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"Starting next month, with the new season of its "Watch What Happens Live" gabfest, Bravo will start overlaying its new programing with its homegrown* "Play Live" technology. What that means: Viewers will see polls, contests and other interactive games and graphics that pop up on-screen throughout the show. They'll be able to participate in real time, via a Web broswer, and on-screen results will change, based on viewers' input."

brands could get involved on a platform like this to help people out. for example coke may be interested in helping someone start a garden or something else green related. 

"Social TV start-up Miso has launched a new product, Quips, that allows users to select a scene from a TV show, caption it with their thoughts and share their commentary on a Quips feed, or to Facebook and Twitter."

"Walmart began recruiting top Silicon Valley talent and acquiring start-ups last year. For instance, Walmart acquired Kosmix, a company that specializes in making web design more seamless, for $300 million. That team has been working for over a year to fix Walmart's systems and improve its website.  Walmart is investing in the "social gifting" market. A year ago, Walmart launched "Shopycat," which makes gift recommendations based on friends' Facebook profiles. The site is now called "Walmart Gifts" and allows customers to log in and get personalized recommendations based on Facebook and Twitter profiles.  The retailer got a better search engine. A dozen top engineers took 10 months to build it, and while the company won't discuss sales figures, they said the new system is more user-friendly. "If you search for cotton socks now, you'll actually find them," Manjoo writes.  Walmart is trying to lead the charge in same-day shipping. Its at an advantage considering that 96 percent of Americans live within 20 miles of a Walmart.  Walmart is investing like crazy in its mobile app. "Walmart imagines that as you go through an average day, you'll remember things you need--milk, bread, a new tennis racquet, a toy truck for your nephew's birthday--and tell the voice-enabled Walmart app. The app will list each item's location inside your local Walmart and include product info; eventually, it will also learn your preferences and offer recommendations. And once you're actually in the store, you'll be able to summon an associate to help you," Manjoo says. "

"In the case of Electiongrams, NBC is relying on a start-up called Chute that provides back-end tools for large-scale photo management to brands and large media companies. Chute helps its clients pull in photos that people share through email or sites like Facebook, but also offers human and automated moderating tools."

Investment going toward Pinterest-based services

cable companies starting to focus on VOD cordcutters up 23% over the past year

In fact, interactive video ads that ran on Christmas Day 2011 resulted in engagement rates six times higher than Cyber Monday, according to Web video start-up Jivox. This coincided with serious growth in online Christmas Day sales, which IBM found jumped 16.4% year-over-year.

Wow, Facebook obviously saw these light weight social/mobile platforms as their real competition. Only Snapchat ca save us now;-)

Blood glucose would be amazing but seems iffy. Apple hired folks from a start-up that had a prototype "light" based reader but it didn't work in everyday conditions and took more power than you could likely fit into a watch. Might be too much to assume they'll have figured everything out for a version one iWatch.

startup incubators that are category specific for education, green and health

NFC vendor just received $7.6M and is slated for official launch later this year. a start-up to keep an eye on.