Ypulse Essentials: Facebook's Media Apps, Ke$ha's Watch Line, UK Kids Are Technophiles

Facebook’s latest announcement was rumored as a music service (but it has the potential to revolutionize media in general. The new apps will allow users to see what TV shows, songs, movies, news, and games their friends are using through integrations with Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, Washington Post, and more, allowing for easier media discovery. Privacy laws in the U.S. currently limit this sort of passive sharing, though that might change, but not in time for the launch of the apps. Btw, here’s what Facebook recently had to say about cyberbullying. Speaking of new launches in the works, Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning are reuniting to create Airtime, a video site where friends can post videos and react to them live. The pitch? Eliminating loneliness) (Variety, reg required) (Derek Baird) (Forbes)

- We’ve hinted that watches are making a comeback with Millennials (and now Ke$ha is fueling the fire, designing her own line of watches for Baby G. In other fashion news, the Muppets go couture with a new line for Opening Ceremony at prices only true hipsters would be willing to pay. And if you’re in the market for overpriced, branded fashion, there’s Starbuck’s new line of designer t-shirts celebrating its 40th birthday for $85, including one that looks like it has a coffee spill on it) (Billboard) (Flavorwire)

- Kids under age 10 in the UK (have a plethora of tech devices at their fingertips! A third have their own cell phones, with one in 10 having a smartphone. About a quarter have a gaming system, and nearly one in five has their own flat-screen TV in their rooms and their own laptop) (BBC)

- Be part of creating the first-ever crowd sourced time capsule! (The Lifecatching Project is an endeavor aimed at capturing the “now” over the course of one week. To join in the movement, submit three photos of everyday moments to show91results@photos.flickr.com — submissions are only being accepted for a limited time, so send your photos soon! In a world where our days are packed with activity, we rarely take the time to relish the individual moments for how special they are — and this project is gathering those ordinary moments into a global time capsule. What’s more, for every photo submitted, The Lifecatching Project will contribute $1 to an up and coming artist collective in New York called Con Artist, that will enable them to make the move into a new space! Help us meet their goal and make it happen. And if that’s not enough — the Con Artist collective will produce a gallery show mid-November in their new space in NYC’s Lower East Side, featuring some original art inspired by the photos)

- Spider-Man, Captain America, Iron Man, and more (are headed to USC thanks to a licensing program that merges the university’s colors and Trojan mascots with Marvel’s superheros. It probably won’t be long before other university mascots get the superhero treatment. In other character news, Disney is launching a new animated character, Swampy the alligator, in a smartphone gaming app, hoping one day soon he’ll be popular enough to warrant his own feature film. It’s a reversal of the company’s usual model where characters start out on TV or in film and then filter down to lesser media) (Newsarama) (Yahoo!)

- In the continuing trend of bringing back nostalgic TV shows (“Sabrina The Teenage Witch” is the latest series to get a reboot. This time she’s a much hipper witch, complete with a skinny jeans, a spiky haircut, and a glowing tattoo! In other TV news, teen-savvy network The CW is reportedly working on a reality game show about musical chairs called “Extreme Musical Chairs.” Wait, what?! And we thought “Extreme Couponing” was a strange premise for a show…) (LA Times) (The Wrap)

- Congrats to She’s The First for winning the Campus Media Group’s (annual PSA contest. Campus Media will promote the organization in university newspapers, encouraging students to start their own campus chapters of the non-profit that helps girls in developing countries become the first members of their families to attend college) (Release)