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IBM patents TV remote that updates Twitter, Facebook

Remote would post what you're watching to your Facebook, Twitter, blog, or other Web service. I don't know if I like this or not, but, well, no. I don't like it one bit.

Matt Hickey
With more than 15 years experience testing hardware (and being obsessed with it), Crave freelance writer Matt Hickey can tell the good gadgets from the great. He also has a keen eye for future technology trends. Matt has blogged for publications including TechCrunch, CrunchGear, and most recently, Gizmodo. Matt is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CBS Interactive. E-mail Matt.
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Matt Hickey
Oh, I totally understand this drawing. USPTO

The convergence of the Internet and television is here. I can rent videos from iTunes and watch them in my living room while drinking a beer with buddies. I can stream from Netflix via my Xbox 360. I can check my friends' photos on Flickr, watch YouTube, and do all kinds of other stuff over the Web on my television. We'd been promised this years ago. This is good.

IBM is taking the idea and going the other way by filing for a patent that would let your TV remote control post what you're watching to your Facebook, Twitter, blog, or other Web service.

The idea is to let everyone who follows you on Twitter know you're watching "Real Housewives of New Jersey." A quick look at my own Twitter friends shows that they currently do that manually. I need new friends.

I'm hoping the remote technology will have an override so people don't know what you're watching all the time. I certainly don't want my friends to know exactly how much "Star Trek" I actually watch each night or how many Keyboard Cat fail videos I've seen on Flickr. I mean, you wouldn't want to know that, would you?

(Source: Dayton Business Journal)