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The center of the Milky Way galaxy with the black hole Sagittarius A* located in the middle.

(Credit: IR: NASA/STScI,X-ray: NASA/UMass/D.Wang et al.)

New images of Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A* (pronounced "Sagittarius A-star"), which is approximately 26,000 light-years from Earth, reveal that the black hole manages to suck up less than 1 percent of the gas within its reach. Instead, most of it is tossed back out into space before it's ever devoured.

"Contrary to what some people think, black holes do not actually devour everything that's pulled towards them," Feng Yuan of Shanghai Astronomical Observatory in China wrote in a study about the findings. "Sgr A* is apparently finding much of its food hard to swallow."

This answers a mystery that has been confounding astronomers for some time -- why some black holes appear to be surprisingly dim. Black holes form when massive stars die and the gravity is so strong that not even light can escape. The gravitational force of black holes can be measured by X-ray emissions, which indicate how much heat is generated.

"There's been a debate for the last 20 years or so about what actually is happening to the matter around the black hole," said research leader Q. Daniel Wang of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. "Whether the black hole is accreting the matter, or actually whether the matter can be ejected. This is the first direct evidence for outlflow in the accretion process."

The findings are the result of one of Chandra's longest observation campaigns ever. The spacecraft collected five weeks' worth of data on Sgr A* last year, during which time, researchers captured detailed X-ray images of super-heated gas swirling around the black hole.

(Credit: Declan McCullagh/CNET)

The NSA, spurred by Al Jazeera's close coverage of al-Qaeda, hacked into the media organization's internal communications system, according to documents from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden reportedly seen by Der Spiegel. The agency also allegedly hacked into the airline reservation services for Russian airline Aeroflot.

A document dated March 23, 2006 shows that the NSA was able to access and read Al Jazeera's communications with "notable success," Der Spiegel reported. The US agency was reportedly able to access and read the communications of "interesting targets" who were protected by Al Jazeera. It's not yet known whether employees or journalists at the news organization were spied on as well.

(Credit: Apple)

Apple has bigger designs on the biggest smartphone market in the world.

New iPhones could help Apple catch up with Samsung in China -- Samsung is now the single largest smartphone player in that market -- if two likely scenarios happen.

First, Apple announces a lower-cost iPhone, rumored to be the 5C. That would provide a better match for China's price-sensitive consumers.

Second, Apple cuts a deal with China Mobile, the biggest carrier in the largest smartphone market in the world.

Apple's growth in China has been stunted, in part, because it hasn't been able to strike a deal with China Mobile and its 740 million subscribers. (Apple lost market share in China last quarter.) Talks continue -- Apple CEO Tim Cook met with China Mobile Chairman Xi Guohua in July -- but nothing definitive has been announced.

Apple, however, could be in a better position this time to move forward with China Mobile. Reports out of Asia speculate that Apple's new phones will better support China Mobile's 3G/4G network standards.

UBS forecasts that Apple could sell 17 million iPhones through China Mobile next year, with the bulk of those expected to be the 5C. That's about 10 percent of UBS' projected total iPhone sales, according to the Financial Times.

And things may be looking up with Apple's current partners in China, China Telecom and China Unicom. A recent report from Ifanr -- citing an unnamed source -- claimed that the iPhone 5S and 5C have been certified by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and that China Telecom and China Unicom will release the two models in September, earlier than a previously reported November release date.

That's all just rumor, of course, but it may indicate that Apple will be faster at releasing new iPhones in China this time around.

While all of the above is potentially good news for Apple, Samsung shipped 72.4 million smartphones worldwide in the second quarter compared with Apple's 31.2 million global shipments, according to IDC.

A nontrivial chunk of those Samsung shipments happened in China, where the company is estimated to hold 19 percent of the market, about 10 percentage points more than Apple.

Apple's revenue in the most recent reported quarter fell 14 percent year over year in Greater China, which includes Taiwan and Hong Kong.

NSA chief General Keith Alexander takes prepared audience questions from Black Hat general manager Trey Ford at Black Hat 2013. The NSA's secret budget is part of the latest documents leaked by Edward Snowden to the Washington Post.

(Credit: Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

In 2011, US spy agencies carried out 231 offensive cyberattacks, primarily targeted at Iran, Russia, North Korea, and China, The Washington Post reported Friday.

The Post also revealed that under a $652 million project called "Genie," US agencies broke into foreign computer networks, placing "covert implants" on "tens of thousands of machines every year." What's more, US intelligence services intend to broaden those numbers into the millions.

One of the most high-profile examples of an offensive cyberoperation is Stuxnet, a sophisticated computer virus, believed to have been created by the US and Israel, that was used to attack a nuclear enrichment facility in Iran in 2010.

Somewhere, your life depends on boxes and cables.

(Credit: SoftLayer/YouTube Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

When all else fails, we always assume our favorite Web sites will be there.

We feel reassured that we'll have the comfort of sitting on our sofas, clutching our little iPads and communing with the same outside world that doesn't always like us in person.

Yet, for one reason or another, sites are going down. Sites are being attacked. Servers go down for reasons that don't always seem understandable.

Which means that Americans are beginning to realize that the fundaments of their lives are being assaulted and insulted.

I lean on my exclusive possession of new research that asked Americans whether outages were upsetting them and why.

You will end this post prostrate at the way respondents bared their souls. Did they declare that server outages were hurting them because this was a serious threat to their way of life?

In a way.

Fifty-two percent said that their biggest concern about server outages was that it would affect a time-sensitive commercial transaction.

Please imagine the pain if you've been waiting for that one moment when you can buy One Direction tickets and the ticket site gets attacked by miscreant Belarussian teenagers or the server is overloaded with, oh, people trying to buy One Direction tickets.

Some might never, ever get over it. The hospital and psychiatric systems of America would grind to inertia.

Still, perhaps this particular 52 percent are the 52 percent that have skewed principles.

Perhaps there is still a large section of the populace that has greater security concerns. Well, the next biggest worry when a server goes down belonged to the 35 percent of respondents who screamed: "WE CAN'T FACEBOOK!"

Well, they did add Twitter and other forms of social media as they screamed.

Life without these essences is like life without eyes and lungs. It is not life at all.

Because we're always skeptical about research here, might I reveal that this survey was performed on behalf of Linode.

This, quite coincidentally, is a cloud services company whose very purpose in life is to ensure that servers run more smoothly than Bentleys on a sunny day in the English countryside.

Somehow, though, the results do ring a bell of authenticity.

Indeed, the survey also examined human feelings about mobile apps. Humans are becoming aware that the more apps are used by other humans, the more they slow down and the more they crash.

Humans want apps now -- and just for me!

This last thought might, for many, sum up the state of the Web-connected mobile soul.

It's a soul that wants what it wants and it wants it now. Otherwise, it'll be very lonely indeed.

Apparently, Hot Wheels cars don't suffer from vertigo.

(Credit: Video screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET)

A blue Hot Wheels toy car sporting the number "01" went where no Hot Wheels has gone before. It got to take a dramatic plunge down what the toy car company is calling "the world's highest wall track."

The track was rigged up to go on the side of an apartment building. It's hard to tell exactly how high the track is, but it certainly looks like it could claim the record.

The impressive car drop took place during the BCN Fan Fest, an event devoted to Formula 1 racing, in Barcelona earlier this year, but the making-of video was just recently released.

The track builders put the contraption together on the ground and then hoisted it up the side of the building in large pieces that connected from on high all the way down to the ground. It's not just a straight-up-and-down track. The car had to ride over moving platforms and leap through space.

A little boy was given the honors of setting the first car on its way as onlookers followed the dramatic progress from below. Check out the video for all the action. You don't have to speak Spanish to enjoy the thrilling descent.

(Via Autoblog)

(Credit: Steve Guttenberg/CNET)

The "Spinal Tap" reference to the volume control that goes to "11" notwithstanding, there's a lot of confusion surrounding volume controls. There shouldn't be; the volume control setting has nothing to do with how loud an amp can play. Some folks mistakenly think that if you don't have to turn the knob up very far from the minimum setting to achieve high volume, that "proves" it's a powerful amp. No, not at all; the maximum volume level of any amp is determined not by how far you turn the knob, but by the amp or receiver's power output. The position of the volume control doesn't indicate the amount of watts driving the speaker; the only real concern is whether the amp can play loud enough to suit your needs, and it doesn't matter in the least whether the volume control is at 9 o'clock, 12 o'clock, or 3 o'clock.

Here's another volume control/output power myth: The lower position for a given volume control setting indicates that the amp is "coasting" to produce the required volume. No way, again. The amp has a maximum output level, the volume control's position isn't the limiting factor. Of course, the same logic applies to amps and receivers that don't have knobs, just numerical readouts, even if they go all the way up to "99."

Amplifier power is measured in watts, as in "100 watts per channel," but what does that really mean? Do all 100-watt-per-channel receivers actually deliver 100 watts? Unfortunately, most power ratings are meaningless; a 100-watt-per-channel home theater in a box, soundbar, receiver, or audiophile power amp will have wildly different power capabilities, but maximum power probably isn't all that important. Most folks never come close to using all the power, unless they regularly play their hi-fi or home theater really loud, or have an exceptionally large room (over 800 or 1,000 square feet). Some people say they rarely play music or movies loud, but it doesn't matter how often you want to rock out. It's like saying I usually drive at the speed limit, but if I'm in the mood I may want to hit 140 mph; if so, then you need a car that can go 140 mph. If you occasionally like to push the volume way up, buy the biggest receiver or amp you can afford.

A scene from move-in day at the University of Florida, a school that lets its thousand of incoming freshmen find a roommate on Facebook.

(Credit: Screenshot by Nick Statt/CNET)

In 2007, Facebook had been open to the public for less than a year, but a troublesome tendency -- now commonplace among nearly every college-age teenager in the country -- had already begun emerging: The moment incoming students received their roommate's name, they would type it into Facebook to learn all they could.

That singular action -- which often inspires overbearing parents and judgmental teens to flood housing offices with complaints -- led Robert Castellucci to co-found RoomSync, a pre-eminent roommate pairing service that operates right within Facebook.

"We looked at the landscape and we're like, 'Everyone's going onto Facebook to research their roommate after they're assigned," said Castellucci, acting CEO of the Gainesville, Fla.-based company. "So we said, 'Instead of fighting this trend,' -- which frankly housing offices are not crazy about -- 'let's incorporate Facebook into the process.'"

Robert Castellucci, CEO and co-founder of RoomSync, had the prescient idea that Facebook might one day become the official -- and unofficial -- roommate marketplace.

(Credit: RoomSync)

The service, which was founded in 2007 but only started working with its first client in 2009, hit a milestone of 50 schools in June, up from 20 two years ago. Among his customers: Northwestern University, University of California at Davis, and the University of Maryland.

Chalk up another example of technology shattering long-held practices. With teens living so much of their lives online, the idea of a surprise college roommate is becoming an antiquated notion, like waiting for a picture to be developed.

The change has been gradual, and tied inextricably to Facebook. As the social network moved from Mark Zuckerberg's Harvard dorm to colleges and then the rest of the world, universities started seeing a rise in roommate requests. Facebook, it seemed, encouraged it. You could connect with people, find common friends, see shared "Likes." And so some schools started easing restrictions and letting people choose who they live with.

Now, thanks to the ubiquitousness of the social network -- remember, Zuckerberg recently shot down the idea that teens aren't using Facebook -- the approach is becoming status quo for schools across the country.

"If you look at the national trend, the scales are starting to tip," said T.J. Logan, the associate director of housing at the University of Florida, a RoomSync customer.

A less risky alternative

When Alexis Yannarelly, an incoming freshman nursing student at Minnesota State University, settled into her dorm on August 22, she was already more than a month into a friendship with her new roommate Macy Johnson. She even knew her preferred frozen yogurt order after meeting up in person, Johnson having traveled from neighboring Wisconsin to do so.

"Some people did say that having a random roommate might be better," Yannarelly said. "Yes, it could be a really good thing -- you could end up being best friends. But you could end up with someone who's unbearable. I didn't want to take that chance."

The process was simple. The school e-mailed Yannarelly a link with an access code that let her log into Minnesota State's special housing portal on RoomSync, all within Facebook.

"We're starting to see a sentiment shift. Housing people are understanding that Facebook is not going away."

From there, Yannarelly filled out a simple questionnaire -- things like sleeping habits and cleanliness levels that you would find on a standard school survey -- and was then given algorithmic suggestions based on her answers and info gleaned from her Facebook profile. After that, RoomSync is hands off.

Incoming students, as if looking for a date, can search for people who share interests and majors. They strike a connection, exchange messages and, once both users confirm the match on the app, the housing officer receives it and makes it official.

(Credit: RoomSync)

Though this pretense for seeking out others online is quickly becoming a booming business for RoomSync, it's been years of waiting for Castellucci to see potential customers come calling.

"We're starting to see a sentiment shift. Housing people are getting it," he said. "They're understanding Facebook is not going away."

The success of self-selection

Because of how chaotic the traditional, random roommate pairing method has become in the Facebook era, some universities release room assignments on a Friday evening -- an attempt, at least, to give the housing department a weekend to prepare for the inevitable onslaught of phone calls and e-mails from nervous students and finicky parents.

Prior to 2010, University of Florida housing department did all room assignments this way -- by hand in a room of 20 people assigning more than 7,500 residents over a single weekend. At that point, incoming students were only asked their gender and if they smoke.

"We have come a long way since then," said Carolynn Komanski, the assistant director for Administrative Services at the University of Florida. That's why University of Florida turned to RoomSync.

Now, 87 percent of the approximately 4,500 freshmen who live on campus use RoomSync. Even better, UF's complaints -- which amounted to 670 the year before RoomSync's implementation -- dropped by 67 percent for the 2011-2012 academic year.

While it is important to note that UF's "conduct office also adopted a new conflict-resolution model around the same time," Komanski said, RoomSync has helped.

The random element of the traditional college experience

Not all schools are ready to let Facebook take over their process. After all, inspecting someone's Facebook profile is hardly enough information to get an accurate sense of who they really are.

That's precisely why Stanford University -- in a nice twist, considering it's at the epicenter of Silicon Valley -- still picks roommates by hand. In fact, the school doesn't let incoming freshman know who they'll be living with until the day they show up on campus to start school.

For some schools, self-selection is a no-brainer, no matter how safe it may be with respect to helping push students outside their comfort zones.

"I feel like the beauty about Stanford is that the Stanford roommate pairing system forces you to be with someone who you would not have met otherwise," said Elliot Williams, a junior at the California institution. Coming from upstate New York and fearing the roommate disaster stories, Williams was surprised to find that his Texan roommate was in fact "awesome," and they bonded over their eerily similar sense of humor, he said.

"To allow students to pick their roommates could be good in terms of comfort level, but not in terms of challenging students and breaking down walls between different groups, which is what higher education is supposed to do."

While the elite Stanford, with its modest incoming freshmen class size of 1,700, can afford to align its roommate pairing process with its diversity-driven mission, many other institutions aren't as lucky. For some, self-selection is a no-brainer, no matter how safe it may be with respect to helping push students outside their comfort zones.

So regardless of how you slice it, the ultimate winner here may just be Facebook. As more and more colleges see the approach of self-selection as an appealing way to deal with the headache of roommate pairing, the utility of the social network extends beyond a drama-filled reflection of high school and a social playground for share-happy adults.

Zuckerberg may have to spend more time than he'd like dispelling the rumor that teenagers are abandoning his site en masse -- but in 2013 it's looking like an increasingly important place for a college-bound teenager to spend time online, if only to avoid living the roommate horror story one is often told on move-in day.

For Major Gav, this is perfection.

Well no, that's not strictly true, but let's be honest: it's far more interesting to reminisce about past motors than to sift through the humdrum of modern motor cars in search of the occasional gem. They're out there, of course, but the fear of depreciation coupled with the fact that we're all skint means that looking back is far more appealing.

So this little corner of XCAR will focus on the obscure, the mundane, and the interesting from days gone by. But not your usual misty-eyed perspective on the '50s and '60s, but a concentration on cars that aren't old enough to be considered classics, but aren't new enough to be considered...er...new.

It's the automotive twilight zone. Cars in this territory are well beyond the safety net of a manufacturer warranty, and repair bills can be astronomical. So, faced with a choice of repairing a car that's worth next to nothing, folk rush into buying something new, without taking into consideration factors such as depreciation and interest payments.

Their loss is our gain, as cars that were once out of reach are now tantalisingly available to all. Come on, surely a stable of 10 old cars is better than a single "meh" hatchback from the modern day? If you don't think this way then this dusty corner of XCAR isn't for you.

You expect stuff from the late '70s, '80s, '90s, and just a tiny bit from the noughties. After all, the best cars were built between the years of 1974 and 2001. More on this soon.

Our cars have a story to tell. A few thousand miles under their belt and one or two loving, or not so loving, owners. Cars have character and cars have soul. But it takes time for cars to show their true colours. Let's not be afraid of a few stone chips and a few car park dings delivered by some careless oaf in Tesco car park. Cars are to be driven and enjoyed.

So if you prefer the Citroen ZX to the DS3 or the VW Corrado to the new Scirocco, you've come to the right place. The unashamedly old school and unfashionable department of XCAR.

I've handled a lot of oversize smartphones in my years as a reviewer. That's a bit of a trick statement, I'll admit, since both handset screen sizes and our perception of them as large or small have grown throughout the years.

Today, phablets like the Samsung Galaxy Mega (6.3 inches,) Huawei Ascend Mate (6.1,) and Sony Xperia Z Ultra (6.44,) aren't merely outliers giving niche users the come hither. They form a fully fledged category of XXL smartphone -- that's only getting bigger.

Samsung, HTC, and Nokia are all releasing, or rumored to release, new gentle giants in the coming year. These will join the six biggest cellular screens you can buy right now.

To appreciate just how much perception had shifted, we've got to think back. The original iPhone wowed with its 3.5-inch screen. Before Apple's all-touch achievement entered the scene, the industry had never seen a cell phone screen so large, with such a roomy virtual keyboard.

Fast-forward three years to 2010, when Dell made headlines (but not many sales) with its unprecedented, 5-inch Dell Streak. It was, for all intents and purposes, the industry's first real phablet, though its screen size was ahead of its time and it suffered from feature and design flaws.

These days, a premium smartphone with a display measuring smaller than 4.5 inches is a point of suspicion and 5 inches is the new norm, even as users and reviewers lashed back against ever-larger "jumbo phones" just a handful of years ago.

Clearly, there's a market for smartphones so large they spill into tablet territory.

The case for jumbo phones

There are several good reasons why jumbo phones are taking off, and it isn't only because of supply.

• Visual over audio : As people rely on smartphones more for computing than for calls, the viewing experience takes priority.


• Pixel power : Higher resolution displays can deliver fine detail and rich color. Of course, larger panels have long existed for TVs and even tablets, but the difference here is that you need more pixel density when viewing the smartphone about six inches away from your face.


• Hardware support : A larger screen is a power hungry screen that requires a higher-octane processor and a large enough battery to fire up a wider field of pixels fast enough and bright enough. The design must also be svelte enough to carry around without bulking up pockets.
  
  
  

  A stylus can add extra functionality to a large-screen device.

  
  (Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)
  
  


• Building bridges : Buying one large smartphone is cheaper than buying a tablet and a smartphone. The price point is also significant if you're purchasing both devices without a carrier subsidy, for the full retail price.


• The stylus adds a third dimension : Samsung's Note series invented a different kind of two-in-one device by imbuing the Note with a pressure-sensitive stylus that can draw, click, and capture screen shots. Some aftermarket S Pen models, as they're known, can also digitally erase.


• Underlying tech makes it easier to use : Biggo phones can be hard on the paws, and frustrating when you try to use them one-handed. Bluetooth headsets help balance out the phone-to-ear ratio, as well as outlier attempts like the HTC Mini+ companion device. Software considerations to shrink the keyboard and push it to one side also help, as do better voice recognition and gesture controls to bypass the typing and tapping.

Who's buying

Interestingly, Samsung found that the people who wind up buying and using the company's phablets come from a wider swatch of society than the company initially suspected. Marketing campaigns targeted business users for productivity, creative types who wanted a bigger canvas on which to draw, and an older audience who craved larger lettering on a bigger screen.

"The reality," Ryan Bidan, Director of Product Marketing for Samsung's mobile US branch, told CNET, is that the supersized screen is "a lot more accepted and a lot more prevalent than even we thought it would be...We saw a huge amount of adoption by [just] about everyone we sell phones to."

Bidan also noted that different motivations drive different markets. In some Asian countries, the stylus makes it easier to quickly jot notes in written characters, and a collapsable antenna in some models (like Asia's versions of the LG Optimus Vu series) makes it possible to watch TV shows.

In other regions, a phone like the Note 2 is popular because of screen size alone. In others, still, Samsung found that the high-end specs and large footprint make the phone a status symbol for the well-to-do.

An Android-only trend? Not for long

Perhaps due to Google's openness and Android's reputation as a playground for developing new features, phablets have so far mostly run Android. Apple sticks with two tablet sizes (7-inch and 10-inch) and a grudgingly-growing iPhone screen.

So far, this summer's unlocked Nokia Lumia 625 and the HTC Titan II -- both with 4.7-inch displays -- have been the largest-screen Windows phones to date (we called the Titan II "arrestingly large" back in April 2012.)

The trend, however, could soon evolve in Windows phones, if rumors of the uberlarge Nokia Lumia 1520 bear 6-inch fruit.

The popping point

Smartphone sizes are increasing, but even red-hot trends require checks and balances.

Every time a phablet lands on my desk to review, I look at it and think, "No freaking way. That monster is simply too big." Inevitably, my hands stretch awkwardly trying to grip, navigate, and type.

What's more, large phones are hard to jam into my back pocket, and if I try to make even a quick call without a Bluetooth headset (which I invariably do,) I suddenly feel like a munchkin in an ordinary world.

The 6.3-inch Samsung Galaxy Mega makes Web sites easy to read.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

Yet, a few days -- and maybe even a few hours -- are all I really need to start appreciating the gifts of a more expansive screen. Web sites become easier to read, and movie trailers more inviting to watch. I may be more likely to grab a phablet with stylus to jot notes in a meeting than my old-school pen and paper notebook (yes, you heard me.)

As much as I relearn to love the phablets' screen size, they will never be completely comfortable for me to use one-handed, something I find I do quite a lot. I do think there's a place for these large-screen crossovers, both financially and features-wise, but there is also an upper limit to how big these phones should grow.

The good news is, we probably won't see too many 12-inch tablets masquerading as cellies, at least not so long as portability is still an essential part of the smartphone's appeal. Ask an expert analyst, like Jon Erensen, Gartner's research director for mobile and semiconductors, and he'll tell you that the 6 and 7-inch range is the magic number.

7-inch tablets are proving small enough to tuck into purses and even into some roomier pockets, and cheap enough for consumers to consider instead of a smartphone -- or vice versa.

"You wouldn't have both a large phone and a small tablet," Erensen told CNET. "Screen size growth will slow down."

That's good news for lovers out there of the sumo screen, who should expect to see much more innovation and development in this space. The bad news? The awkward term "phablet" isn't going away anytime soon.

(Credit: CNET)

Smartphones Unlocked is a monthly column that dives deep into the inner workings of your trusty smartphone.

Could this be the iPhone 5C?

(Credit: Sonny Dickson)

The low-cost iPhone continues to be one of those rumors that just won't quit. But as we near the magical month of September, a time when Apple announced new handsets in both 2011 and 2012, the rumor finally appears to be close to reality.

As Josh Lowensohn said earlier this week, despite Apple's vow to clamp down on leaks, the last few weeks have delivered a steady stream of gossip about a cheaper iPhone, which the tech blogosphere has collectively dubbed the "iPhone 5C" (the "C" denoting the multicolored backs, or simply just "cheaper"); the official product name is anyone's guess.

We've see some alleged specs and a few credible photos not taken by the usual Mr. Blurrycam. Of course, Apple has yet to comment on the dish and won't do so until it's good and ready. So until then, here's what we know about this still elusive -- but increasingly certain -- device.

What we know

Frankly, not much of anything. Yes, it will be less expensive, but that's not exactly a cogent analysis of the 5C chatter.

What we think we know

When it will be announced

AllThingsD reported two weeks ago that Apple will hold its next iPhone reveal event on September 10. If that's true -- and we'd bet it is, given AllThingsD's reliable track record in predicting these dates, and Apple's recent release schedule -- then we should see both the iPhone 5C and the next-generation iPhone 5S.

The true cost

We won't believe anything until we hear it from CEO Tim Cook, but Morgan Stanley predicts that it will cost between $349 and $399 unlocked (or, at least, off-contract). Though that's significantly more than what the 16GB iPhone 5 costs with a contract ($199), that's a big savings from the $450 that Apple currently charges for an unlocked 8GB iPhone 4. Carrier subsidies would change that dynamic, but the 5C may be sold only without a contract.

A plastic back

Apple needs to make the 5C cheaper somehow, and a plastic body would be a great way do it. Not only is plastic an easier material to mold than aluminum, but Morgan Stanley estimates that using it could cut the cost of the mechanical parts of the 5C in half, from $33 to $16. Last week, a French site showed a photo of what is said were iPhone 5Cs with plastic shells being tested in what looked like a refrigerator.

Remember me?

(Credit: CNET)

if you're wondering if plastic will make the 5C less durable, the answer is not necessarily. Remember that Apple used plastic on both the iPhone 3G and 3GS without causing a rash of broken handsets. What's more, though the switch to a glass (iPhone 4 and 4S) and then metal body (iPhone 5) has seemed like a move toward more durability, anyone who's cracked the rear end of an iPhone after dropping it will disagree.

Fewer features

That's likely since Apple will have to find other ways to save dollars. Some analysts think Siri, which first appeared in the iPhone 4S, is a likely candidate for the axe, but we also may see a different screen resolution, less memory capacity, no LTE, or a less powerful camera. It's also probable that the 5C won't include any brand-new features that we might see in the 5S, such as the rumored fingerprint sensor. Or perhaps most of the main features will be intact, but it will simply have an older or slower processor (like the current iPad Mini versus the full-size iPad).

A world of colors

While the current iPhone is only available in black or white (with gold/champagne likely on deck for the 5S), it appears the basic iPhone will follow the iPod "rainbow" approach, with availability in a wider range of colors.

In addition to white and black, it looks like we'll see it in several other colors, as demonstrated in the below photo from Australian blogger Sonny Dickson.

(Credit: SonnyDickson)

What we don't know

Release date

If Apple announces the 5C on September 10 as we expect, then it should go on sale the next week, most likely by September 20. That 10-day cycle could follow Apple's usual pattern. What's more, AppleInsider reported earlier this week that AppleCare employees are largely blocked from taking vacation the last half of next month.

Where it will be available

After whether the handset even exists, this is one of the biggest 5C questions. Some speculation suggests that because the 5C will be made for an unlocked "bring-your-own-SIM" scenario then it may miss the carrier-dominated US market. Of course, that dynamic is changing with T-Mobile's new contractless service plans, but we're still waiting for the other big service providers to follow that model.

(Credit: Apple/CNET)

Alternatively, the 5C may be Apple's shot at increasing its presence in developing markets (in which case, the ). Android phones, for example, range from very cheap to very expensive. The 5C could compete with budget-price Android handsets that are positioned as starter smartphones.

Until September 10

Until we know more, that's all we can say. But if the September 10 event does happen, rest assured that CNET will be there to bring you everything that happens in full detail. And for more about the iPhone 5S, check out our rumor roundup and the dream 5S that CNET readers want.

There is a bug in Apple's iOS and OS X operating systems that will cause the current application to crash if it attempts to render a specific string of Arabic characters.

The bug, found in the CoreText framework Apple uses in iOS and OS X, was apparently mentioned on Twitter as far back as February but recently gained attention among the coding and hacking communities. Apple so far has not acknowledged the issue or offered a fix, though researchers claim that while it affects prior versions of OS X and iOS, the latest developer previews of OS X Mavericks and iOS 7 are unaffected.

This suggests that Apple may be aware of the issue, and a fix may be in the works for prior versions of OS X, but it could also simply mean that changes Apple has made in the development of CoreText for the upcoming operating systems have fixed the issue on their own.

This string of Arabic characters will crash OS X programs and services if they use CoreText.

(Credit: Screenshot by Topher Kessler/CNET)

Being that this bug affects any service or program that uses CoreText, it can, unfortunately, be used in a denial-of-service attack, where someone can send the string of characters as a text message, e-mail, iMessage, Web page, or even incorporate it in a Wi-Fi SSID or computer name on a network, and result in OS X systems and handling applications that interact with it crashing.

So far this has not been noted as happening, but is a possibility given the nature of this bug.

This situation in OS X comes a few months a similar one that occurred in OS X Mountain Lion in February of this year, where programs that attempted to render file address URLs would crash. Apple quickly fixed this issue, but the mishandling of Arabic characters, which has been around since the same time frame, has gone unfixed.

Hopefully Apple will address this problem soon, to prevent mischievous individuals from causing problems for users by sending them the string of characters.

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When using your Mac, maintaining a small amount of free drive space is required to keep your system running optimally. While nothing stops you from adding files to your drive until it can hold no more, once you start encroaching on the last ~10GB-20GB of space, the system will not be able to manage its virtual memory footprint as easily, resulting in slower performance. Additionally, even though OS X manages file fragmentation for conventional hard drives well by keeping 20MB chunks of data in contiguous blocks, this feature requires free space to work, and may suffer if you are limited on space.

Unfortunately it is quite easy to fill your hard drive. Even everyday tasks like importing photos and videos from cameras, or downloading movies and TV shows from iTunes can result in massive data storage. Without keeping tabs on how much space you have available for such content, you may quickly fill up your boot drive, especially if it is relatively small (such as the 64GB drives that came with MacBook Air systems).

For example, movies downloaded from iTunes may be 1GB-2GB in size, so purchasing 10 of them may use 10GB-20GB of space. Additionally, applications you install may take a number of gigabytes as well. It is also not uncommon for collections of personal photos and videos to be massive, given the ever-increasing number of megapixels being crammed into smartphone cameras these days. This is especially true if you save each and every photo and video you take.

Clicking the More Info button in the About This Mac box will give you an overview of the hard-drive space usage.

(Credit: Screenshot by Topher Kessler/CNET)

To keep your system from running out of space, the easiest thing to do is simply monitor your hard drive; however, Apple keeps this detail relatively hidden from you with the default configuration of OS X. Even so, there are options you can use to keep an eye on the free space available in your system.

The first is to use the System Information utility, which can be accessed by choosing "About this Mac" from the Apple menu, and then clicking More Info. In the panel that appears, you can click the Storage section to see a calculation of the free space and types of files on any locally mounted volume.

While this offers a user-friendly graphic of your drive's space, keep in mind that the sizes reported are based on the system's Spotlight index. This means that if there is an indexing problem, it may show incorrect sizes in the About this Mac window.

The Finder's Status bar will show you an ongoing view of the free disk space.

(Credit: Screenshot by Topher Kessler/CNET)

You can always force OS X to reindex the drive to clear such problems, but this can be time-consuming. Therefore, if you need to check your drive's space used, more appropriate tools to use are Disk Utility and the Finder's Information window, both of which will show you the exact amount of storage used on your drive. Apple makes these tools convenient, but they will require you to either launch an application, or invoke the information window specifically using the contextual menu or the Command-i hot key.

If you wish to have a more readily available view of the free space on your system, then instead of using tools and information windows that require a few steps to invoke, simply enable the Finder's status bar, which will appear below each Finder window and will display not only the number of files in the current folder, but the amount of free space remaining on the drive. This feature is great for giving you an ongoing glimpse of your drive's status, and can easily be enabled by pressing Command-/ (forward slash), or by choosing the option in the View menu.

These commands (outlined in blue) will each show the free disk space, located in their output indicated by the arrows (click for larger view).

(Credit: Screenshot by Topher Kessler/CNET)

Finally, if you are a Terminal user, you have several commands at your fingertips that can give you disk usage information. The first is the classic "df" command, which will output a small table of details about your drive, including the number of blocks, those used, and those available. You can output this in a more readable format (gigabytes, megabytes, and kilobytes), by using the "-H" flag in the following way:

df -H

In addition to "df," you can use Apple's provided "diskutil" command, which is a command-line version of Apple's Disk Utility program. This command offers the ability to look up disk information, which you can do for your boot drive by running the following command:

diskutil info /

One of the lines of output from this command will be "Volume Free Space:" which will show in bytes how much space is free. To make this easier to read, you can filter the output to only show free space, by piping it through "grep" in the following way:

diskutil info / | grep "Free Space"

Questions? Comments? Have a fix? Post them below or !

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Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith

(Credit: Microsoft)

Stonewalling by the Department of Justice has lead Google and Microsoft to decide to file a lawsuit so that they can publicly discuss Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court-approved surveillance orders.

Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith announced on Friday that the company, in collaboration with Google, would sue the government despite its statement on Thursday that it would publish some surveillance request information annually.

Google and Microsoft are requesting the ability to publish "aggregate information" about FISA court orders directed at the companies in the hopes of being more transparent to their customers, the companies have said.

Google originally filed the motion to claim a First Amendment right to publish information such as how many requests it has received from under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Section 702 of the act was amended in 2008 to allow the government to declare even the number of requests issued under the act subject to gag orders.

Before the NSA document leaks from Edward Snowden, the FISA orders had been declared so secret that Google, Microsoft, and other companies served with the orders were barred from acknowledging in public that they had received the requests.

As part of the procedure for the lawsuit to proceed, Google and Microsoft will be amending their petitions filed with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, a source close to the matter told CNET. The companies received a 10-day extension, so the government isn't expected to respond by Friday's deadline.

The government's response to the original filing's deadline was delayed six times by the Department of Justice, leading to frustration on the part of the tech companies, which has culminated in the announcement of the lawsuit.

The source, who requested anonymity because they lacked authorization to speak on the record, said that Google and Microsoft will be amending their petitions to more closely reflect the details of an open letter signed by most major tech companies (PDF) and sent after the initial FISA court filing from the Center for Democracy and Transparency to the heads of the US government and intelligence agencies.

It is likely that the government will consolidate the different petitions into the Microsoft lawsuit to avoid potentially having different decisions for different companies.

(Credit: Facebook)

Facebook will take on more of Twitter's likeness for a small group people as the social network has started testing a "trending" section in the right-hand column atop the homepage.

The trending box, first noted by the Wall Street Journal, features the hot topics that Facebook's 1.15 billion users are openly buzzing about, and are likely gleaned through mentions and the company's 2-month-old hashtag feature.

"We are running a small test of a unit on News Feed that displays topics currently trending on Facebook," a company spokesperson told CNET. "Right now it's only available to a small percentage of US users and it is still in the early stages of development."

The desktop test follows a similar mobile experiment with trending topics that kicked off earlier this month. Both trials are indicative of the social network's ambition to be linked to what's happening right now.

Twitter has long been perceived as the digital water cooler where people go to discuss pop culture or television shows, share memes, and follow celebrities. Facebook, with hashtags, embedded posts, and now trending topics, has made a string of maneuvers to make sure that the public -- and, more importantly, advertisers -- know that it too is relevant in the real-time news cycle.

Facebook will share more details about its trending topics feature if the company decides to roll it out more widely, the spokesperson said.

The remotely controlled telemedicine bot has allowed doctors to assess and even treat patients from hundreds of miles away for the past several years.

(Credit: Mayo Clinic)

Just a day after the NFL and more than 4,500 former football players reached a $765 million settlement over concussion-related lawsuits, a telemedicine robot will make its debut on the sidelines of tonight's Northern Arizona University football match against the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Concussions have been a hot topic in high-contact sports in recent years as evidence mounts that they are a chronic problem with long-lasting effects. And with more than 1 million athletes in the US suffering from concussions every year, researchers at the Mayo Clinic hope their sidelined robot on wheels will help assess athletes with suspected concussions quickly so that those deemed unfit to continue to play do not.

"Athletes at professional and collegiate levels have lobbied for access to neurologic expertise on the sideline," Bert Vargas, a neurologist at Mayo Clinic leading the research, said in a news release. "As we seek new and innovative ways to provide the highest level of concussion care and expertise, we hope that teleconcussion can meet this need and give athletes at all levels immediate access to concussion experts."

Throughout the Northern Arizona University football season, the bot will allow a neurology specialist to remotely control its camera system and assess patients for concussion symptoms -- as well as consult the sideline medical personnel -- from miles away in real time.

But collegiate-level football may not be the ultimate focus. Dr. Vargas says that because nearly 60 percent of US high schools lack access to an athletic trainer, the younger athletes are the most susceptible to concussions with the fewest "safeguards" to identify them at the time of injury: "Teleconcussion is one way to bridge this gap regardless of when or where they may be playing."

This isn't the Mayo Clinic's first foray into telemedicine. Researchers developed a telestroke program back in 2007 to bring stroke expertise to some of the 40 percent of Arizona residents who live in areas without it. Since then, almost 3,000 emergency consultations have taken place between Mayo neurologists and remote patients for brain-related emergencies such as strokes.

Then, in 2011, the Mayo Clinic expanded this focus to include the evaluation of concussions, and coined the term "teleconcussion" to describe the concept of assessing possible concussion patients remotely.

If the researchers deem this clinical trial a success, maybe some of that plump $765 million piggy bank will help fund the installation of remotely controlled concussion bots on the sidelines of more football games in the years to come.