Anonymous claims hack on security think tank

Stratfor's site is down for now.

(Credit: Screenshot by CNET)

Anonymous is claiming to have stolen 200GB worth of data, including e-mails and clients' credit card information, from a U.S.-based security think tank, the Associated Press reported today.
The hacking group also used Twitter to post a link to a list of clients apparently belonging to think tank Stratfor Global Intelligence.
"Not so private and secret anymore?" read one of numerous tweets from AnonymousIRC, a Twitter account linked to Anonymous.
This morning Stratfor's site was down. A notice reads: "Site is currently undergoing maintenance."
Anonymous also tweeted that it has "enough targets lined up to extend the fun fun fun of LulzXmas throught the entire next week." Lulz is a reference to a related hacking group known as Lulz Security
Stratfor apparently said in an e-mail to members that it had suspended its servers and e-mail following a hack.
"We have reason to believe that the names of our corporate subscribers have been posted on other web sites," said the e-mail, which was obtained by the Associated Press via subscribers. "We are diligently investigating the extent to which subscriber information may have been obtained."
Anonymous claims it was able to steal the credit card data because it was unencrypted.
"If Stratfor would give a s--- about their subscriber info they wouldn't store CC/CCV numbers in cleartext, with corresponding addresses," according to one tweet.
Stratfor's long list of clients includes the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, and Miami Police Department, the AP reported.

21,000 domains transfer out of Go Daddy in 1 day

Domain registrar Go Daddy lost over 21,000 domains yesterday. It could be a coincidence--or it could be the result of the company's p.r. debacle over its support for the Stop Online Piracy Act.
Yesterday, Go Daddy actually reversed course and dropped its support for the controversial legislation. "Go Daddy will support it when and if the Internet community supports it," Go Daddy CEO Warren Adelman announced in a statement.
SOPA, introduced in Congress this fall, would make it easier for the Justice Department to shut down sites allegedly dedicated to piracy.
An anti-Go Daddy thread on social site Reddit led to the creation of Godaddyboycott.org, a site set up to let people amass their disapproval with the company's support of SOPA.
While 21,054 domains transferred out Friday of Domaincontrol.com--which is managed by Go Daddy--it is only fair to note that 20,034 transferred in the same day, according to domain tracker Dailychanges.com
According to techie site TheNextWeb.com, though, the transfers-out have been building over the course of the week, with 8,800 reported on Monday and 14,500 on Wednesday.
Go Daddy did not immediately respond to CNET's request for comment.
(Via TheNextWeb)

Flurry: Largest Addressable Markets For Mobile Developers In 2012 Include India, China, Japan & U.S.

Mobile analytics firm Flurry is closing out the year with a look into the forthcoming shift in mobile installed bases expected in 2012. Using data from the firm’s dataset of over 140,000 apps running worldwide, it was able to calculate smartphone penetration in established markets like U.S. and Europe. Then, using additional data from the IMF in combination with Flurry’s own data, the firm was able to then determine which countries represented the top market opportunities for mobile app developers.
Not surprisingly, China and India made the list. But so did the U.S.
To start, Flurry looked at a snapshot of apps running across its user base over the past 30 days in order to rank the current addressable market. The U.S. led the way, with an installed base of 109 million out of 264 million (41%). Flurry notes that 264 million is about half of what Apple and Google say they’ve activated – something that can be accounted for by old device replacement.
China (#2) and South Korea (#4) appeared in the top five, ranking above Japan (#5), France (#6) and Germany (#7). The U.K. is #2.
Next, Flurry wanted to determine which markets hold the most future promise. It used the adult population counts from the IMF, then adjusted the numbers based on the size of the middle class in each country using a study by Miller-McCune. Flurry then estimated the size of the upper class for each country, as those folks could also afford a smartphone. This way, China, India and Brazil would not be over-represented in the estimations just because they have large populations.
And yet, they did make a showing. China has 122 million users who could afford an iPhone or Android. The U.S. has 91 million, India 75 million, Japan 65 million and Brazil 34 million.

In the final bit of analysis, Flurry wanted to determine the world’s largest addressable markets, regardless of penetration. For starters, it looked at current market maturity (the measure of how penetrated smartphone devices are among a country’s addressable audience.)  The U.S., with the largest light blue circle in the graph below, has the largest total addressable audience (TAM) at 200 million. Sweden is the most mature country with 3.2 million of 5 million (66%) addressable consumers already using iOS and Android devices.  France, 10^th in maturity, has 9.6 million of 34 million (28%) consumers using iOS and Android devices.

In looking at the future addressable markets, Flurry found that even though India’s total population is not far behind China’s, its total addressable market is. Meanwhile Japan, the world’s fourth largest market, has a lot of upside given light penetration of iOS and Android devices against its large, addressable market, says Flurry.

Using this method, the top 10 addressable markets are the U.S., China, Japan, India, Germany, Brazil, Italy, France, the U.K. and Russia.
More analysis can be found on Flurry’s blog post.

Block ads with AdBlock Plus

Before and after shots of AdBlock Plus, using the right panel of my Facebook page as an example.

(Credit: Matt Elliott/CNET)

AdBlock Plus is a Chrome or Firefox extension that does just what its name suggests.
Odds are you have become skilled at ignoring Internet ads. But every year, advertisers get more invasive creative at inserting ads in places where they are harder to ignore. As soon as next month, for example, ads will appear in your Facebook newsfeed. It's too soon to say whether AdBlock Plus will remove these forthcoming newsfeed ads, but the extension does an admirable job of removing the current advertising from Facebook and other sites.
Simply install the extension (here for Chrome or here for Firefox) and it automatically starts running (Firefox requires a restart first). In Chrome, you'll know it's running because a small ABP stop-sign icon gets added to the right side of your URL bar. If you consider that an ad, you can remove it in AdBlock Plus's settings. Go to Window > Extensions. Click on the new tab that opens, click the Options link for AdBlock Plus, and choose the General tab, where you'll see a check box for Show icon in address bar.
In Firefox, this icon gets added to the bottom-left corner of your browser window. And to get to AdBlock Plus settings in Firefox, the path is Tools > Add-ons > Extensions.

In Chrome, you can click the AdBlock Plus icon in the URL bar to create exceptions for sites when you don't want to block ads.

(Credit: Matt Elliott/CNET)

This little icon is useful, however, if you'd like to create exceptions. If there is a site where you don't mind the ads or would actually like to see them, you can easily disable AdBlock Plus for that site. (In Facebook, for example, AdBlock Plus removes the Ticker along with the ads from the right panel.) To do so, in Chrome you click the stop-sign icon and uncheck the box for Enabled for this site. The icon will be grayed out and ads will return for that site. In Firefox, you click on the icon in the bottom-left corner and choose one of the disable options for removing ads from the current page you are viewing, from all pages on the site you are currently visiting, or disable the extension altogether.
I installed it on both Chrome and Firefox, and the correct English language filter (EasyList) was chosen for me. Filters for other languages can be found on the Filter lists tab of the AdBlock Plus' Options page.
With AdBlock Plus running, you'll see a blank spot where an ad would be on some sites, but on others like CNET, the elements on the page shift around so that the absence of advertising isn't as conspicuous. In Firefox there is an option to hide placeholders of blocked elements, but it doesn't seem to do anything.
For most people, the default settings will suffice. Ads go away and, in my experience thus far, performance is unaffected.

How to track your packages with Android

Are you afraid to leave your home because you're expecting a package? With mobile package-tracking apps, you can track your packages right from your Android phone so you can relax and go get lunch, run an errand, or take your kids to the park. When your package is delivered, you'll know when to come home.
All the major shipping companies have mobile apps. UPS, FedEx, DHL, and USPS have basic tracking components in their apps (DHL's app tracks freight only). Most of them also allow you to find local shipping locations as well. However, the carrier apps tend to lack advanced features, like tracking multiple packages and delivery status alerts.

(Credit: Screenshot by Ed Rhee)

For more-advanced features and multiple package tracking, we recommend checking out a free Android app called Parcels.

(Credit: Screenshot by Ed Rhee)

Parcels allows you to track multiple packages from multiple carriers (international carriers, too) and alerts you when the status of a delivery changes. It's very simple to set up and use. You can also view the delivery path of your package via Google Maps and check out tracking details directly from the carrier's Web site, if you so choose. The color-coded list, icons, and carrier labels make it easy to check packages and is a pleasure to use.
With the holiday season upon us, now is a great time to try out Parcels. It sure beats checking individual e-mails all day long and visiting each carrier's Web site.

Silicon Island: What Cornell’s New York City Tech Campus Will Look Like [Images]

New York City refers to its tech scene as “Silicon Alley,” but now it’s getting a giant new Cornell tech campus… on an island, between Manhattan and Queens. I’m going to leave the naming issue for the locals and share some images from the new campus — which is going to be quite impressive, judging by the few details available in an October article from architecture web site Arch Daily.
Beyond the larger goal of making the city more of a tech hub, the focus will be creating a “sustainable landmark” on the 2 mile by .15 mile landmass on the East River, the article explains. A quarter of the 2 million square foot campus will be green space available to the public, while the sun-oriented layout will include the largest solar panel array in the city. That’s not all on the environmental front. There’ll be four acres of geothermal wells, and a 150,000 square foot main academic building with a net-zero energy footprint.

In terms of transportation, the island is also going to be getting some upgrades, with the city already providing $100 million for improvements. Ferries, a tram line, a one-way bridge exit, and a single subway stop are the main ways to get on and off of it now. As The Atlantic explores today, maybe could even be a pedestrian and bicycle bridge to Manhattan?
With that, on to the renderings of the new campus by the prestigious architecture firm that Cornell has hired, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP.




And the dreamed-of bike bridge:

Beware of potential Christmas scams

Although a number of people are out looking for the latest deals on gadgets that Apple and others may offer, scammers are in no doubt interested in capitalizing on the increased interest in purchases and promotions.
E-mail scams and other attempts to coerce people into giving up personal information online is nothing new, however, scammers may make extra effort to use Apple's popularity.

Scams like this one might find themselves into your mailbox. Be aware and avoid any offers that are too good to be true.

(Credit: Screenshot by Topher Kessler)

Recently, MacFixIt reader Martin F. wrote in about a scam e-mail he received regarding an Apple promotion, which, while obvious to many people as a scam, might be enough for others to fall for it.
The e-mail claims it is from Apple Christmas Awards, and mentions that the recipient is a promotions winner. The e-mail is from an account at "rediffmail.com," which would be the first sign it is not an official Apple e-mail. Additionally, the e-mail asks you to open an attachment, which is a Microsoft Word document.
While the document does not appear to have any malware associated with it, its content is quite obviously a scam. Underneath a large Apple logo, it claims that Apple has created a million iPhone 4S units in commemoration of Steve Jobs, and that winners were selected at random to both receive the phone and an award of around $2 million, from a pool of $250 million that Apple has set aside for this "promotion."
This scam is so poorly done it is almost amusing, but it does serve as a reminder that you may receive such offers and scams both via e-mail and other options throughought this holiday season, some of which might appear to be legitimate offers and promotions. Many of these will likely include malware, but even if they don't, they are designed only to steal your personal information.
Any legitimate offer from a company will have an official Web page at the company's Web site, which you can visit or call to get information on. Ensure you always visit or call the company to confirm the legitimacy of a promotion before accepting it, and never blindly give your information to anyone via e-mail.
And as always, to all the Grinches out there, "You're a three-decker saurkraut and toadstool sandwich, with arsenic sauce!"

Stanford Law Review: SOPA Unconstitutional, Would Break The Internet

The Stanford Law Review has posted a concise and informed takedown of SOPA and PROTECT-IP, the bills currently creeping their way towards votes in their respective legislative bodies. They make many of the same objections I brought up in my article Kill Switch, but with fewer words and more authority.
The piece was authored by Mark Lemley, David S. Levine, and David G. Post — from Stanford, Elon, and Temple Universities respectively — and touches on a few finer legal matters, such as the acts’ nullification of due process and the questionable constitutionality of the whole thing.
It’s brief and worth a read, but here are a couple highlights:

Directing the remedial power of the courts towards the Internet’s core technical infrastructure in this sledgehammer fashion has impact far beyond intellectual property rights enforcement—it threatens the fundamental principle of interconnectivity that is at the very heart of the Internet.

The Supreme Court has made it abundantly clear that governmental action suppressing speech, if taken prior to an adversary proceeding and subsequent judicial determination that the speech in question is unlawful, is a presumptively unconstitutional “prior restraint.” In other words, it is the “most serious and the least tolerable infringement on First Amendment rights,” permissible only in the narrowest range of circumstances. The Constitution requires a court “to make a final determination” that the material in question is unlawful “after an adversary hearing before the material is completely removed from circulation.” The procedures outlined in both bills fail this fundamental constitutional test.

At a time when many foreign governments have dramatically stepped up their efforts to censor Internet communications, these bills would incorporate into U.S. law a principle more closely associated with those repressive regimes: a right to insist on the removal of content from the global Internet, regardless of where it may have originated or be located, in service of the exigencies of domestic law.

Strong words, but this bill is strong medicine. The New York Times and Reuters both posted some commentary related to lask week’s discussions and some choice excerpts from the bills’ proponents. I like Fox Filmed Entertainment’s Tom Rothman’s chestnut that “Our mistake was allowing this romantic word — piracy — to take hold.” While I agree that sometimes the lexicon can affect social trends, I don’t think that people really conflate illegal online activities with adventure on the high seas.
As you may know, SOPA was recently in the House Judiciary Committee and delayed on account of dozens of objections and amendments, almost none of which were accepted. But instead of being delayed until January, which would give time for both sides to further entrench themselves, another session was scheduled for Wednesday, at which time it is expected to be approved for reading and vote in the House.
Once there, it could still fail to pass, and then there is the threat of veto, but Obama has been quiet on the issue. It’s odd, considering the administration was very clear about its position on net neutrality.
As in some other debates, all the experts and those with no financial involvement are lining up on one side, and threatened business interests are lining up on the other. It may be too late to affect the vote of your representative, but it can’t hurt to forward articles like the Stanford Law Review one, which could make for powerful ammo in a floor debate.

MIT grad launches Curisma, a social network of geeky gifts and gadgets

The gift-giving season is upon us! While we’ve given you Nerd Holiday and the Ultimate Robot Gift Guide, we’ve got one more nerdy trick up our sleeves for inspiration: Meet Curisma, a social media inspired network of geeky gifts and gadgets.
Curisma bills itself as a new way to discover products you love through people like you. The site launched in beta this past October as a recommendation engine for cool gadgets and tasteful people to follow. The name Curisma is a blend of curiosity, curating and charisma. “It’s curious people curating charismatic products,” explains Curisma’s CEO Fatma Yalcin.
I first met founder Yalcin (pictured below) at the launch of the NY Angel Dinner Series, an event hosted by Victoria Song of Flybridge Capital Partners. Yalcin is a Turkish entrepreneur with an MBA from MIT who met her co-founder Eugene Gorelik in a class called Web 3.0.

The company is currently bootstrapping it. Yalcin tells me that she’s interested in partnering with search and media companies and having those companies set up pages on Curisma. For example, The Next Web would be a brand you would follow for curated tech gadgets.
While lacking the aesthetic sophistication of competitors Pinterest and Svpply, it’s hard not to draw comparisons in terms of functionality. Part of the reason being that Yalcin was an intern at Svpply when the company was based in Boston, MA. Yalcin says the company will expand into other verticals after gadgets and hire designers to spruce up the site in the coming months. “For now, it’s just two geeky co-founders coding away,” says Yalcin.
We found a few really awesome gift ideas while perusing Curisma today. Check them out below!
Keybird

Han Solo Ice Tray
Yoda USB Protector
Moshi Moshi handset

➤ Curisma

BleuFlamme Lets You Make Your Own Custom Shirt In 3D

If there’s one thing the world needs it’s a service that lets you build a shirt using 3D rendering technology. Sure we could use cars that run on water and world peace, but let’s get the little things out of the way, right?
Thankfully, there’s BleuFlamme, a website created by a gaggle of eight engineers who have dedicated their lives to the sale of custom shirts.
Building a shirt is fairly simple: you pick a style, a collar, some fabric, stick it all together, and they have it made in Hong Kong and shipped to you. They start at $99 each – a bit steep, but it sure beats a trip to Cameron Road. We’ve covered a number of these custom shirt sites, most recently J Hilburn and all of them seem to be improving upon the age old custom tailoring model. The question, then, is whether this model needs disruption?
There are plenty of folks out there who want custom clothing. I’m no clothes-horse but a nice custom shirt looks good. $99 good? Hey, if you’ve got the IPO cash, why not flaunt it?
BleuFlamme isn’t sitting still and will be improving their service over the next year. Quoth founder Jin Takahito:

This coming Q1 we will release a rotatable 3D shirt model so you can preview your shirt design from all angles – implemented in pure HTML5 – something from a technical standpoint, is very hard to accomplish but in return provides better user experience from across any browsers any device. I will also introduce Community Gallery of shirt designs contributed by our users where you can get some initial inspirations when designing your own dream shirt.

He also notes that “We are pushing human civilization forward as we speak,” which is a pretty noble goal, although a bit shortsighted. We’re going to need custom shirts when we leave to civilize species on other planets, Jin. Will you be there for us?

Voice-controlled Apple TV in the works?

Apple is reportedly working on a TV set that will swap the remote for voice controls.

Apple is reportedly working on a television that will incorporate voice commands and wireless streaming.
Apple executives have discussed their plans with media executives at several companies, including a TV that uses wireless streaming to access programming, movies, and other content, according to a Wall Street Journal report (subscription required). Apple is also working on technology that would identify users across a variety of devices such as phones, tablets, and TVs, people familiar with the talks told the newspaper.
Perhaps the most ambitious of Apple's TV ideas is a planned technology that would allow users to change TV channels or search for programming by using their voice, but the newspaper's sources cautioned that it might take longer to develop that function.
Apple representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It's unknown whether the voice-controlled TV would incorporate Siri, Apple's popular voice assistant app released with the iPhone 4S.
Earlier reports had suggested that Apple was working on a new digital TV based on iOS that might include a new technology to deliver video to televisions. Speculation heated up after Apple posted a job listing in February that advertised for someone to work on "new power management designs and technologies" for use on various Apple products, including a "TV."
Rumors that Apple is working on its own TV set have been circulating for the better part of two years. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster first floated the notion in 2009 that Apple would take a bite out of the TV market in 2011 by introducing its first television. Munster wrote in June that Apple's iCloud infrastructure makes it all the more plausible, leading him to predict that Apple would produce a TV set by the end of 2012 or early 2013.

Your complete guide to Facebook's Timeline

(Credit: Screenshot by Sharon Vaknin/CNET)

Are you ready for change? Facebook has once again redesigned your favorite social network, changing privacy options, adding new features (like the ticker), and killing off profiles in favor of Timelines.
Although we can't help you accept change (it's always tough), there's a great selection of tutorials, tips, and tricks that we put together to help you through the transition.
Find out everything you need to know about the redesign, including how to configure your Timeline, adjust hidden privacy options, and tweak Facebook's features.

Getting started

Five things to know about the new Facebook
Facebook is getting major changes within the next few weeks that will alter the way you socialize online with friends. Here's what the new Facebook interface will look like.
Get started with the new Facebook Timeline
Find out everything you need to know about your new profile, how to configure your Timeline, and how to keep your privacy in check.
How to use Facebook Music
Mark Zuckerberg wants you to have "serendipitous experiences" with the new Facebook. If you're ready for the experience, we'll show you how to use Facebook Music.

Tweak some features

How to restore Facebook's Most Recent news feed
By creating a list, you can bring back your Most Recent news feed.
How to hide the Facebook ticker
Facebook added a sidebar ticker to the right of the newly redesigned News Feed. Learn how to remove it in Chrome and Firefox.
Organize your Facebook friends in Lists
Google+ made it dead simple to organize contacts into Circles, and Facebook has followed suit with its revised Lists feature. Learn how to easily organize your friends into groups.

Adjust privacy settings

Five hidden Facebook privacy settings
With Facebook's design overhaul comes a host of new privacy settings that can protect information you'd rather keep private, and prevent third parties from accessing your information.
How to adjust app and Web site permissions on Facebook
Now's the time to check up on any apps or Web sites you authorized in the past, since they may have more access to your profile than you'd like. You can also stop sharing when you're playing certain games with groups or all friends.
How to disable autotagging on Facebook
Facebook's privacy controls are present but may not be set to your liking. Take control of who can tag you in pictures, posts, and places.
Stop or limit Spotify sharing on Facebook
You can stop Spotify from sharing on Facebook via Spotify's preferences, or you can limit who sees the songs you're listening to via Facebook's privacy settings.
How to enable private listening on Spotify
Spotify just rolled out a way to listen to your favorite, albeit embarrassing, music without having it broadcast for all the world (or Facebook) to see.

Google's project Majel gets more interesting by the day

Ask any honest Android fanboy what he envies about the iPhone 4S and chances are good that he or she will menton Siri. And since we're speaking honestly, I'll be the first to admit that this is one feature that I wish my Android could do.
Sure, there are plenty of apps vying for the "Android version of Siri," but none of them are as quite as well-rounded as the iOS app.
Thankfully, we should have an official client on the way as rumors of a "Majel" project began picking up steam this week. Factoring in the early details uncovered by Android And Me and one very recent acquisition, it appears that Google is wasting no time in bringing about a rebuttal.
In the few days since the first information came to light, Android And Me has obtained new tips that paint the picture of a fast-tracked project. One particularly interesting detail comes from a source who claims to have spent time with an early release.
Their tipster advises that it was "definitely as good, or better, than Siri" and that the version that he used was tablet-based. The source goes on to describe trays of results which can be swiped away or selected based on what the user was looking for.

Like, if you say "show me the Statue of Liberty" it'll automatically take you to Google Image results, but another tray beneath it might be its location on Google Maps and then another tray might have a Wikipedia page. It's also pretty good at giving you succinct answers if you ask it a question. The UI is definitely more powerful than Siri's, even if a little harder to navigate. At least at one phase of the development you would activate it by saying "Computer..." It was hard not to use a Jean Luc Piccard accent when doing it!"

A second, anonymous Google employee indicates that over the last few years Google X's focus has been based around a super smart AI robot that leverages the tech behind a number of popular Google programs. Described as being 'the most amazing thing" he'd ever seen, the AI had passed the Turing Test 93 percent of the time over the course of an hour long IM-like conversation.

Based on what I'm reading here, I see a future of being able to talk with my phone in a casual manner for extended periods of time, and not with simple requests such as, "What is the weather forecast for San Diego tomorrow?" Skip to around 5:13 in the video below to see exactly what type of questions Google expects to be able to handle in the future. I don't know about you, but this sounds like a more-than-viable alternative to Siri.
Android And Me goes on to pull together quotes from industry players including Google's Manager of Speech Technology and Google's computer-interface designer and user-experience lead. I find it interesting to look back all all of these statements and interviews as many of them feature references to Star Trek.
As CNET blogger Lance Whitney pointed out earlier this week, Majel Barrett-Roddenberry provided the voice to the computer system from the television series. Has Google been leaving bread crumbs to the project all along, hiding it in plain site?
As I read through the comments from the various outlets covering the Majel project, I sense a growing excitement over an official Google product of this scale. If there's any name that could power a new search and AI system for Android, it would be Google.

It is expected that Majel will find its way into the market in early 2012 where I assume it will be offered as standalone application. It would not surprise me to see Google unveil the next release of Android (Jellybean) in June at Google IO and announce that Majel is integrated into the platform itself.

Look Ma, no hands! Google lands patent for robot car

In the wild: Google's self-driving car spotted on a California freeway.

(Credit: Wayne Cunningham/CNET)

Google has added one more thing to the list of things it can do over the Web: tell a car where to drive.
The Internet giant earlier this week was granted a patent for a method of controlling an autonomous vehicle. Specifically, it details how a vehicle can transition from being human-driven to autonomous mode.
A car could, for example, drive to a specific location and based on a visual indicator on a "landing strip," such as a bar code or radio tag, the car would then transition to autonomous operation. One could imagine, for example, bringing a car to a roadway dedicated to autonomous vehicles where the transition would take place.
In a corporate blog post last year, Google said that it has hired some of the top autonomous-vehicle engineers to enhance the state of driverless cars. It isn't very specific about how this advances its business. But distinguished software engineer Sebastian Thrun said that the company's goal is to "help prevent traffic accidents, free up people's time, and reduce carbon emissions by fundamentally changing car use."

The patent describes a method where a vehicle will drive to a reference indicator (seen as a bar code) to get driving instructions over the Internet.

(Credit: Screen capture by Martin LaMonica/CNET)

Engineers have equipped Toyota Priuses with sensors and communications that send large amounts of data back to Google's data centers to analyze and make driving decisions. In 2010, Thrun said it had logged over 140,000 autonomous miles.
In its patent, Google engineers detail the method for how sensors would find a marker to switch to autonomous mode and receive instructions from an Internet address over a wireless network. It also describes the design of an onboard computing device capable of handling the information needed for autonomous operation.

Samsung Focus S (AT&T)

The good: The Samsung Focus S has a gorgeous, large touch screen; a good 8-megapixel camera; a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera; and HSPA+ speeds.
The bad: Thin and less than 4 ounces in weight, the phone lacks durability.
The bottom line: Bolstered by a brilliant display and strong hardware specs, the Samsung Focus S is arguably the best Windows Phone ever released.

Photo gallery:
Samsung Focus S (AT&T)

The Windows Phone OS has arrived on a number of good handsets, but none of the manufacturers has yet been able to produce a killer Windows Phone for the U.S. market...until now. The Samsung Focus S, introduced by AT&T, is a beautiful device: it's thin, it's light (maybe too light), and it sports a gorgeous 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus screen, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, and a quite good 8-megapixel rear-facing camera.
Does it sound familiar? It should, and that's its only catch. The Focus S is essentially the same shell as AT&T's excellent Samsung Galaxy S II phone, minus the Android operating system (and a few other internals), and plus a physical camera button. The recipe does make for a very smooth Windows Phone experience, if you can push past the mildly creepy sense of déjà vu.
The Samsung Focus S costs a reasonable $199.99 with a new, two-year service agreement, but at the time of this review, I saw it on sale online for $99.99, so check around for discounts before you buy.
Design
Classy, sleek, and open are three words I'd use to describe the Samsung Galaxy S II phones, and the same can be said of the Focus S. The all-black phone has rounded corners and flat sides. As with AT&T's Galaxy S II and slightly larger (and LTE-capable) Skyrocket, the handset has a slightly dimpled back cover and a slight rise where the cover snaps into place at the bottom of the phone. A larger handset, the Focus S measures nearly 5 inches tall by 2.6 inches wide by a svelte 0.3 inch thick. With its slimness and scant 3.9-ounce weight, it feels a little insubstantial, and I'm unconvinced of its ability to sustain casualties from butterfingers' repeated drops.

Doing a double take? The Samsung Focus S is indeed modeled on the Galaxy S II phone for AT&T.

The Focus S has a gorgeous 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display with a WVGA resolution of 800x480 pixels, and support for 16 million colors. As with other phones with this screen technology, colors are vivid and stand out from the screen; it may make photos and video look more saturated on the screen than they are when viewed from your computer, so beware!
Running Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, the Focus S' interface is simply a single start screen populated with dynamic live tiles, many of which update with new information (this page is customizable to a degree--you can determine color and app order, and pin and unpin tiles). There's a second screen that shows your apps.
Above the display is the 1.3-megapixel camera. Below it are three touch-sensitive buttons that correspond to the back button, home, and search. Pressing and holding the back button also lets you switch among tasks. The same motion on the home key launches voice actions.
Windows Phones tend to have a few more physical buttons than phones on other platforms. Unfortunately, these buttons are rather cheap-looking lumps of plastic on the Focus S, and lack the polish found on the rest of the design. On the left is the volume rocker, and on the right spine you'll find the power and camera shutter buttons. The Micro-USB charging port is down below, and up top there's the 3.5mm headset jack. Flip the phone over to locate the 8-megapixel camera lens and LED flash.
Since this is a Windows phone, all memory is internal; there's no microSD card slot for expandable memory.
Features
Editors' note: Due to their similarity, much of this section is taken from the review of the Samsung Focus Flash, also for AT&T.

Even the dimpled plastic backing is borrowed from the Android-toting Galaxy S II. However, there is a camera shutter button on the Focus S.

Microsoft keeps the Windows Phone OS pretty locked down, so the features are similar from phone to phone. One of the most important features is that the Focus Flash runs on AT&T's "4G" HSPA+ network, which is speedier than the 3G network, but it isn't 4G LTE.
Like other smartphones, the Focus Flash supports Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, and multimedia messaging. You get e-mail and social networking integration through account log-ins in the settings, an option for linking inboxes together, and support for group messaging. Your address book is limited only by your available memory. There's also a neat ability to thread messages sent between IM and traditional texting in the same thread, and support for task-switching. (For even more detail about what's new in Mango, read the full Windows Phone 7.5 review.)
There's also good stuff like speakerphone, conference calling, and voice prompts for things like voice dialing. Essentials include your clock, your calendar, a calculator, Internet Explorer 9 (with HTML5 support but no Flash), and podcast subscriptions. There's also a Bing Maps app, with turn-by-turn directions for walking and driving. Microsoft offers Xbox Live integration through the Games hub.
Although there's not a lot of variation, there is a bit of wiggle room for manufacturers and carriers to add some of their own apps, and we see that here. With AT&T, you get branded apps for a bar code and QR code scanner, AT&T Navigator with turn-by-turn directions, AT&T Radio, MyWireless, and AT&T U-verse Mobile, which is the mobile version of U-verse TV for streaming shows (this service costs $9.99 per month if you sign up from the phone).

Samsung has added a few extras as well, like a Photo Studio app with some basic editing tools. It'd be even better to see these things within the native camera app.
Microsoft continues to win points for its Music+Videos hub with Zune and Zune Pass integration, and great music-mixing DJ features. Bing's new Mango features with music identification and optical scan-search (called Bing Vision) also worked well on this real-world device.
At 16GB, the device memory doubles that of AT&T's Samsung Focus Flash. Without a microSD card slot, that's the upper limit for all local storage, but Microsoft has softened the blow by giving Windows Phone users 25GB of free online file storage through SkyDrive. It's one method for saving photos, videos, and other documents.
Cameras
Samsung has a knack for making some pretty nice cameras, and the Focus S is the lucky recipient of an 8-megapixel lens and a 1.3-megapixel front-facer. I really like Microsoft's take on the app itself, which wakes up when you press and hold the camera button, even in locked mode. Switching among cameras and video mode is simple, as is accessing the multiple settings for white balance, image effect contrast, sharpness, ISO, photo resolution, and so on. Simply swipe toward the top of the phone to view the photo gallery.

Set to maximum sharpness, the Focus S' 8-megapixel camera captured the texture and color of the flower petals.

Photos themselves were very good. Sharpness is set to medium by default, which is too bad, because amping the sharpness up to high or maximum sharpness can really define the photo. If you don't save the settings, they'll return to the default. Colors were usually vibrant, though at times the Focus S has been known to overdo it with tones that appear candied, especially reds and greens. I witnessed some weird ghosting on one indoor photo. There is a bit of shutter lag, but not so much it gets annoying.

The color was spot-on in this outdoor shot, but set to the default medium sharpness, it could have been sharper.

The front-facing camera took decent pictures, all things considered, though they were often washed-out and less distinct (which might be a good thing when it comes to such close-range face photography). Video played back smoothly, without any jitters or skipping, though it sometimes washed out the scene and in general looks best when viewed on a slightly smaller screen. See even more photos taken with the Focus S in this gallery.

This indoor shot, with mixed lighting, is at maximum sharpness. If you don't save your settings, you'll default back to medium.

Here's our studio shot, taken with the Focus S' default settings (medium sharpness).

Performance
I tested the quad-band (GSM 8500/900/1800/1900) Samsung Focus S in San Francisco on AT&T's network. Call quality was acceptable, but not quite ideal. Volume was nice and loud to my ears, and voices sounded rich and natural, though a little scratchy. While the line was clear, without any background noise, I did notice some garbling and audio blips. Callers on the other end of the line reported volume a bit on the low side, and a little echo, though they said I sounded like me and there wasn't any background fuzz.
Samsung Focus S call quality sample Listen now:

To test speakerphone, I held the phone at waist level. Volume was acceptable, pretty loud for the feature, while managing to keep the buzzing that often accompanies higher-volume speakerphones in check. I'll note that voices did sound tinny, but not echoey. On the other end of the line, callers said I sounded hollow and distant, and that call volume plunged. Sounds began running together, but there was no signal disruption.
Data speeds are important, of course, and while there aren't any Windows Phones that support 4G LTE yet, a couple are greenlit for the "4G" HSPA+ network. These speeds aren't as blazing as LTE phones in absolute terms, but I will say that browsing felt comfortably normal. Using the Focus S' Internet Explorer browser, CNET's mobile-optimized site finished loading in about 14 seconds, with the full, graphically rich site loading in about 27 seconds. IE drew up the New York Times' desktop site--without redirecting to mobile--in about 15 seconds. Internal speeds felt fast on the phone's 1.4GHz processor.
The Focus S has a rated talk time of up to 6.5 hours, and up to 10 days of standby time on its 1,650mAh battery. According to FCC's radio frequency tests, the Focus S has a digital SAR of 0.33 watt per kilogram.
Conclusion
Samsung has definitely led the way with Windows Phones, from the original Samsung Focus to the loosely related Focus Flash and Focus S we see now. Any way you look at it, the Focus S, with its clean, attractive, powerful minimalism, is easy to use and lets Windows Phone shine. There are few overt flaws, and the device brings Microsoft's mobile platform the closest it's ever been to being in direct competition with Android and iOS superphones. However, as much as I recommend the device for day-to-day use, the analytical part of me can't help but feel like Samsung is cheating just a little bit by reusing the widespread Galaxy S II design that's become its Android flagship. As heartily as I approve of recycling, I'd love to see Samsung create a Windows Phone that introduces a style all its own. The device is about neck-and-neck with the huge HTC Titan, which does have a more polished, though hefty design, and it will still face competition when the U.S. version of the Nokia Lumia 800 lands on our shores. Yet, not everyone wants a screen as large as the Titan's, or a body as unwieldy, and I suspect that the phone will have an overall wider appeal. Until then, the Focus S and the Titan are battling it out for the Windows Phone crown.

Is Apple vulnerable in 2012? You bet

The battle is on to unseat Apple where Steve Jobs made it shine--and mighty Apple is already looking at risk.
After Steve Jobs was fired in 1985, it took Microsoft 10 years to catch up--and exceed--the technical and user interface innovations of the Mac OS that Jobs helped create. Now, Jobs is gone and Apple is once again in a position of clear market leadership with competitors gunning to match its products.
Apple's rivals aren't taking a decade, however. Far from it. Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, along with partners such as Intel, Samsung, HP, and Lenovo are all heading into 2012 with impressive products aimed squarely at Apple's hits--the iPhone, the MacBook Air, and the iPad.

Samsung Galaxy

(Credit: Saumsung)

The iPhone alternatives
When you hold the Samsung Galaxy S II, the Galaxy Nexus, or other versions for the new generation of Android devices, it's clear why Samsung phones are now outselling the iPhone and why Apple is suing various Android handset manufacturers. These devices are a huge threat to the iPhone. The screens are bigger than the iPhone's. They weigh less and they're speedier.
The new version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, is almost at parity with the beauty and ease of use of iOS. Plus, the emergence of apps from Pandora and Spotify, both amazing music streaming services, make the iTunes library lock-in hardly a lock-in at all. In fact, more than 370,000 apps are now available for Android, including most of the ones that people want. Apple is adding great new features such as Siri, but let's not forget that Apple acquired Siri and the underlying voice recognition technology is provided by Nuance. Android already has similar apps and Microsoft's TellMe will not be far behind.
Conclusion: even before all these advances, Android was already outselling iOS. Apple's position in this war is weakening.
Up in the air
Here come the MacBook Air clones. Air-like notebooks based on Intel's next-generation Ultrabook components are going to be announced en masse at CES in January. I recently played with an Asus Zenbook, the Asus version of an Ultrabook. The Asus looked great and even had stylish metal keys that are far nicer than I had expected from the photos. It's not as if Apple has an exclusive on making computers lighter and batteries last longer. Apple was just the first to perfect it because it controls the entire system--the operating system and hardware right through to retail--and has the will and pricing power to push for what it wants among the component makers.

Asus UX21

I use both Windows 7 and Mac OS on a daily basis and really can't tell the difference between the two anymore, mainly because I spend most of my time on Google's Chrome and Microsoft Office. Windows 7 actually has better desktop management--when I open or select a document it only brings that document to front, not every other document already opened by that particular app. Yes, the Mac OS is easy to use and stable, but stand next to the Genius Bar at a Mac store and you will see that many people have many problems, just like Windows 7.
Conclusion: most notebook computers will adopt the MacBook Air form factor, and Windows will not only maintain its tremendous market share, but possibly even retake Mac's recent gains.
King iPad is at risk
Tablets are a category that Apple completely dominates, with 80 percent market share. Android competitors have flailed, but Amazon's Android-based Kindle Fire is likely to outsell the iPad in 2012 due to its low price ($199). Amazon is focusing the Kindle as a cheap, content-consumption device rather than full-fledged tablet, and it's subsidizing the price in exchange for people subsequently purchasing movies, apps, and physical goods from Amazon.
While the Kindle Fire will nibble at the iPad from the low end, at the higher-end, $500-plus price range, full-fledged computers based on the ultrabook and Netbook form factors and Windows 8 Metro will begin to compete with the iPad, including hybrids with pivoting screens and detachable keyboards that effectively merge an ultra-lightweight notebook and tablet.
Conclusion: the iPad will dominate through 2012, but after that the iPad will be squeezed on the low end by the Kindle and on the high end by full-fledged touch-screen PCs.
Of course, Apple is not sitting idly by. It is rumored that Jobs left years of product plans behind and Apple is widely expected soon to enter the TV set business in order to further ensconce consumers in its vision of gadgetry. Apple's vast manufacturing volume enables it to get the next generation of components, such as screens and processors, before its competitors.
However, technology is accelerating faster than ever before and it doesn't take long for the competition to catch up. Apple's ultimate attribute, that of design and "taste," is almost like fashion. And as with fashion, being first doesn't mean you will rule the market; it just means that you are going to get copied. Remember, H&M sells a lot more Prada-like designs than Prada.

How to add QR codes to your photos

QR codes are cool, but they haven't quite caught on en masse yet, because finding cool uses for them have been challenging.
One popular use for QR codes is printing them on business cards. Sharon Vaknin also showed you a clever way to make a personalized QR code gift tag. In this tutorial, we're going to show you how to add a QR code to a digital photo.
Digital photos contain lots of data in them, like locations, dates, and camera type, but once they're printed, you're left with just the photo. With a QR code, you can add Web addresses, dates, locations, or just about any other detail you want to embed in the photo. Here's how
Generate and save your QR code
Go to a free QR code generator Web site, like http://zxing.appspot.com/generator, and create your QR code. We recommending generating at least a medium-size bar code. Once the code's been generated, save it to your computer.

(Credit: Screenshot by Ed Rhee)

Add QR code image to photo
You can use whatever graphics program you're most comfortable with, but in our tutorial, we'll use Pixlr Editor, a free Web-based graphics editor.
Step 1: Open your photo and the QR code in Pixlr Editor. Click on the QR code image box and hit Ctrl+A to select the entire image, then Ctrl+C to copy it.
Step 2: Select your photo by clicking on it, then paste the QR code image onto your photo by hitting Ctrl+V.
Step 3: Select the Move tool, then drag the QR code image to where you want the QR code to be. Make sure you leave a little room on the edges for when the photo eventually gets cropped for printing.

Use the Move tool to place the QR code where you want it on your photo.

(Credit: Screenshot by Ed Rhee)

Step 4: Go to File > Save or hit Ctrl+S to save the photo to your computer.
Step 5: Print the photo on plain paper to make sure that the QR code can be scanned with your phone. If it scans correctly, print away using your photo printer or your favorite photo-printing service.

(Credit: Screenshot by Ed Rhee)

That's it. Now you know how to add a QR code to your photos. You can add QR codes to photo card invitations, holiday photo greeting cards, or even photos of things you're trying to sell.

Moosejaw X-ray app is a catalog peep show

This is what Superman sees when he looks at catalogs.

(Credit: Moosejaw)

There's no need to mentally undress people when you have an app that can do it for you. Moosejaw decided to take outdoor clothing in a Victoria's Secret direction with the Moosejaw X-Ray App for iPhone, iPad, and Android.
The free app harnesses the power of augmented reality to strip the puffy jackets and pants off of its models. Fire up the app, hold it up to a model in the catalog, and get a view of the unmentionables beneath.

Why does this guy have an octopus strapped to his body? (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit: Screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET)

You can use the online version of the Moosejaw catalog if you don't happen to have the paper one handy.
The app is equal opportunity. Both male and female models show off their skivvies.
The ladies sport an array of typically frilly and pretty undergarments. One empowered woman wears what looks like a pink tiger-stripe collar and leash.
The guys' pictures take a decidedly surreal turn. Scanning them reveals one impressively hairy chest, a sea creature plastic-wrapped under a down coat, and a clown wearing red pajamas.
The X-ray app makes for a distracting shopping experience. I don't recall thinking, "Wow, I'd sure like to buy that jacket that the model isn't wearing."
When it comes to sheer marketing, though, the app is pretty brilliant. Massive winter jackets, clunky boots, and wool sweaters never looked so seductive.

Moosejaw X-Ray App from Gary Wohlfeill on Vimeo.

How to control your Android via PC

AirDroid is an Android app that allows you to control your device remotely from your computer. If your device is charging in another room or otherwise out of reach, or you're really busy and can't be bothered to constantly pick up your device to respond to alerts, this is a great way to stay connected while not hurting your productivity (as much). Follow these three easy steps to set it up:
Begin by installing the AirDroid app from the Android Market.

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma)

Step 1: Open AirDroid and hit the Start button to launch the server.

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma)

Step 2: Open a browser and enter the URL listed in the top field. In the log-in field on the page that loads, enter the password as it appears on your Android device.

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma)

Step 3: Hit enter to log in and control your Android device remotely.
From here, you can control almost anything you'd be able to control while holding your phone. You can adjust/delete your notifications and ringtones, read and send SMS messages, backup and uninstall apps, and monitor your system's storage information.

Republic Wireless Is Launching Free International Calling — Powered By Their Own Country Code

Republic Wireless, the potentially disruptive mobile phone carrier that uses special hybrid Wifi/cellular phones, has another plan to help spur interest and drastically reduce your phone costs. We’ve confirmed with the company that starting this week, it’s going to let its users to receive international calls to any phone, free of charge. Well, that’s their aim anyway — read on for the details.
For those that missed our initial coverage, Republic Wireless is a subsidiary of Bandwidth.com — a company that gets relatively little attention in the mainstream press, but whose sprawling Internet infrastructure is responsible for powering portions of many of the most popular VoIP services, including Google Voice, Skype, Twilio, and others.
Republic Wireless taps into Bandwidth’s infrastructure to offer a phone carrier that’s a WiFi/cellular hybrid. After signing up (they’re currently in a limited private beta), Republic sells you a special Android phone that automatically connect to your Wifi networks whenever possible and routes your call via VoIP (which is far less expensive for them than traditional carrier minutes).
If your phone can’t find any Wifi networks to connect to, it switches over to Sprint’s mobile network. And because much of your usage will be routed over Wifi rather than a cellular connection, Republic can offer its service at a rate that’s much cheaper than the likes of Verizon or AT&T: it’s only $19 a month. There are a few caveats to that, though — namely, that you can’t use too many cellular minutes (you can find more details in our previous coverage).
Which brings us back to this week’s launch, which will allow Republic members to receive international calls for free. To do this, Bandwidth.com has managed to acquire its own country code (as was noticed by DSL Reports), which it will be assigning to Republic Wireless.
Republic has confirmed that free international calling is indeed what the country code is for, and that it will work similarly to the way other international calls work, just without the fees. If you initiate an international call from your phone over Wifi, it’ll be free of charge, no matter who in the world you call (Update: Republic has clarified that if a country has its own country fees, those would still apply). And when your friends abroad want to call you, they just type in Republic’s ‘country’ code, 883-5110, followed by your phone number, and that incoming call will be free to both parties as well. Pretty simple, right?

Thing is, they’re not quite there yet — that’s how easy it will be, provided Republic Wireless can get other carriers to come on board. And this is where things might be a bit tricky.
In order for these country codes to work, they have to be recognized by the various carriers around the world. If, for example, one of your friends lives in the UK and is on Orange, and they call your Republic Wireless number, that call will only be free if Orange has opted into supporting Republic’s international code. And there’s no rule mandating these international carriers to sign on board. But there are ways to encourage it — get enough people to ask for it, and the carriers may well add Republic support.
To help get the ball rolling, Republic Wireless has managed to land some notable support at launch. Namely, Google, who is integrating the Republic international code into Gmail’s phone feature. And Republic Wireless says additional partners will be coming soon. In the mean time, they’ve also launched this site where carriers can sign up to support Republic’s International Country Code.
To sum things up,  at this point Republic’s free international calling isn’t going to be especially useful — your inbound international calls probably won’t be free. But that will change as it (hopefully) announces that traditional carriers have started to come onboard. I’m looking at this as a very ambitious and potentially awesome experiment (which could be said of the company in general, actually).
Because if this works out, to the point that it becomes the norm for carriers around the world to support Republic Wireless’s international code, it could really change the whole game as far as international calling is concerned. Free calls, to any phone, has a really nice ring to it.
Update: You can be “one of the first hundred million” to reserve your 8-digit international number here.

Facebook ready to take on mobile ad network?

Facebook may finally be ready to get into the mobile ad space.
The social-networking giant plans a version of Sponsored Stories that would appear in mobile users' News Feeds by the end of March, sources "with knowledge of the matter" told Bloomberg.
The company had been expected to roll out a mobile advertising service earlier this year, and this planned foray might still be shelved as well, Bloomberg's sources cautioned.
Facebook representatives declined to comment on the report.
Despite being late to the party, Facebook already has access to data of a large mobile user base that could help advertisers more accurately target potential customers than a mobile browser or app. Facebook says nearly half of its nearly 800 million users already log in via mobile devices, giving the network momentum in a market estimated to be worth $630 million.
However, Facebook will have to contend with Google's Admob, Millennial Media's ad network, and Apple's iAd, the latter of which has reportedly run into obstacles that forced it to offer more attractive terms to advertisers. But the fact that Facebook's mobile apps are already among the most popular on Google and Apple's mobile platforms should resonate with advertisers.
The effort could bring more cash to company coffers as it plans its IPO. Facebook, which is already expected to record $4.27 billion for fiscal 2011, is widely expected to go public between April and June 2012 with a $10 billion offering that values the company at $100 billion.

CERN physicists find hint of Higgs boson

These red lines show how the LHC's Atlas experiment registered the arrival of four particles called muons. They could have been the byproducts of a short-lived Higgs boson--or they could have been more humdrum events. CERN's LHC particle accelerator will continue smashing protons into each other to spot the statistical significance that means the Higgs really has been found.

(Credit: CERN)

Researchers at the CERN particle accelerator have found "intriguing hints" of the Higgs boson, a moment of major progress in years of previously unfruitful searching for the elusive subatomic particle.
The search for the Higgs boson is the top priority of CERN's massive and expensive Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland. Its Atlas experiment showed a statistically suspicious increase in activity that indicates the Higgs could be pinned down with a mass of 126 giga-electron-volts, and showing some important agreement, its independent CMS experiment found a possible result nearby at 124GeV.
"We observe an excess of events around mass of about 126 GeV," CERN physicist and Atlas leader Fabiola Gianotti said in slides presented today at a CERN seminar to physicists who applauded her results. That equates to about 212 quintillionths of a gram; by comparison, a proton is more than 100 times lighter with a mass of 0.938GeV.
Her small sentence carries big import for physics. That's because the Higgs boson, thought by some to endow other particles with mass, is a key missing ingredient in physicists' understanding of what makes the universe tick. It's predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics, but no one has been able to confirm its existence or nature.
"The Higgs could be the first link in a chain of discovery. This is what we hope," said Guido Tonelli of the Universita degli Studi di Pisa and leader of the CMS project, in a news conference after the seminar. Another year of continued data gathering should be enough to provide a conclusive answer on this particular matter, the physicists said.
Gianotti called the findings "beautiful results" at the seminar, but stopped well short of declaring victory because there's not enough data for statistical certainty. "It's too early to draw definite conclusions...We believe we have built a solid foundation on the exciting months to come."
Finding the Higgs boson is essentially a matter of checking for a variety of events--or their absence. The LHC's detectors have been gradually ruling out ranges of possible mass for the Higgs boson.
"The window for the Higgs mass gets smaller and smaller," and today we saw "intriguing hints" of its possible nature, said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. "We have not found it yet. We have not excluded it yet. Stay tuned for next year."

Inside the Large Hadron Collider (photos)

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The Higgs boson isn't observed directly, but rather is detected by extremely rare side effects of collisions between protons smashing into each other. To increase the likelihood of collisions, the LHC operators have been gradually increasing the beam intensity.
Gianotti also said the CMS results predict with a 95 percent confidence level that the Higgs boson has a mass between 115.5GeV and 131GeV.
Another experiment, the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), also helped narrow down the possible mass of the Higgs boson. Its results showed with a 95 percent confidence level that the particle can't be between 127GeV and 600GeV, Tonelli said.

CERN physicist Fabiola Gianotto describes scientific results from the Large Hadron Collider's search for the Higgs boson.

(Credit: Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

The CMS experiment also found "a modest excess of events" that could be evidence of the Higgs boson between 115GeV and 127GeV, Tonelli said in a presentation at the seminar. "The excess is most compatible with a Standard Model Higgs hypothesis in the vicinity of 124GeV and below, but the statistical significance is not large enough to say anything conclusive."
One of the big mysteries that physicists hope to plumb with the Higgs is an idea called supersymmetry. The Standard Model predicts a wide range of particles, of which the Higgs is the last to be pinned down. But with supersymmetry, each of the conventional elementary particles in the standard model, including the Higgs, has a companion. If there's only one Higgs boson, it's part of the Standard Model. But with supersymmetry, there have to be at least five Higgs bosons. Supersymmetry would double the number of particles to resolve physics problems in a similar way that the prediction--and later discovery--of antimatter did decades ago.
If the Higgs boson weighs about 125GeV, it would match many physicists' general expectations--but also carry some importance. That's because it's at the light end of the range of possibilities, and physicists believe a particle that light needs another particle from the sypersymmetry collection to anchor it.
"Our expectation is that you have something heavy. It could be something related to SUSY," Tonelli said, referring to the nickname for supersymmetry theory. "Or maybe not," he added.

The CMS, or Compact Muon Solenoid, is not what most people would call compact. It's one of the two general-purpose experiments at the Large Hadron Collider with which physicists hope to detect the Higgs boson.

(Credit: Maximilien Brice/CERN)

When it comes to mass, physicists liken the Higgs boson to groupies at a party. Heavy particles interact strongly with Higgs bosons, equivalent to a lot of people swarming a celebrity and making it harder for the famous person to start moving and, once moving, harder to stop. Particles with little mass are those that interact weakly with Higgs bosons, making them more fleet-footed.
"A heavier particle is nothing more that one than has more interactions with the Higgs particle as it passes through the vacuum," said Lawrence Sulak, chairman of Boston University's physics department.
If the Higgs boson is precisely measured in the next year, the LHC can be used to look further down the same pathway, Tonelli added, possibly finding supersymmetric particles--"if they are in the energy range of the LHC."
Such particles would likely be vastly heavier--many thousands, perhaps millions, of GeVs, he said.
That would be quite a coup: supersymmetric particles are a possible explanation for dark matter, material that in the universe outweighs the ordinary matter of which we're made but that generally interacts with ordinary matter only through gravitational pull.
To find harder particles, CERN plans an LHC upgrade that will let protons be smashed together at twice today's energy level. "Hopefully we'll explore a large region of masses," Tonelli said. And then, the supersymmetry work can begin in earnest. "A lot of parameters are still open, a lot of SUSY models are still open and are waiting to be excluded or confirmed," he said.
The LHC is a huge, phenomenally complex instrument built in a circular subterranean tunnel 27 kilometers in circumference. It can accelerate protons fast enough that, when they collide, they reproduce energy levels found only in the earliest moments of the universe after the Big Bang.
Updated at 7:26 a.m. PT and 10:44 a.m. PT with further detail.

Fabiola Gianotti's conclusions about the LHC's Atlas experiment results about the search for the Higgs boson

(Credit: Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Guido Tonelli's conclusions about the LHC's CMS experiment results about the search for the Higgs boson.

(Credit: Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)