Hasta La Gadget!

Today Sonos announced the release of a new beta update for its Android app. The update brings simpler room control and promises to provide faster access to users’ music. Sonos has released the new app in beta today for Android only. It builds up on all of the improvements that Sonos made with its new app that was launched last spring.

The app now has a more accessible rooms menu which makes it easier to move music around the house, it can be accessed by tapping the top of any screen in the app. Sonos tablet app gets new dedicated screens for what’s playing and music discovery which makes switching between screens more intuitive.

Users now now swipe down from the now playing screen to go back to music when on a smartphone. Swiping left to right will reveal all music sources. Under the now playing screen there’s a track progression bar for scrubbing through tracks.

Sonos users can download the new beta app on any Android mobile device, that includes both smartphones and tablets, today. The full release will be available “in the coming months,” an update will also be pushed out for the iPhone and iPad app around the same time, the beta is only available for Android.

Sonos Android Beta Simplifies Control And Offers Faster Access To Music , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

There’s a planet out there in the universe that has rings of matter surrounding it so large, they eclipse its nearby sun. This is J1407b, near the star J1407. The image you see here comes from Ron Miller of the University of Rochester, and it shows the planet and its rings as they would have appeared in early 2007. The … Continue reading

WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told GOP members on Tuesday in a closed-door meeting that the body could take legal action against President Barack Obama over his deportation relief policies.

“We are finalizing a plan to authorize litigation on this issue — one we believe gives us the best chance of success,” Boehner said, according to an email from a source in the room. National Journal first reported the news.

The source said the plan would take the form of a resolution that would allow the House to file its own lawsuit, join a suit from 26 states or take other legal action. The House would continue to work on legislative efforts to combat the president’s executive actions, the source said.

The House voted earlier this month to fund the Department of Homeland Security — a must-do by the end of February to avoid an agency shutdown — along with measures to block the president’s executive actions on immigration. The largest components of those actions are deportation relief programs: one that would grant temporary work authorization and the ability to stay in the country to undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. years ago as children, and another that would do the same for parents of Americans and legal permanent residents.

Senate GOP leaders have said the House Republicans’ bill will get a vote in the upper chamber, but the timing is unclear, and it is highly unlikely the legislation will pass since it would require Democratic support to get the 60 votes needed.

When asked Tuesday what the House would do if the Senate can’t pass its DHS bill, Boehner gave no details.

“There’s no reason for me to speculate about what we will or won’t do,” he said in a press conference after meeting with House GOP members. “At this point, it’s up to the Senate to act, and I expect that they will soon.”

A lawsuit could provide a solution to the problem. Should the House file a suit on its own or join a state-led lawsuit, the chamber could show it is doing something to combat the president’s actions and then fund DHS without those measures — although it’s unclear whether hard-line conservatives would go for that strategy.

The 26 states suing the president over immigration executive actions, led by Texas, contend that the president overstepped his authority. The White House and its defenders — including 12 states and a number of mayors — say he acted within his powers to allow immigration agents to focus on deporting recent border-crossers, convicted criminals and national security threats.

The House sued the president in November over changes to his health care law, Obamacare.

I’m a creature of habit. As much as I love adventure, I take comfort in the little routines of motherhood, carefully evolved over years of practice. Those small moments help center me, help me to feel at peace — knowing my babies are right where they’re supposed to be every night and morning. They are the ordinary moments of motherhood that bring me unimaginable joy.

Since August, my routines have been turned topsy-turvy. Pre-dawn tiptoeing down the hall, quietly nudging open bedroom doors, I find only one bed occupied. The other remains as it was last night, and the night before, and the night before that, white duvet pulled tautly against the black bedframe. White carpet screams vacancy at me in absence of dirty laundry, skis and textbooks. She’s not here.

When I dropped my daughter off at college in August, life had thrown those ordinary moments in the air like debris after a tornado. A flooded kitchen and broken bones combined to transform a quiet July into absolute chaos. I mourned the changes happening around me, yet at the same time, I couldn’t think about them for more than a moment. Life was just that tumultuous. Unpredictable. The “new normal” was unfolding in front of me, and although I knew it was coming, I felt unprepared. Vulnerable.

As moments spun into days, I wound up at her college convocation — alone. This was it, the last official event before I would drive the 600 miles back to reality — alone. It was a celebration of great importance in her life. It was the moment I’d been preparing for and denying for 18 years, and there was no stopping it. Time was in motion. This was really happening.

Bagpipers brusquely proclaimed the arrival of 500 new freshman, kids ready to launch their dreams and move to the next phase of their lives. To find the extraordinary in life. To celebrate their transition to a life on their own.

Life wasn’t exactly going according to plan. I wasn’t supposed to have to battle this moment on my own. I felt my body lighten as she walked down the aisle in her tie-dye T shirt, smiling yet just a touch apprehensive. She’s California, I thought. The only one in the room.

I sat in the bleachers, fighting the tears and watching my little girl’s childhood flash before my eyes, and began to listen to Dr. Richard Badenhausen, head of the Honors College, read William Martin, The Parent’s Tao Te Ching: Ancient Advice for Modern Parents. In that moment, my heart lifted just enough to catch a glimpse of clarity- just enough to cement me in the present:

Do not ask your children to strive for extraordinary lives.
Such striving may seem admirable, but it is the way of foolishness.
Help them instead to find the wonder and the marvel of an ordinary life.
Show them the joy of tasting tomatoes, apples and pears.
Show them how to cry when pets and people die.
Show them the infinite pleasure in the touch of a hand.
And make the ordinary come alive for them.
The extraordinary will take care of itself.

Have I done that? Is that the 2-year-old girl down there — the one who delighted in smearing peaches in her mouth, juice oozing down her chin? Is that the 5-year-old who grabbed my hand and pulled me to the jungle gym to proudly perform her latest trick? Did all the years of homework and studying and projects and sports and testing and applications prepare her for the ordinariness of life? She reached her goal, she’s attending the college of her choice — hopefully the one of her dreams, too. Is she ready to leave the moments of self-doubt, of wondering if her transcript is strong enough or her athleticism amazing enough to have a college want her? Is she ready to stop worrying about being extraordinary and just enjoy being… ordinary?

“The path to success travels through the ordinary. Life is transformative through the lens of time,” the speaker continued. He’s speaking my language. Have I not spent the last 18 years peering into this day? Have I not known that each moment we spent together would help guide her down this path? Why are these words causing me to weep?

“Listen when others speak,” he advised. “Have conversations with professors. Write second drafts of essays. Ask for help — perfection is an unattractive quality.” Grit, I thought. Digging deep – that attribute we hope our children develop over years of testing and writing and competing. What she learned on the ski hill. What I hope she left home with. What I know will see her through. What I hope she’s listening to at this very moment.

“Focus on the ordinary,” he continues. My attention is rapt-is hers? “Build a foundation that will steady you. Have awareness of yourself and your place in the world. Focus on the ordinary. The extraordinary will take care of itself.”

He ends his speech and the crowd applauds. Bagpipers chant and drone their way down the center of the room, the freshmen following behind. She’s one of the last out – I can spot her green and yellow tie dye from the bleachers. I recognize that look on her face – the one where she knows she’s done well and that I’m watching.

Aware of her place in the world — yes she is. Her foundation is rock solid.

She’s ready.

She’s extraordinary.

She can take care of herself.

Yale University has responded to an incident in which a campus police officer held a black male student at gunpoint after thinking the student matched the description of a burglary suspect.

The student is the son of New York Times columnist Charles Blow. After tweeting that he was “fuming” over the incident, Blow wrote an article about his son’s encounter with the officer, explaining the student was leaving the library Saturday evening when the officer began following him. The officer ultimately raised his gun and told him to get on the ground, he wrote. He said his son was then asked his name and to produce his student ID.

He mentions that he took particular issue with how his son was stopped: “Why was a gun drawn first?”

“I am reminded of what I have always known, but what some would choose to deny: that there is no way to work your way out — earn your way out — of this sort of crisis. In these moments, what you’ve done matters less than how you look,” Blow wrote. “There is no amount of respectability that can bend a gun’s barrel. All of our boys are bound together.”

Blow also tweeted “#ICantBreathe” and “#BlackLivesMatter,” hashtags associated with the protests overs the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, who were killed by police officers last year.

This is exactly why I have NO PATIENCE for ppl trying to convince me that the fear these young blk men feel isn’t real #RacialBattleFatigue

— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) January 25, 2015

On Monday, Yale University sent an email backing the Yale Police Department, but saying an investigation will be conducted into the fact that the officer drew his gun. The school also noted the “actual suspect was found and arrested a short distance away.”

Let us be clear: we have great faith in the Yale Police Department and admire the professionalism that its officers display on a daily basis to keep our campus safe. What happened on Cross Campus on Saturday is not a replay of what happened in Ferguson; Staten Island; Cleveland; or so many other places in our time and over time in the United States. The officer, who himself is African American, was responding to a specific description relayed by individuals who had reported a crime in progress. Even though the officer’s decision to stop and detain the student may have been reasonable, the fact that he drew his weapon during the stop requires a careful review.

According to the Yale Daily News, there have been a string of thefts on campus. Students have reported laptops, a wallet, an iPad and a checkbook missing. An intruder had also been reported to police.

On Monday, Blow told CNN his son is feeling better and is back in class. He also expressed empathy for others who have been in similar situations.

“He realizes that there are other young people who have fewer privileges, less access and endure even greater traumas, but whose stories go unreported until something truly tragic happens,” he said. “He wants the focus to remain on them. I couldn’t be prouder of him for having the wisdom to recognize that.”