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AFP - British mobile phone giant Vodafone is to sell its shares in China Mobile to raise more than four billion pounds (6.2 billion dollars, 4.9 billion euros), a newspaper reported Sunday.

PC World - The growth of social networking is being led by more mature users, but Facebook ads don't take the senior population into account. Although social networking usage among the over-65 population is up 100 percent--more than three times the overall growth of social networking as a whole--Facebook only lets ads be targeted for ages 64 and under.

Mashable - Apple has reduced the estimated shipping time for all six of its iPad models (Wi-Fi 16GB, 32GB and 64GB, and Wi-Fi + 3G 16GB, 32GB and 64GB) to "within 24hrs" on its online store.

Mashable - A new Digg, a new school year, and a new weekly roundup of essential resources. In case you were too busy buying pencils and calculators for yourself or a young 'un, we've pulled together our top posts from the past week or so.

AFP - India's BlackBerry users are holding their breath as they wait to see if the government carries out a threat this week to ban encrypted messages sent on the phones due to fears of misuse by militants.

AFP - The 2010 Emmy Awards for American television have gone interactive, with viewers tweeting lines for host Jimmy Fallon, voting on an interactive ballot and watching backstage happenings on Facebook and YouTube.

AFP - Europe's largest clothing retailer, Spain's Inditex, is taking its flagship Zara brand online, but it can expect stiff competition from other giants of high-street fashion already well-established in cyberspace.

The social news site Reddit staged a mini-rebellion Friday, deciding to run ads for a pro-marijuana legalization campaign for free, after Condé Nast executives ruled against taking payment for the ads.

AP - Data storage company 3Par Inc. says its board has determined that Hewlett-Packard Co.'s $2 billion, $30-per-share takeover bid is superior to a rival offer from Dell Inc., but Dell said Saturday it was mulling over a higher bid.

A long-simmering bill in North Carolina that sought to make community-owned broadband networks much more difficult to establish was sponsored by a prominent state lawmaker and backed by incumbent ISPs, including the cable lobby. But it’s not like those ISPs actually wrote the now-discarded bill, right? Um ...

AP - Federal regulators are taking a closer look at Google Inc.'s plans to buy travel technology company ITA Software Inc. in a $700 million all-cash deal announced last month.

AP - If you're looking for bargains on personal computers, bad news from the industry could be good for your pocketbook.

Ben Patterson - We've already got the Captivate for AT&T, the Epic 4G for Sprint, and the Vibrant for T-Mobile — all three of which come armed with eye-popping 4-inch displays, slim profiles, speedy 1GHz processors, and five-megapixel cameras — and now Samsung’s set to finish its lap of the four big U.S. carriers with the Fascinate, due in the coming weeks for Verizon Wireless.

Oh snap, another Android phone. But this one's from Sony Ericsson and it is nothing if not capable.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has filed patent lawsuits against some of the net's largest companies, including Google and eBay, alleging they are violating patents he owns on recommendations and displaying information to web users.

If you love Nokia hardware but wish for a better operating system, consider what some enthusiastic developers have done. Developers have hacked Nokia's internet tablets so the devices combine the body of Nokia and the brains of Android.

Ben Patterson - Rumors of imminent bankruptcy have been dogging the financially struggling Blockbuster video rental chain for years, and a recent report claims that Blockbuster will finally file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as early as next month. But while the easy-to-hate Blockbuster may be down, it’s probably not out—and that’s a good thing for us movie-loving consumers.

The Gadget Lab crew chats about iPods, Apple TV, tablets, femtocells and Dylan's fugly shoes.

Here's how and why two guys who love brain teasers proved you can travel downwind faster than the wind.

The Austin, Texas, sci-fi and humor mag Space Squid is aping the dead media meme by publishing its ninth issue on clay tablets, up now for auction on eBay and starting Friday at Armadillocon.