Palo Alto, Calif. - Photobucket, the photo-sharing service acquired by News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) Fox Interactive Media last year, announced on Tuesday the release of the site's application programming interface (API), which will allow developers to build new applications based on Photobucket. Any developer will now be able to offer Photobucket-based applications alongside offerings from Adobe, AOL, FotoFlexer, Intercasting, RockYou, Slide, Snapvine and TiVo.

Los Angeles - Apple (NASD: AAPL) has filed a patent application on a universal interface for real-time text chat on touchscreen devices, which could result in the release of a chat application for the iPhone or iPod touch, Apple Insider reported. The application was published in March by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. The iPhone already offers standard mobile text messaging, while AOL has developed a version of its AIM application for the device.

Los Angeles - News Corp.'s MySpace (NYSE: NWS) and NBC (NYSE: GE) News on Tuesday launched Decision '08, a new section on MySpace's IMPACT Channel that will feature in-depth election-related news, analysis and discussion. The site offers news feeds and daily videos from NBC News and MSNBC.com, as well as user-generated content from MySpace.

Los Angeles - Improv comedy troupe the Groundlings has signed a one-year deal with Sony Pictures Television to create 50 digital shorts for the Web and mobile platforms, Variety reports. The Los Angeles-based group has fostered such comedians as Will Ferrell, Lisa Kudrow, Julia Sweeney and Paul "Pee-wee Herman" Reubens.

Suffolk, England - Among the 2,000 or so who have uploaded their own remixes of Radiohead's song "Nude" after the band made stem tracks available for download from iTunes was electronic musician Thomas Dolby, the artist said on Tuesday. "I was trying out my new wireless router to see if I could get reception down on the beach in front of my house," said Dolby. "Sitting there shivering beside the North Sea with my laptop, huddled in a blanket and listening to Radiohead's 'Nude' stems on iTunes, with the waves lapping the shore and a crowd of seagulls fighting over a crab shell, I got an idea for a lovely remix." The song is available for free download from RadioheadRemix.com.

Los Angeles - The Championship Gaming Series, a worldwide professional video game players' league, has announced a deal with Eurosport and BSkyB that grants Eurosport the exclusive continental European broadcast rights for CGS. Along with CGS coverage on Sky in the U.K. and Ireland, on DirecTV in the Americas, and on STAR and ESPN STAR Sports in Asia and Australia, the company says its tournaments now have a potential TV audience of 400 million viewers.

New York - Sony Corporation of America (NYSE: SNE) announced on Tuesday that it will acquire Gracenote, a provider of digital media identification and recommendation services, for $260 million plus other contingent consideration. Founded in 1998, Emeryville, Calif.-based Gracenote developed the CD identification technology that has become the standard used by software like Apple's iTunes, Yahoo's Music Jukebox and Winamp, and on portable music players from Sony, Samsung and others.

Tokyo - Sony (NYSE: SNE) has once again delayed the launch of its "Home" 3D virtual community for the PlayStation 3 console, now saying the service will launch for users in the fall. The service had initially been slated to launch last fall, but pushed the debut until this spring.

Epic Advertising, Inc. (AzoogleAds and Bazaar) is looking for a Product Manager in its New York office to help deliver new strategic

San Francisco - Mechanical Zoo, a social search start-up founded by a number of ex-Google employees, has raised $750,000 in convertible debt from angel investors and is set to launch a beta test of its service next month, CNET News.com reported.

San Francisco - Sonific, a provider of licensed music widgets and free music applications for social media, said on Tuesday that it will take its service offline "as a consequence of the unworkable music licensing situation and the resulting lack of solid revenue modeling," co-founder and CEO Gerd Leonhard wrote in a note on Sonific.com. The company had attracted 80,000 users to its service and amassed a library of over 200,000 licensed songs.

Washington - U.S. mobile media and entertainment revenues are expected to more than double over the next five years, but the strongest growth will not occur until after 2010, as the technical and market environment for such services improves, according to a new report from market research firm Analysys.

Port Washington, N.Y. - Thirty-seven percent of Americans believe they will spend less on entertainment products and devices this year, compared to just 18% who anticipate spending more, according to a new survey conducted by market research firm NPD Group. Just under half of respondents (46%) said they thought they would spend about the same amount in 2008 as they did last year.

Espoo, Finland - Nokia (NYSE: NOK) announced on Tuesday that Sony (NYSE: SNE) BMG has joined Universal Music Group in licensing its catalog for unlimited access on Nokia phones as part of the company's Comes With Music offering. The service gives Nokia phone buyers access to unlimited mobile and PC-based downloads from the Nokia Music Store for a year, after which time they may continue on an unlimited access subscription service.

San Francisco - BuzzLogic, a provider of social media marketing services and a social media ad network, announced on Tuesday that it has acquired Activeweave, developers of the BlogRover browser companion application.