Evidence is mounting that the world’s most prominent social media couple is definitely, totally, completely over.

Horror of all horrors–Ashton Kutcher has reportedly stopped following Demi Moore on Twitter!

RadarOnline.com reports that Kutcher, who goes by the handle @aplusk, is no longer “following” Moore, who tweets as @mrskutcher.

In case you’re unfamiliar with Twitterspeak, when you subscribe to someone’s Twitter feed, you are “following” them, and all of their “tweets”–or messages shorter than 140 characters–appear in your timeline. The list of one’s followers and followings is visible to anyone who logs on to the website, providing the account is not set to private. Both Moore and Kutcher have public accounts.

Kutcher is one of Twitter’s most popular users, boasting almost 8 million followers. He was the first to pass the one million mark back in 2009.

Meanwhile, Moore may be looking to change her now-awkward @mrskutcher Twitter handle. BlindGossip.com posted the not-so-blind item that someone “just put in a formal request to (a social media) site to obtain her professional name as her handle and to copy all the data from her old account to her new account.”

Lesson learned: Never get a tattoo of a lover’s name–or use his name as a Twitter handle.

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Smartphones are more affordable than ever.  And the HTC Explorer is about to join the bargain basement fray.
A compact touchscreen phone, it measures just 102.8mm x 57.2mm x 12.9 mm, making for a tiny device that should slide into your pocket without any trouble.  From what we can tell, this is HTC’s official slaying of their bottom-end HTC Smart, since

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Swatch Touch watch reacts to your, well, you know originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Sep 2011 15:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Games for the Weekend is a weekly feature aimed at helping you avoid doing something constructive with your downtime. Each Friday we’ll be recommending a game for Mac, iPhone or iPad that we think is awesome enough to keep you busy until Monday, at least.

At $7.99, ShadowGun is one of the pricier titles I’ve recommended. But it’s well worth the price of admission for graphics alone. Games like ShadowGun and Infinity Blade really show off the iPad’s capabilities as a mobile gaming platform. Strike that. Once iOS 5 is released and you can mirror your iPad 2 through an Apple TV, ShadowGun and games like it will be cutting edge, sit-comfortably-on-the-couch gaming.

In the game, you take on the role of John Slade, a bounty hunter set to punch the nefarious Dr. Simon’s ticket — I wonder if that’s a Firefly reference? While the graphics are great, the story isn’t. I didn’t care. It’s a game in which you run around and blow things up, and it does that well.

It’s very similar to Gears of War, since it’s an over-the-shoulder shooter and cover is important. This is not a game where you stand there, machine guns a-blazing as hot, spent cartridges bounce off the floor. You’ll be doing a lot of taking cover behind obstacles clearly placed there for that purpose while shooting in small bursts.

You’re on rails, too. It’s pretty much impossible to get lost, but I’m surprisingly okay with that. The cover system is enjoyable enough that I don’t miss having free rein.

As with cover locations, there are many checkpoints to save your game. This keeps you from going through locations a second time to a minimum. The game seems to save your current spot when you quit the app. I did have a few crashes when I launched the game, but rebooting my iPad solved that.

I did find that I needed to adjust the controls slightly. My right thumb kept hitting the shoot button, but it’s easy to move it via the settings. The settings icon is a large plus sign and at first I thought it was a way to apply a health pack.

While ShadowGun is a universal app, I found it hard to play on the small screen of my iPhone. Also, your save games don’t carry across the two apps. I’m really hoping developers are able to use iCloud to sync saved games in a future update.

Eight bucks is a curious price point. It’s expensive compared to most apps, and the similar (at least visually) Infinity Blade is two bucks less. I feel like I got my money’s worth, though. My last Wendy’s meal cost me nine bucks and ShadowGun provided a lot more enjoyment. I also think the game needs multiplayer, and that addition might have made it an easier sell for the price.

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Social entrepreneurship has taken off in Cambodia where those looking to bring social change to the country are increasingly finding such rewards in the path to profits.

A boutique in Phnom Penh trains HIV-positive women to hand-craft fashion, while an organic rice farm has improved the yield and livelihood of the farmer. Both ventures illustrate that the key to a better Cambodia comes from embracing a more enlightened market-based model.

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Don’t you hate it when all of your iPads collectively run out of juice? Well, praise Griffin for announcing its first business centric iOS “accessory” in the shape of the Multidock. It has its own power connection for simultaneous charging of ten iPads, but it can be chain-linked to two other docks for syncing of up to 30 tablets with a single Mac. With each server-esque tower measuring up at 18.6 inches (47.2 cm) tall and priced even higher at $700, this one’s for IT pros and Scrabble aficionados only.

Griffin’s Multidock system charges and syncs up to 30 iPads at once originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Sep 2011 09:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The British firm CPP are going to be building an all-new Jensen Inceptor due in 2014. This Inteceptor is not to be confused with the ‘new’ old Interceptor still available to purchase. CPP has been contracted by Healey Sports Cars of Switzerland, who own the rights to Jensen, to engineer and manufacture the new model at its West Midlands plant.

For those who need reminding, the original Interceptor was a two-door GT Coupe, convertible or hatchback, built by Jensen Motors between 1966 and 1976 in the UK, powered by a Chrysler V8 ranging from 383 to 440 cubic inches.

The new Interceptor will take inspiration from the original ‘echoing its four-seat grand tourer layout’ with the wraparound rear screen and elongated flanks while updating it with advanced technologies.

Founder and co-owner of CPP, Brendan O’Toole has said: “I started my career by restoring bodies and components for classic British sports cars, so for CPP to take the lead role in reviving this iconic brand is very exciting for the business, and for me personally.”

The price of the new Jensen is yet to be confirmed.

View full post on Car Blog | Breaking Motoring News Daily

Friday marked the final day this week for a hearing in Australia over touch-screen patents held by Apple and allegedly infringed upon by Samsung. Justice Annabelle Bennett heard arguments from both sides regarding an injunction Apple is seeking on the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia, and Samsung apparently took a very conciliatory approach to ending the injunction before it begins.

During Friday’s proceedings, Samsung revealed (via Bloomberg) that it has approached Apple with a proposal to end the dispute between the two companies regarding touch-screen patents. Apple lawyer Steven Burley informed the court that his employer would need time to review and consider the offer. During proceedings Thursday, Samsung told the court that it would withdraw its use of accidental touch detection tech from the Galaxy Tab 10.1, and it has also withdrawn another feature related to Apple’s zoom technology. Only one touch-screen patent remains in contention at this stage.

Samsung has voluntarily agreed not to sell the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia until a formal decision is reached about this proposed injunction, and Thursday Justice Bennett told both parties she hoped to reach a decision by next week. Both sides may have to wait a little longer, however, as Friday the judge said she couldn’t guarantee a decision date, but would “try to get it out as soon as possible.” Bennett reiterated that the parties should push for an early trial beginning in October, something which Apple had already agreed to.

This hearing was originally scheduled for two days but has already gone three this week and will continue on Oct. 4, since neither side has yet concluded their arguments. We heard Thursday that Steve Jobs personally tried to intervene to prevent legal trouble between the two companies, but now it looks like it’s Samsung who’s making the effort to avoid more trouble at this point. Given that they’re willingly making major compromises regarding a product that’s already shipping in other markets around the world, and that they seem less enthusiastic about an expedited trial than Apple, it does seem like they know their position is weak in this case.

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Case Mate's iPhone 5 designs were live on their site briefly in September before the company pulled them.

AT&T retail stores are reportedly taking delivery of iPhone 5 cases a little early, according to a new report. Photos obtained by MacRumors show boxes of new cases allegedly delivered to one AT&T store late Thursday. The cases feature a tapered back design and what appears to be a mute switch opening on the opposite side of the phone relatively to where it’s currently located.

A tapered back redesign is in keeping with some other early case leaks we’ve seen from Chinese accessory makers and other vendors, although separate rumors have suggested we’ll see a new iPhone that closely resembles the previous generation. One theory is that Apple will unveil two new models of iPhone on Tuesday during its special media event, one which is a modest evolutionary upgrade of the iPhone 4 as a low-cost option, and one which is a complete redesign.

The cases could be fake or based on an uninformed, just in case ordering decision on behalf of AT&T or this store in particular. Some have pointed out that the packaging seems unrealistic, but AT&T retail is known to repackage products from accessory-makers in generic packaging. And considering how close we are to the iPhone 5′s reveal — Apple is holding an iPhone launch event on Oct. 4 – it’s more likely that important partners like AT&T would be privy to some knowledge of the next iPhone’s actual design.

Personally, I think we’ll see redesigned hardware, and the tapered look seems to be garnering the most support. For Apple to wait 16 months just to introduce a minor refresh would not go over well with consumers, as we’ve seen from recent survey results.

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Hong Kong (CNN) – A senior government official says China’s total number of Internet users is now more than 500 million people, state media reported.

That’s more than 60% higher than the entire population of the U.S., where much of the Internet infrastructure was first developed and home to the giants of the industry such as Google, Facebook and  Youtube –  sites whose services are largely blocked in the world’s largest Internet market.

Wang Chen, chief of the State Council Information Office (SCIO), said in his keynote speech at the UK-China Internet Roundtable that the world’s most populous nation now has nearly 40% of its 1.3 billion population online. SCIO is a ministry-level government agency which oversees media and Internet issues in China.

Wang highlighted six areas where the Internet poses challenges for China, including developing its own innovation and safeguarding intellectual properties, but also talked about the challenges social networks hold for China, where Internet companies face strict censorship requirements.

“In the world, more and more people share information via social networks. This has both brought conveniences to people and posed new challenges for social management. The violent crimes that occurred in some parts of the world this year have stimulated people to consider how to prevent the abuse of social networks.”

Use of social media during the UK riots in August led to some discussion of banning use of sites like Twitter and Facebook during the riots, although some have argued there is little evidence that links “flash mob violence” in the UK and the U.S. to social websites.

“At present, China boasts of over 300 million microbloggers,” Wang said.

“All stakeholders should consciously safeguard the solemnity of laws and the norms of social morality. They should refrain from jeopardizing national interests, public interests and the legitimate rights and interests of other citizens,” Wang said. “We must coordinate the safe flow and the free flow of Internet information.”

The conflict between “safe flow and the free flow” of information led search giant Google to pull its search engine operations from China, refusing to follow government requirements on censoring searches after a hacking attack that the company alleged came from China.

Other companies, such as Twitter and Facebook, are blocked in China. China’s huge Internet population has given rise to local giants such as microblogging site Sina Weibo. In recent weeks, there have been rumblings that Sina will strengthen its filtering of discussions on the popular microblogging site.

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