats, Mrs. Obama slid quietly into a large recreation room where children were making banners and crafts from cut-out handprints.

“Do you realize you guys are heroes?” she said, before plopping down into a seat next to a 6-year-old girl named Abigale Starr to help her with some hand crafts. Mrs. Obama’s end of the conversation, the only audible part, went on, coffee klatch style, for several minutes: “Tell me more, tell me about life.” “What’s going on in Ohio?” “Oh, you saw a steamroller? Did you get steamrolled?” “Maybe you could come trick or treat at the White House. Really!” “Well, you know, some kids are more excitable than others.”

The first lady then took a tour of Intrepid Spirit One, a new center built with money from the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, and met with veterans and their family members in a private session.

The children also got a special treat: cookies made at the White House that featured the likeness of the first family’s new dog, Sunny.

Michelle Obama Visits Wounded Veterans Family Center

Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press Michelle Obama, the first lady, exclaimed over children’s artwork during a visit to the U.S.O. Warrior and Family Center in Fort Belvoir, Va., on Wednesday.

FORT BELVOIR, Va. â€" Michelle Obama, in keeping with her continued focus on the families of wounded veterans, spent Wednesday afternoon at the new U.S.O. Warrior and Family Center here, visiting with the young children of veterans and touring the facility, which provides care for veterans with traumatic brain injuries and other disorders.

Dressed in a sleeveless turquoise shift dress and pink flats, Mrs. Obama slid quietly into a large recreation room where children were making banners and crafts from cut-out handprints.

“Do you realize you guys are heroes?” she said, before plopping down into a seat next to a 6-year-old girl named Abigale Starr to help her with some hand crafts. Mrs. Obama’s end of the conversation, the only audible part, went on, coffee klatch style, for several minutes: “Tell me more, tell me about life.” “What’s going on in Ohio?” “Oh, you saw a steamroller? Did you get steamrolled?” “Maybe you could come trick or treat at the White House. Really!” “Well, you know, some kids are more excitable than others.”

The first lady then took a tour of Intrepid Spirit One, a new center built with money from the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, and met with veterans and their family members in a private session.

The children also got a special treat: cookies made at the White House that featured the likeness of the first family’s new dog, Sunny.

App Smart: Word Play on the Mobile Screen

Word Play on the Mobile Screen

Boggle is free on iOS and Android devices, but iOS users can pay $1 to play without ads.

Word puzzles are among the most successful games to make the leap from cardboard and wooden pieces atop the family dining table into apps on the glossy screens of tablets and smartphones. So popular is the Words With Friends app, for example, that an episode of “The Big Bang Theory” revolved around playing the game.

Letterpress, available only for Apple devices.

SpellTower, a $2 app for iOS and Android.

But it’s not just Words With Friends; hundreds of word game apps are available. Some are more traditional and some are possible only because of high-tech Internet trickery.

Of all the word games I’ve played on my phones and tablets, the one that I’ve been most instantly amused by is the app Letterpress, from the developer Atebits, available only for Apple devices. It’s a turn-by-turn, two-player game that is played over the Internet, something like a cross between Scrabble and the traditional Chinese board game Go.

You are presented with a five-by-five grid of letters, and when it’s your turn, you tap the letters to make a word. Each of your chosen letters earns a point, and the letters are then shaded in your color. The same happens when your opponent plays. But there’s a twist; you can “defend” letters by boxing them in with your colored tiles, so your opponent cannot use them to create his or her next word.

It’s easy to learn and swift to play. But you will quickly find yourself cursing that you didn’t spot the long word your opponent plays next, and you will try to think up obscure words just to protect letters. It’s entertaining, and the clean and simple graphics do not distract from the play.

To tax your word powers even more, you can have several games running at once. If you try this, you will probably find an hour goes by without your even noticing. This may be one of the few downsides, apart from the fact that it relies on having enough people playing for you to find opponents to play against quickly. Though Letterpress is free, an upgrade to play more than two games at once costs $2.

If a more traditional word game appeals to you, look no further than Boggle. In its old-fashioned form, Boggle was a tabletop game for groups of players, but on the smartphone it works as a play-and-pass game, and also as a solo game against the clock.

In the game 16 cubes are marked with a letter on each face, and are juggled into the slots on a four-by-four grid. A cute animation mimics the way the real-life cubes move. Then, against the clock, you have to find as many words of three or more letters as possible, zigzagging from one cube to the next. In the physical game you would write the words down, but in the app you tap on each letter in turn and double-tap on the last one to complete the word.

The app keeps track of time and your chosen words, so you may even prefer it to the tabletop game. But it also confirms if words are valid, and at the end of the game you may find it depressing that though you successfully spotted, say, 27 words, more than 150 could have been found. It’s free in ad-supported versions for Android and iOS; an iOS version without ads costs $1 on iTunes.

A totally different game â€" a bit like a word search crossed with Tetris â€" is SpellTower. At its core this game is simply about spotting words among a grid of random letters on the screen; when you select a word, by tapping or dragging, the letters disappear and the ones above drop down. Bonus tricks, like destroying surrounding letters when you find a word of five letters or more, add to the strategic aspect of playing this game. It has attractive graphics and just enough addictive gameplay to keep you coming back for more. It’s $2 for iOS and Android.

Dropwords is a similar free Android app. Puzzlejuice, $2 for iOS, is also similar to SpellTower but is more Tetris-like as puzzle pieces drop down the screen over time. But the fussy graphics in both Puzzlejuice and Dropwords may distract you. They are played against the clock, too, so don’t expect to relax while playing them.

For those rare people who have never played Words With Friends, it’s worth trying out, and it’s free for iOS and Android. Think of a game a bit like Scrabble, in which you score points by laying words on a grid, then add in online real-time play with people around the world.

If your conscience pinches you about wasting time, you can salve it with the thought that you are enriching and extending your vocabulary.

Quick Call

Skype has updated its free Windows Phone 8 app with the video messaging feature that has been available on iOS and Android editions for a while. Now you can record a short video message for a contact who is not available in real time on Skype.

Gadgetwise: An App to Add Artsy Blur to Photos

An App to Add Artsy Blur to Photos

Roy Furchgott for The New York Times

Tadaa 3-D lets users mimic dimension in images typically reserved for Digital Single-Lens Reflex cameras by highlighting parts they want to focus and applying blur and effects to the frame.

The Tadaa 3D app for Apple products adds an arresting effect to your photos, making a foreground object move around when you tilt your phone, like an old postcard with a plastic lenticular 3-D screen.

But the app, which costs $3.99, can be tricked into providing an even more useful photo effect â€" “bokeh,” a blurring of the background to draw the eye to the main subject â€" that is usually reserved for Digital Single-Lens Reflex cameras with a high-end lens.

Bokeh is used in many artful photos, especially in portraits. Generally you can’t get bokeh with a mobile phone or tablet camera because of limitations of the lens. Here is where the Tadaa 3D app comes in.

You start out as if you were making a Tadaa 3D photo, by using your finger to draw over the part of your photo you want in focus. You can be pretty sloppy about it if you leave “Detect Edge” on; the app will help you isolate your foreground. The parts to remain focused will turn green.

When you hit the apply button, everything not green will go blurry. You can then add filter effects, like making your picture black and white as you would with Instagram or other photo apps.

Now you have a photo with a blurry background and that appears to change perspective as you move your phone or tablet around. To see the 3-D effect you have to view your photo using the app, or on the Tadaa Web site. You can share the shot to Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr as well as to the Tadaa shared site and send a link to your picture on the site by e-mail.

I like the bokeh effect without the gimmicky 3-D part, but Tadaa offers no way to save a static version to your phone. You can cheat by taking a screen shot. Just tap on your finished Tadaa shot to make it full screen, then press the round “home” button on the face of your phone or tablet at the same time as the power button on the top. That takes a photo of what’s on the screen and puts it on your Camera Roll.

You may have to use the crop tool to trim off some border, but you end up with an eye-catching image with bokeh, no costly D.S.L.R. needed.

Gadgetwise: With CityVille Invasion, a Blend of Destruction and Construction

With CityVille Invasion, a Blend of Destruction and Construction

The Kre-o CityVille Invasion Skyscraper Mayhem construction set from Hasbro.

When Hasbro announced its partnership with Zynga last year, the companies had to figure out how to translate Zynga’s digital games into a physical form that Hasbro could stock on store shelves. It turns out that it made more sense to go the other direction.

This year, the companies decided to incorporate Hasbro’s brick construction line Kre-O into Zynga’s popular CityVille game. Where CityVille was all about building a town and establishing relationships, the new app, CityVille Invasion, introduces destruction and chaos to the popular series.

CityVille Invasion sets loose zombies, vampires, an oversize gorilla and the evil Dr. Mayhem, who is set on world domination, starting with your tiny digital town. Your citizens, known as Kreons, must build defenses and defeat Dr. Mayhem and his minions. The app, which is available for iOS and Android devices, is free, but it does include plenty of opportunities for in-app purchases.

But apps don’t fill store shelves for the holidays, so Hasbro decided to release physical toys inspired by the digital property. Kre-o CityVille Invasion construction kits, which range from $10 to $40, are available now at most major retailers and Hasbro’s e-commerce Web site.

The new kits introduce sonic motion technology to the world of brick-building with large bricks that induce movement in smaller bricks via sound waves. These smaller “motion bricks” have bristled bottoms that are designed to move across the surface of the play set.

When the motion bricks are attached to the feet of the Kreons, the sonic motion technology sets them moving in random directions, which is what I guess real people would do if zombies or a large gorilla were running amok. The technology is better applied to vehicles and buildings, like the rotors of the helicopter in the Skyscraper Mayhem set and the spinning beacon in the Police Station Zombie Defense set.

With CityVille Invasion, Hasbro and Zynga may have finally found a concept that works for both of them.

Apple Unveils Faster iPhone, and a Cheaper One, Too

Log in to manage your products and services from The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune.

Don't have an account yet?
Create an account »

Subscribed through iTunes and need an NYTimes.com account?
Learn more »

The Surprise in Apple’s Cheaper iPhone? In China, It’s Expensive

Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Apple's iPhone 5S, left, and 5C were on display at the company's California headquarters on Tuesday.

TOKYO â€" Apple’s new iPhones took a step closer Wednesday to being offered by the world’s biggest cellphone carrier, China Mobile, when the Chinese government approved the handset to run on the carrier’s next-generation network.

Rather than celebrating, though, the Chinese were raising their eyebrows over the cost of the new models -- especially one that had been billed as a cut-price iPhone.

While many analysts had expected Apple to price the iPhone 5C at about $400 in an effort to attract new customers in mainland China, where the company has been struggling, it will actually go for significantly more.

Apple said on its Web site that the iPhone 5C would start at 4,488 renminbi, or $733, without subsidies from mobile operators. That is not far below the price of the new flagship Apple iPhone 5S, which starts at 5,288 renminbi. Both phones were officially announced in California on Tuesday.

“If you look at the price, it’s clearly a high-end phone, not a low- or even midrange phone,” said Jenny Lai, an analyst at HSBC in Taipei, referring to the iPhone 5C.

The price is about 33 percent higher in China than the full, unsubsidized $549 cost in the United States. Chinese carriers don’t generally subsidize the handset price for consumers but they often discount their monthly bills. So the eventual cost to consumers has plenty of room to come down.

But given that Apple has been losing ground to lower-cost rivals in China, some of which make smartphones that sell for less than $100, will the 5C be able to turn around the company’s fortunes there?

After the announcement, the stock prices of several Apple suppliers fell sharply, including that of Pegatron, a company based in Taiwan that is the main assembler of the iPhone 5C. Analysts said sales might fall short of expectations in China unless Apple lowered prices.

“If they had been able to get down in the $350 to $400 range, we would have seen a big bump in the fourth quarter,” said Francis Sideco, an analyst at IHS, a research firm. “They’ll still get a bump, but this would have accelerated it.”

Investors may also have been disappointed by the absence of an agreement to sell the phones through China Mobile, the biggest network operator in China, and the world, with 745 million customers.

Although China Mobile has been the biggest iPhone holdout, expectations of a deal have been fueled by the fact that the new iPhones are compatible with a technology called TD-LTE, which is employed in the next-generation wireless network that China Mobile is building. But that network is not yet operating.

The Telecommunications Equipment and Certification Center, an arm of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, posted a notice on its Web site certifying that it has approved iPhones for use on TD-LTE networks, a necessary regulatory step.

With sales of phones from Chinese companies like Huawei, Lenovo, Xiaomi, Yulong Coolpad and ZTE growing rapidly, Apple’s share of the Chinese smartphone market fell to 5 percent in the second quarter, according to Canalys, a research firm.

Chinese phone buyers are especially price-sensitive because of the way the market is structured. Although carriers in the United States and Europe generally provide upfront subsidies, disguising the true cost of the phone, Chinese network operators typically sell phones at full cost and then, in some cases, provide discounts on monthly bills.

The lower-price iPhone 5C will cost more than twice as much as rival devices like the Xiaomi Mi3, which starts at $327.

“By any standards, it’s a premium price,” Mr. Sideco said. “When you really look at it, they didn’t make a cheaper phone. They made a more expensive phone so that they could call the other one a cheaper phone.”

The iPhone 5C comes in a plastic case, and its hardware is nearly identical to that of the iPhone 5. The iPhone 5S has an aluminum body, a faster processor and a fingerprint scanner, as well as other features.