The App Centre launched first in the US last month with more than 600 available from day one - including services such as Pinterest and popular games including Draw Something and Bejeweled. The UK version has gone live with some extra European-based services such as Deezer, a popular French music streaming site. Facebook will also recommend apps based on ratings from people who use it and the apps that your friends are using. The store is also available via its mobile app on both Apple's iOS and the Android platform.

Digital media spend has grown in the first quarter of 2012, indicating that businesses are continuing to invest in digital media. The Advertising Association Warc (AA/Warc) has estimated that internet spend has increased by 11.1%, compared to the first quarter of 2011. Forecasters are expecting the trend to continue throughout the year, with overall value reaching GBP5.3 billion by the end of 2012. According to the AA/Warc UK advertising expenditure on the whole has broadly remained steady, despite the turbulent global economy. Net advertising spend has increased by 1.1% in the first quarter of 2012, figures have revealed.

According to a new survey by Gartner Inc., people have quickly begun using media tablets for daily personal activities and the main activities moving from PCs to media tablets are checking email (81% of respondents), reading the news (69%), checking the weather forecast (63%), social networking (62%) and gaming (60%). Gartner conducted the study at the end of 2011 in the U.S., U.K. and Australia to gain a better understanding of how early adopters of media tablets were using personal connected devices. The survey was run as an online seven-day diary.

The report by O2 says that smartphones have become a digital "Swiss Army Knife" with a focus on various demands and uses beyond making phone calls. Smartphone owners were found to currently spend over 2 hours a day using their phones, in which users spent 25 minutes browsing the internet, 17 minutes checking social networks, 13 minutes playing games, and 16 minutes listening to music. Making phone calls was only the fifth use on smartphones with users only spending 12 minutes a day making calls. Phone calls were only slightly above emails (11 minutes) and texting (10 minutes).

The Euro 2012 final between Spain and Italy set a new record on social networking site Twitter, msn.com reports. In the final, Spain beat their European neighbours 4-0 and when the fourth goal was scored, Twitter erupted with more social media content than ever before for a sporting event. In the moments after the 88th-minute goal was scored, Twitter users fired off over 15,358 tweets per second, smashing the previous record set in February this year when 12,233 were sent during an American football match between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots.

ITV has appointed Julian March as its new director of online in a shakeup that will see 40 out of 100 jobs at risk at the broadcaster. March replaces Robin Pembrooke as head of ITV's online operation, which includes websites for programmes such as The Only Way Is Essex and its catchup ITV Player. Pembrooke joined ITV in 2010 and will leave the broadcaster at the end of the summer. Pembrooke's job title was managing director of ITV online and on-demand. It is understood that the bulk of the jobs under threat are editorial positions. Staff have entered a four-week …

Jim Killock, of the Open Rights Group, hailed the move as "a tremendous victory for the movement, for democracy and for every European citizen that has demanded that their rights be respected. ACTA must be abandoned. The Commission must drop its calls to try again." The Parliament voted by 478 to 39 to reject the treaty, which aimed to prevent copyright infringement in both digital and real objects but became mired in controversy after secret negotiations. There were, however, 165 abstentions.

Despite any windfalls generated by Euro 2012 and the London Olympics, Sir Martin Sorrell's Group M estimates that TV and press advertising revenues will fall by more than GBP350 million in the UK during 2012. However, the slump in print and broadcast will be more than offset by a boom in digital advertising, according to the media buying network. Group M slashed its forecast for TV ad revenue growth this year from 3% to 0.1% - and says that national newspapers will suffer sharper than previously predicted falls in spending. In December Group M forecast TV ad revenue to come …

Using shorter, sharper language on sites like Facebook and Twitter is making young women seem 'aggressive'. Reported by thedrum.co.uk, research from the Plain English Campaign found that the fast paced communication between users means that teenagers have less time to deliberate over their word choice, meaning their social media content tends to be much more adapted or 'bite-size'. The outcome of this has been much more noticeable in girls than boys as the former communicates frequently on Facebook, Twitter and emails, claims the research.

As Google announces their interactive TV service will be available outside the United States for the first time, research commissioned by eBay reveals that one in four Britons will actively participate in interactive viewing for tasks like shopping. The report shows that direct retail sales from Interactive TV will see an increase to nearly GBP750 million by 2014 compared to GBP54 million in 2011. Interactive TV can provide an opportunity for retailers to try a new way to engage with customers. As online use through television continues to grow, retailers will need to adjust their online content to fit interactive …