Cable network Starz said today it is launching its first social media game on Facebook, Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, and an iPad app for its Spartacus original series. The Beta version of the game will launch on January 6 to the first 10,000 Spartacus fans who register on Facebook. A full launch of the Spartacus: Gods of the Arena game is set for January 20, before the broadcast of the series on January 21.

Netflix said today it is working with major consumer electronics makers to develop a Netflix-branded one-click buttons on remotes that operate Internet connected TVs, Blu-ray disc players and other devices. Beginning this Spring, buttons that specify "Netflix" including some featuring the red Netflix logo are planned to be on remote controls that operate certain new Blu-ray disc players from a variety of companies including Best Buy's in-house Dynex brand, Haier, Memorex,

Analytics firm Statcounter said today that discovery engine StumbleUpon has surpassed Facebook as the top source for social media traffic in the U.S. StumbleUpon had 43 percent of the U.S. social media traffic on January 1st, while Facebook trailed with 38 percent. Statcounter tracks 15 billion page views per month on more than three million websites. Social media sites that Statcounter tracks include Facebook, StumbleUpon, Twitter, reddit, YouTube, MySpace and Digg.

Google has added Vizio as its first TV partner in the new year, joining Sony and Logitech. The official Google TV Blog offers more details. We're kicking off the year with a new partner, Vizio, a leading TV maker in the U.S. Vizio is making a new line of TVs and a Blu-ray player incorporating Google TV that will hit shelves later this year. Google also said in 2011 it will release developer tools for building apps specifically for the TV,

Nearly a quarter )21%( of all TVs shipped in 2010 had Internet connectivity and that is on track to grow to over 122 million in 2014, according to a new report from The NPD Group. Growth of connected TV was fueled by the Japanese market in 2010 and driven by high levels of broadband access. Emerging markets will play a key role in the future growth of this segment, with Eastern Europe forecast to grow from 2.5 million connected TVs shipped in 2010 to over 10 million in 2014.

Office Depot has launched a Facebook sweepstakes with the goal to find America's Messiest Office. From today through January 31st, users can upload a photo of their messy, unorganized office space or desk to Office Depot's Facebook page for a chance to win a variety of prizes. The grand prize winner of Americas Messiest Office sweepstakes will win a $10,000 office makeover. Additionally, 10 visitors daily will win a $100 Office Depot gift card,

AdKeeper, a company that allows users to save online ads for later viewing, said today it has raised $35 million in Series B funding led by Oak Investment Partners The round raises AdKeeper's total funding to $43 million since it came out of stealth in October and is set to publicly launch in February. AdKeeper allows users to save ads in personal Keepers to review the ads later. Users can click on the Keep Button which is embedded in the ad.

Turner Sports has relaunched NCAA.com with plans to make it a year-round destination for college sports fans and provide coverage for all 88 NCAA championships. The new NCAA.com will provide users with editorial coverage of all mens and womens NCAA sports during the regular season and championships, with school-specific content for more than 1,000 NCAA institutions.

ESPN is making its mobile ScoreCenter application available on Samsung Internet-enabled televisions. The ScoreCenter app will be available in the Samsung App store and allows users to view scores from a variety of sports. Personalization features allow users to customize the app by highlighting their favorite teams and leagues. Users can also adjust the app to be displayed across the top, bottom or sides of the TV screen. Video images are displayed accordingly,

Nearly one-third of Americans say while they are at a store looking at product, they tried to find a better deal on their mobile device, according to a new report from GfK Roper, conducted on behalf of SapientNitro. Thirty-three percent say while out shopping, they email or texted someone to tell them about an experience at a store, such as finding a deal or gift. Nineteen percent have used their phone to post something to Facebook, MySpace,

Google's AdMob team has partnered with Coca-Cola to create a mobile holiday live wallpaper app for Android. The animated live wallpaper app features a snow globe. The Google Mobile Ads Blog offers more details. Cokes live wallpaper takes the user into this snowglobe experience. You can visit scenes from the video and tilt your phone to move the characters, just like Santa. Shaking your phone twirls the snow around,

Online holiday spending has reached $27.46 billion this season, marking a 12 percent increase over the same time period versus last year, according to a new report from comScore. The most recent week )weekend ending Dec.17( reached $5.15 billion in spending, an increase of 14 percent compared to the same week last year, with four individual days surpassing $900 million, led by Green Monday )Monday, December 13( with $954 million and Free Shipping Day )Friday,

MySpace has introduced new tools to help musicians better promote and mangage their music. MySpace has partnered with marketing platform Reverbnation and will offer its FanReach email marketing tool to all musicians with a profile. FanReach allows artists to communicate with others both on MySpace and via targeted email campaigns. Myspace Music will also be offering artists a stats tool that provides an overview of their fans, their music plays,

Amazon said today that users of its Kindle for Android app can now buy, read, and sync more than 100 Kindle newspapers and magazines. Additional new features include the ability to buy and download Kindle books and periodicals within the Kindle for Android app, share reading progress via social networks, and zoom closer to images and other graphics. Kindle for Android is the first major e-book app to offer periodicals on the Android platform.

Music video site Vevo has launched a free HD app for the iPad that features its catalog of 25,000 videos from more than 7,500 artists. We optimized the Vevo experience specifically for the iPad. Its a perfect match, actuallyVevos crystal clear videos played on iPads big, beautiful screen, the company says in a blog post . With the portability of the iPad, you can take your favorite videos, innovative Vevo original programming and live concerts with you wherever you go.

Google has introduced a new feature that allows people to create and personalize their own holiday greeting cards and send them to others via email. The Google Blog provides more details. Were sure many of you have holiday plans in the works, so weve designed greeting cards you can email to friends and familyto share those fun adventures or just to say hello from wherever you are around the world.

MySpace and Google have reached an agreement to renew and expand their search and advertising partnership, which is good news for the struggling social network. Under the terms of the deal, Google will continue to operate MySpace search and advertising and will also provide additional display advertising services to improve the entertainment content on MySpace. We're excited to deepen our partnership with one of the largest social Web properties in the world, Myspace,

Nearly half )49%( of the people in the U.S. do not meet the FCC's minimum broadband standard of 4 megabits per second )mbps( download and 1 mbps upload, according to a new report by the Communications Workers of America )CWA(. CWAs annual Speed Matters report on Internet speeds in the United States indicates little progress has been made since the report was first issued in 2007. This years Speed Matters report shows that between 2009 and 2010,

Online television guide Clicker has introduced its own recommendation engine called Clicker Predict, along with Facebook integration. Clicker Predict considers more than 50 factors when making entertainment recommendation for users. These factors are updated as a person searches for, rates, discusses, saves, shares and views online programming. Clicker has also integrated Facebook likes and interests into Clicker Predict. When a user visits Clicker while logged into Facebook,

Social search company Wowd, has released a new Web version of its service it says is focused exclusively on cutting through the clutter on Facebook and surfacing content that is the most relevant. We want to give people a simple tool they can really use - one that makes their online social lives easier, said Mark Drummond, CEO of Wowd. We listen carefully to our users and do our best to incorporate their feedback whenever we can to ensure the best possible experience.