Technology, Tv | featured news

She's dipped her hands into country music, made appearances on Glee, and even carved a role for hers.

The social networking giant is looking to develop features that will allow users to share their favorite TV shows, news, music and other media.

Move over, Web surfing. Netflix movies now take up more of the Internet pipes going into North American homes. A study published Tuesday by Sandvine Inc. shows that Netflix movies and TV shows account for nearly 30 percent of traffic into homes during peak evening hours, compared with less than 17 percent for Web browsing.

Yahoo has acquired start-up IntoNow, a service that enables people to “check-in” to content while watching it on their televisions.

What's the difference between the big screen in your living room, the smaller screen on your laptop or the tiny one in your pocket?

Qualcomm is offering to refund customers who bought its portable TV sets, ahead of shutting down the broadcasts on March 27. Qualcomm's FLO TV service is the only subscription-based broadcast TV service in the U.S. designed for portable gadgets. It's been live since 2007, but has never garnered much interest from customers.

Google TV has the network television industry's attention. Certain television shows on the Web sites of broadcast networks CBS and ABC are currently being blocked when Google TV users try to access those sites.

Google has been in talks with the major TV networks and the major cable and satellite distributors, but it announced only a few concrete partnerships on Monday.

Media chiefs this week sounded a note of caution on Apple's 99-cent digital-rental service for TV shows amid a division in the industry on whether to participate.

Reality TV offers marketers secrets for social media success.