The iOS accessory space has seen a number of universal remote control add-ons over the last few years. There’s the Peel, and the Griffin Beacon — both of which allow you to control your entire entertainment center with your iOS device.

But now there’s a new kid on the block, the VooMote Zapper. And unlike the aforementioned accessories, it doesn’t require an external infrared receiver. The Zapper plugs directly into your device’s 30-pin dock connector, and doesn’t require batteries…(...)
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So this is pretty interesting. The Globe and Mail, Canada’s largest newspaper, is reporting this evening that Apple is actively looking for Canadian launch partners for its rumored television set.

The report claims that the Cupertino company has recently approached both Rogers and Bell, two major Canadian carriers, about the product, and that the two operators already have the TV in their possession…(...)
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Over half of the US population is expected to be in front of a TV set today watching the Super Bowl. But for those of you that for one reason or another can’t get in front of a television this afternoon, there’s other ways to catch the game.

If you happen to have access to a computer, you can watch it there. The game will be streamed live via NBCSports.com and NFL.com. No computer access? That’s ok, we’ve come up with a few ways to follow all of the action on your iPhone…(...)
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How often do you find yourself watching TV with your iPhone either in your hand or within reach? If you’re like me, the answer is most of (if not all of) the time. And that’s exactly what the folks over at Viggle are counting on.

Introducing the new Viggle iPhone app. It allows you to earn points, which can be used to redeem prizes, by doing the same things that you’re probably already doing daily, like playing on your iPhone and watching television…(...)
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As big fans of the Apple TV, we’re making it our business to get the word out about how great Apple’s so-called “hobby” device is for a variety of purposes.

The bottom line is that we can’t live without our little $99 wonder device, so it’s no surprise when someone like Apple CEO Tim Cook thinks just like we do.

We’ve shown you some of the amazing benefits that jailbreaking your Apple TV can provide, but there’s also quite a few perks for those that aren’t jailbroken. One of those is AirPlay Mirroring — a technology that lets you mirror your iPhone 4S or iPad 2 screen 1:1 for an awesome big screen experience.(...)
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TV

All the top television manufacturers and a number of startups are working on “smart” TVs that run apps including Facebook. If consumers follow the plans developers have for them, sharing what shows people are watching will be a big trend in 2012. Several companies showed off products that let people post their viewing habits to Facebook and sort through TV listings based on friends’ activity. DirecTV, for instance, will display what users’ Facebook friends are watching and allow people to view the same shows or record them for later.

Boxee is a streaming device that integrates Open Graph’s “frictionless sharing” capabilities. After two minutes of streaming video through Boxee, a story will be published to users’ Timelines and their friends’ Tickers. Then, similar to what Spotify does, the story could end up in News Feed as its own item or as part of an aggregate story about friends’ similar activity.

Zeebox, which is not a streaming service but an app that turns your mobile device into a new kind of remote, has a similar Timeline integration. Zeebox smartly includes a private viewing mode that lets users continue to see what their friends are watching and chat with people without posting what they are watching to Facebook. Giving users easy-to-use privacy controls is crucial for people to feel comfortable using social TV apps at all.

Yahoo-owned IntoNow is a mobile app that recognizes what show you’re watching by analyzing a sample of the audio, similar to how Shazam can identify songs. People can then choose to make a Facebook post about the show they’re watching. Users can also see synchronized news headlines, sports stats or tweets from people in the show.

In a note on the Facebook + Media page, Facebook also identified Snapstick, Trident and U-verse as partners who are bringing social data to the television experience.

Auto

Mercedes-Benz is bringing Facebook to the car. The company’s upcoming 2013 models will integrate Facebook with the car’s navigation system so drivers can post about where they are going along with an estimated time of arrival based on the current traffic patterns — almost like an advance check-in. Drivers can also discover which of their friends are nearby or whether there are any restaurants in the area that friends have liked or checked into.

The app gives people the option to browse their News Feed when the car is not in motion, but since most people have access to Facebook on their phones and other personal devices, this feature seems superfluous.

Phone

VoIP company Ooma introduced a home phone with photo caller-ID that displays images pulled from the owner’s Facebook, Google and Yahoo friends. Calls between people who are friends on social networking sites are probably more likely to happen on personal mobile devices than home phones, so the integration comes across as gimmicky. Another issue is that users often change their Facebook profile photos, which could confuse someone glancing at the caller-ID, as opposed to on phones where people can choose their own images to associate with a contact.

Photo

Photo sharing from mobile phones is outpacing use of digital point-and-shoots, but camera manufacturers have been fighting the trend by making new cameras that can instantly upload to social sites like Facebook. Kodak introduced two new WiFi-enabled cameras and Samsung announced four of its own. These will be exciting to people who do not have smartphones but otherwise the products seem behind the times.

Kodak also announced two new apps for people to get physical copies their Facebook photos, but neither is innovative. One app lets people design photo books that will be printed and delivered to them. The other makes photo collages people can print at home.

For more about Facebook product integrations at CES, see Facebook Live’s coverage of the conference here.

	Name	Likes	Daily Growth	Weekly Growth
1.	To Kill a Mockingbird	981,496	+818	+590,786
2.	Luciano Huck	3,039,021	+110,149	+579,173
3.	Fast & Furious	10,387,982	+20,981	+557,508
4.	Adele	7,074,380	+75,733	+447,762
5.	Titanic	13,486,119	+57,296	+409,479
6.	The Chronicles of Narnia	466,372	+958	+407,834
7.	LMFAO	6,706,010	+63,343	+372,575
8.	Titanic	8,579,954	+52,395	+360,367
9.	Facebook	54,192,261	+46,375	+354,165
10.	facebook realesed the new Dislike Button™! Add it Now!! not a fake!	445,351	0	+333,025
11.	Jesus Daily	9,210,413	+52,597	+328,993
12.	Angry Birds	8,781,264	+46,286	+325,850
13.	YouTube	46,205,001	+41,141	+320,495
14.	The Walking Dead	3,098,095	+86,686	+320,390
15.	Chicago	329,857	+685	+318,962
16.	Pitbull	11,792,725	+45,672	+292,915
17.	Canal Fox	1,245,921	+25,605	+288,246
18.	EDEBİYAT	645,327	+220,503	+284,928
19.	V Energy Drink Australia	309,324	+292	+275,212
20.	Harry Potter	35,797,314	+39,445	+272,174

Movies on our list this week came as the result of popularity, as well as Page consolidations. “To Kill a Mockingbird” grew 590,800 Likes to 981,500 in what appeared to be a consolidation. “Fast & Furious” grew seemingly as the result of the promotion of its most recent home release, by 557,500 Likes to 10.3 million. “Titanic” the Community Page grew by 409,500 Likes to 13.4 million and “Titanic” the Page grew by 360,400 Likes to 8.5 million by promoting a forthcoming 3D version of the film. “Chicago” grew by 319,000 Likes to 329,900, apparently a consolidation. “Harry Potter” grew by 272,200 Likes to 35.7 million, promoting a related sweepstakes.

TV-related Pages include Brazilian TV personality Luciano Huck with 579,200 Likes to pass 3 million fans. The show “The Walking Dead” with 320,400 Likes to grow to 3.1 million with the recent premiere of the show’s season. Finally, Canal Fox is promoting programming in Spanish, including popular TV shows like “The Walking Dead.”

Music on the list included singer Adele whose Page grew by 447,800 Likes to pass 7 million, LMFAO which is promoting its music appearances and grew by 372,600 to reach 6.7 million and finally Pitbull’s Page grew by 292,900 to reach 11.7 million by promoting his media appearances and other activities. Books, meanwhile, made the list, too. “The Chronicles of Narnia” grew by 407,800 to 466,400 Likes while the Turkish literature Page EDEBİYAT grew by 284,900 to 645,300 Likes.

The rest of the list included Facebook with 354,200 Likes to each 54.1 million and facebook realesed the new Dislike Button™! Add it Now!! not a fake! with 333,000 Likes to 445,400. Jesus Daily grew by 329,000 Likes to 9.2 million; the Page publishes daily religious posts. The Angry Birds Page grew by 325,900 Likes to 8.7 million. YouTube’s Page grew by 320,500 Likes to 46.2 million. Finally,  V Energy Drink Australia grew seeming in a consolidation by 275,200 to 309,300 Likes.

Based on several trends and the company’s principles we believe the new team could be working to develop software that reports media usage, such as music listening or video watching habits, so that users could easily share this info with friends. It could also be working on a photo uploader, or less probably, a Facebook internet browser.

Turning Media Consumption Into Facebook Content

The social network is becoming an increasingly important part of entertainment consumption. There are reports that Facebook is working on a deep integration with music streaming service Spotify that could allow users to share music with friends, and even listen to the same song at the same time. Meanwhile, some third-party developers are experimenting with offering film rentals in exchange for Facebook Credits.

With a nearly half of the most popular Facebook Pages belonging to musicians and television shows, the service is already a key source of entertainment news. Since the entertainment people consume is a way they define their identity, desktop software that helps users publish this information could populate Facebook with compelling content without burdening users. The software could turn users into authors of entertainment content, allowing them to easily post what DVDs or video files they watch, or what songs and artists they’re listening to most.

It could function similarly to Last.fm’s scrobbler which reports listening habits from iTunes, iPods, Spotify, Winamp, VLC media player and many web music services. Desktop software could prompt users to Like the Pages of the content they consume, or persistently display there latest consumption habits on their profile. These types of posts or information could also help a user’s friends discover entertainment Pages to Like, which might help draw support for Facebook desktop software from content creators.

Other Potential Desktop Software Projects

The desktop software team could also build a photo uploader that could reduce drop off in the upload process, or allow users to automatically upload photos when they import them from their cameras.

Some third-parties have attempted to build Facebook-centric internet browsers such as Rockmelt and Wowd, but neither have managed to attain significant traction, which may indicate users aren’t in dire need of this type of solution. A browser project could require a lot of engineering resources, and with Facebook’s focus on HTML5, we don’t see this as a probable direction for the desktop software team.

Media usage scrobbling desktop software would align well with Facebook Pages for content creators, and turn entertainment into more of a two-way conversation. With users learning about music, TV, film and other content verticals from both official outlets and their friends, desktop software could make media consumption more social, and make Facebook an even more attractive place for media advertisers.

Chatter’s synced web and Facebook apps provides a destination for real-time conversation and auxiliary content consumption around TV shows that can increase participation and live viewership.

USA Digital first launched the HTML5 web version of Chatter in October for its shows Burn Notice and Psych. Chatter features three streams: a feed of “All” user and official content; a “Curated” feed of just content from official accounts, writers, actors, and producers; and a “Live” feed which displays uStream question and answer sessions with talent from the shows when available. Chatter posts from users may also be shown on a ticker during the broadcast of TV shows, adding an extra incentive to participate.

It launched the iframe Facebook Page tab app version at the beginning of May for the pro wrestling show Tough Enough and it inspired a 10% increase in user wall posts to the show’s Page. Users can invite their friends using an invite button (which actually produces a share dialog).  As the web and Facebook versions of the app are synced versions of the app are hosted on the show’s site and Facebook Page, there are multiple access points for the aggregated content.

Without Chatter, fans would have to bounce between bounce between all of a show’s different branded content channels. This friction leads to drop-off, and prevents cross-channel conversation where users might read a tweet or a view a YouTube video but could reply through Facebook. It also limits the reach of content posted to any one channel.

Jesse Redniss, vice president of digital for USA Network, tells us that giving added exposure to user generated content through Chatter “makes the fan environment more inviting because it’s not a blackhole.” Early response to the Chatter has been positive. It has reached a peak of 25,000 concurrent users and 250,000 unique users to date, with an average of 20% of users actively submitting content.

Redniss explained that it was essential for the app to live on Facebook and pull in data from the social network because Facebook is more conversational, whereas it wasn’t seeing as high a rate of replies to its Twitter accounts. On Twitter there is “less of an overall community response. On Facebook a piece of content might get 600 Likes. That has a large impact that we haven’t seen from Twitter.”

In June, Chatter will be rolled out on Pages for all of USA’s shows. The development team hopes to add private fan-to-fan chat, and it is working with Facebook to offer exclusive content to those that invite their friends in a manner that doesn’t violate policy. The team should also consider allowing users to opt to cross-post what they write in Chatter to Facebook and Twitter to increase virality.

Chatter centralizes conversations and auxiliary official content to create a real-time secondary form of entertainment that encourages users to post show-related content to their networks by giving it additional visibility to other serious fans.

The conversation also incentivizes users to experience live television broadcasts. This should make the Chatter concept appeal to all TV studios and networks as they see their audiences drift towards piracy, watching through a DVR where they can skip commercials, or through an online streaming service which generate fewer ad dollars and cross-promotion opportunities.

These statistics indicate that TV studios should consider increasing their marketing efforts on Facebook to take advantage of the organic interest in Liking Pages of TV shows. Through Pages, they can strengthen fan loyalty, increase viewership, and sell merchandise.

With DVD sales slipping and more viewers moving towards online streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu that earn less for content producers and studios, the TV industry needs to keep fan loyalty high. Liking a TV show has become a common practice — not one reserved for just a show’s biggest fans, causing Facebook Pages to emerge as a powerful medium for increasing this loyalty.

Pages for shows such as Family Guy (30.2 million Likes), South Park (26.7 million), Two and a Half Men (18.8 million), and Glee (13.7 million) have converted their strong brands into huge followings without relying on advertising. This is because years of great content have led users to actually feel the shows help define their identity, so they’re happy to share their affinity with friends.

These Pages use their updates to announce air-times of episodes, offer video clips, direct user to studio websites where they can stream shows, and encourage fans to buy t-shirts and DVDs. Some shows post exclusive content, such as interviews with actors and directors, so Liking their Pages becomes essential to getting the full experience.

Pages for characters from shows offer additional opportunities for communication. For instance Sheldon Cooper, a character played by Jim Parsons on the show The Big Bang Theory has 4.9 million fans, and posts in character to deepen the connection between fans and the program.

Some shows with popular Pages aren’t utilizing their enormous fan bases, though. For example, the Page for character Dr. House of the Fox show House has 19.9 million Likes and is growing at nearly a million Likes a month, but hasn’t posted any content since April 2010

Similar to music which claims 44 of the top 100 Pages as of May, the potential ROI for Facebook marketing of television is high because Liking Pages for shows feel natural, dissimilar to Liking Pages of brands. By creating Pages for their shows and characters, and updating them frequently with relevant news and exclusive content, TV studios can capitalize on the inherent interest of users.