In what was one of Saturday Night Live's funniest parody sketches in recent memory, the show took a shot at the iPhone 5 and the tech industry's response to some of its much-discussed setbacks, including Google Maps.

In a faux talk show called Tech Talk -- starring guest host Christina Applegate -- critics bashed the major design flaws surrounding the latest Apple smartphone. To address the issues, three Chinese factory workers joined in to put them in place.

"You wanted Starbucks, but it took you to Dunkin' Donuts?" said one worker, referring to the new Apple Maps app. "That must be so hard for you."

SEE ALSO: The World According to Apple Maps

Another responded: "I guess we…
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More About: apple, humor, iPhone 5, smartphone, trending

Amazon Kindle customers are now entitled to credit for some of their past e-book purchases, as a result of settlements between major publishers and a coalition of Attorneys General, the ecommerce retailer said Saturday.

Hachette, HarperCollins, and Simon and Schuster have settled an antitrust lawsuit on e-book prices that was brought by state and territorial Attorneys General, Amazon explained in an email to Kindle customers.

"Under the proposed settlements, the publishers will provide funds for a credit that will be applied directly to your Amazon.com account," it said. "If the Court approves the settlements, the account credit will appear automatically and can be used to purchase…
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Over the past six months, mobile payments skyrocketed from an industry conversation to mainstream news, fueled by myriad new entrants to the market. Historically, the majority of technological innovations were easily accessible to only mid- and large-sized businesses, but mobile payments level the playing field, providing businesses of all shapes and sizes with new payment acceptance solutions that capitalize on mobile commerce to attract new business, cultivate loyalty with existing customers and grow revenues.

For small businesses, the challenge today is selecting a mobile payment solution that solves for today's needs, supports future growth, provides security and remains relevan…
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More About: Mobile, features, mashable, mobile payments, open forum

Long-time Windows users can walk down memory lane with an exclusive infographic, below, that shows the operating system evolve over time.

Starting from 1985, Windows' OS appears in its various incarnations in chronological order: Windows 1.0, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and the latest, Windows 8. Some versions of the operating system were not included.

SEE ALSO: Windows 8 Pro Now Available for Pre-Order

Each OS illustration is accompanied by the date that it debuted (i.e. 1995 for WIndows 95), as well as little icons indicating technology and software that was popular at the time. For example, Windows 95 features a 3.5-inch floppy disk…
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More About: Windows, Windows 8, microsoft

Klash, a social rewards network, is the digital intersection of truth or dare and foursquare. Launched two weeks ago, Klash allows users to log in via Facebook or Twitter and begin challenging friends in their networks in exchange for user-set rewards.

More About: Klash, iOS

After a more than two-year love affair, Hacktivist collective Anonymous is distancing itself from Wikileaks.

In a tweet sent from one of the many accounts controlled by Anonymous, the group said goodbye to the whistleblowing website controlled by Julian Assange.

"The end of an era. We unfollowed @Wikileaks and withdraw our support. It was an awesome idea ruined by Egos. Good Bye," the statement read.

Anonymous was complaining about a change that Wikileaks made to its website earlier this week: A donation page would automatically appear every time a user tried to access the Global Intelligence Files page, Wikileaks' latest leak. For Anonymous,…
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More About: anonymous, hackers, julian assange, trending, wikileaks

Rovio Entertainment has teamed up with CERN, which runs the world's biggest particle-physics lab, to bestow quantum physics knowledge upon young children in an effort dubbed "Angry Birds Playground."

"With Playground products, kids can have fun and learn more about physics than they would've in the 'old-fashioned' style of learning," Rovio's CMO Peter Vesterbacka says in a statement. "I've been to CERN and experienced it myself. It's a fun place to visit!"

SEE ALSO: 'Angry Birds' Turns Queen's Freddie Mercury Into an Honorary Character

The Angry Birds Playground program is for 3- to 8-year-olds, and is currently developing learning experiences…
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More About: Gaming, angry birds, rovio

Want to give your next party a classic rock-and-roll vibe?

The Ion Jukebox Dock iPad Speaker is a speaker dock with an authentic tabletop jukebox look and feel.

The miniature jukebox is 12 x 8 x 1.2-inches, so it's sized perfectly to be used on a table or corner of your living room. Encased in a wood cabinet, while docked your iPad is surrounded by neon lights that give the set up an even more authentic look.

SEE ALSO: Bang & Olufsen Asks: What If Captain America's Shield Was a Speaker?

The dock works in tandem with your favorite jukebox app (or just iTunes) to play tracks while simultaneously charging your iPad, and displays cover a…
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One Million Fans on Facebook!

A huge thank you to our community in the form of this infographic, which tells some of the amazing Facebook stories from members of the Mashable community.

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This was a big week for the Mashable community: In addition to the excitement of the vice presidential debate and the new gadgets from Apple, we also reached the incredible milestone of one million fans on Facebook. Our community has seen skyrocketing growth over the past few years, both nationally and outside the U.S. We continue to be humbled and inspired by our fantastic community.

As a way of saying "thank you," we made this infographic for our fans. The infographic celebrates the way Facebook has affected the lives of our community, and highlights some remarkable stories from Mashable readers. The explosion of social media has dramatically affected most of our lives, and this week se…
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By the time you read this, soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo likely will have passed 50 million Likes on Facebook. That's five percent of Facebook's total population. Impressive, right?

Ronaldo leads the top ten list of the most beloved social media superstars in sports, compiled in the chart below by social popularity tracking site Starcount.com. Ronaldo's Facebook page adds about 40,000 new fans every day, and he has just under 13.8 million Twitter followers to boot. He's so popular, fact, that he's the only sports figure who can remain in tweeting distance of pop superstars when it comes to social supremacy. Ronaldo is the first non-music figure to reach 50 million Likes and is Facebook's…
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Gmail is set to release long-awaited updates to its Android app, including pinch-to-zoom and swipe-to-delete.

More About: android, apps, gmail

Fifteen-year-old Amanda Todd posted a YouTube video last month that detailed her brushes with online and offline bullying, and this week she was found dead in her home in Canada as a result of a suspected suicide.

The chilling video shows the teen explaining, via a series of notes, how a picture of her breasts was disseminated online. A year later, she revealed, the person who posted the photo created a Facebook page.

"My boobs were his profile pic," Amanda wrote. "I can never get that photo back. It's out there forever."

She soon changed schools, but a sexual encounter with a boy at her old school caused his girlfriend to confront Amanda. "A guy then yelled, 'just punch her al…
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More About: Viral, World, YouTube, bullying, cyberbullying, trending, viral videos

Looking for the best apps? Here's our weekend roundup of our favorite new and updated apps for iOS, BlackBerry and Android.

More About: App, android, iphone, trending, weekly app roundup

This easy-to-create do-it-yourself (DIY) laptop stand will add some extra height to your screen, improve your computing posture and save you money. Building your own cardboard stand is simple.

Download, print and cut out this template sheet. Next, trace the designs onto some cardboard. Once you've cut out your pieces, assemble them as shown to create your own stand.

FOLLOW: Mashable on Pinterest

Once assembled, you're ready to decorate your laptop stand any way you'd like. Send us your completed project photos using the photo widget below -- we may even share it to our Pinterest boards. We can't wait to see what you come up with!

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Let's get our priorities straight here.

More About: Twaggies, Twitter, comics, humor, trending

The weekend has arrived at last. Here are a few things you might have done this week: watched baseball, tweeted about the vice presidential debate, won a Nobel Prize.

If you didn't win a Nobel Prize, don't fret. Neither did we. Instead, we spent the week writing about all the best digital media resources. Now that the week is over, we took the liberty of rounding them all up into one post, just in case you missed anything along the way.

The past week's stories include ways to digitally optimize your business, advice on how to best enjoy social media and plenty of high-tech gift ideas for the holiday season. For the perfect accessory to your Halloween costume, we found a gadget that m…
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More About: Business, COMMUNICATIONS, Features Week In Review, Lifestyles, Social Media, Tech

This week in tech gave us the perfect balance between exciting new gizmos and thrilling space news. In this exciting week, the tech we found even surpassed the great stuff we showed you last week.

We found out about a new, incredibly cheap competitor of the Amazon Kindle, a Sony Windows 8-powered hybrid that's neither a tablet nor a notebook but tries to be both, and we reviewed a new Samsung display that has the most vivid colors we've ever seen on a computer monitor.

SEE ALSO: Previous editions of Top 10 Tech This Week

But, perhaps, the most exciting news came from space. SpaceX's Dragon capsule returned to the International Space Station, this time loaded with cargo, an…
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Dish Network subscribers, who no longer get AMC shows after the two companies battled over programming fees, will be able to watch the season 3 premiere of "The Walking Dead" online.

More About: DISH, Entertainment, TV, amc, dish network, mashable video, social tv, walking dead

The new iPod nano is yet another full redesign of Apple's tiny music player, but it's a welcome move away from the smaller form factor of its predecessor.

More About: MP3 players, apple, ipod nano, trending

Wondering who you should support in the upcoming presidential election? ISideWith.com has a sophisticated tool for you to state your opinions on specific issues, and then you'll find out which candidate best fits your political persuasion.

More About: 2012 Presidential Election, Politics, isidewith, polls, trending

You may never have to click a pause button again with PredictGaze, facial recognition and gesture tracking software that senses when it's time to pause the video playing on your TV.

More About: PredictGaze, facial recognition, gesture control

NASAHQphoto

"Space Shuttle Endeavour traveling through the greater Los Angeles area!"

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Space shuttle Endeavour's journey to retirement comes to an end Saturday -- but not before it traverses through the streets of Los Angeles toward its new home: California Science Center.

People are watching the shuttle trek from Los Angeles International Airport to the museum and posting eye-catching photos of it on Twitter and Instagram using hashtag #SpotTheShuttle.

Even NBA star Paul Pierce tweeted a picture of the shuttle:

The space shuttle passing through Inglewood as we speak twitter.com/paulpierce34/s…— Paul Pierce (@paulpierce34) October 13, 2012

Since Friday, a Toyota Tundra has been pulling the 155,000-pound Endeavour on a 12-mile route to the museum, where…
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More About: Los Angeles, NASA, Science, Twitter, endeavour, instagram, photography, space, space shuttle, trending

1) Thumbs Up

"So I guess zayn is taking this one home lol." -Liam from One Direction. Photo stats: 78,216 retweets.

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It's that time again. Scroll through the gallery to see which photos were the most shared on Twitter this week.

More About: Entertainment, Social Media, gallery, trending

This year's Mashable Media Summit is set for Nov. 2, 2012 at The TimesCenter in New York City. You'll hear directly from the people who are reshaping media today and redefining it for the future. There will be powerful interviews, inspiring presentations, great networking opportunities and, of course, some Mashable surprises. You don't want to miss this one-day event, so get your tickets now before they sell out!

We're excited about a great lineup of speakers, and more will be announced in the coming weeks, so stay tuned. Here are some of the confirmed speakers who will explore how new technology and business are transforming the media landscape:

Alexis Ohanian, Co-Foun…
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Does it feel like your day is moving in slow motion? These dogs agree.

These ball-chasing, pool-diving pooches were shot at 1,000 to 2,500 frames per second with a Fastcam and a Phantom camera with an underwater housing.

SEE MORE: 10 Funny YouTube Clips of Sleeping Dogs

The adorable, yet strangely calming, video was filmed by Devin Graham.

Cue collective "awwwww-ing."

More About: Watercooler, dogs, trending, viral videos

1. Rokshield v3

Available in six different colors, the Rokshield is a one of a kind protective case for your iPhone 5. The Rokshield offers non-slip grip and a rubber protective outer bumper. One thing that sets this case apart is the RMS, or remote mounting system, that allows you to mount your phone most anywhere. $49

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Now that you've had a few weeks to familiarize yourself with your new iPhone 5, it's time to think about giving it a makeover. We've rounded up several cases that absorb shock and keep your new smartphone safe and secure throughout the day.

SEE ALSO: 20 Cases for Your New iPhone 5

From cases that can mount anywhere to pouches and special impact-resistant material, here are 14 iPhone 5 cases that you'll surely love. Bumps? No biggie. Chips? Not going to happen. If you have a specific case you've fallen in love with, let us know in the comments.

More About: Speck, apple, iphone 5 cases, trending