Happy news VOIP and Mac fans as today Skype announced a new beta version of its chat software, Skpe 5.0 beta, is now available. According to Skype this software has several new features including:

• New call control bar — Hang up, mute and more from a mini Skype toolbar that sits on top of any web pages, documents or photos you’ve got open

• Search chat content to easily navigate past conversations

• Offline IM so that you can send and receive instant messages even if the recipient is offline

• Personalise contacts via user profiles

• Quickly rejoin calls if your Internet connection fails momentarily

• Floating Contacts Monitor to see your online contacts and contact groups

As users of Skype pretty much every week we think this is pretty cool. Check out a little video showing how cool after the jump.

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Cartoon Network has been branching outside of their namesake for months now with all-new original live action programming from things like Tower Prep to the series of live action Ben 10 films. Now, they’re finding the happy medium with their first ever full-length CG film, titled Firebreather.

The premise is about a boy coming into his own after learning that he is the offspring of a human mother and a dragon father (awkward!). Here’s the breakdown from Cartoon Network.

Cartoon Network’s first-ever CGI original movie event, Firebreather, premieres on Wednesday, November 24 at 7 p.m. (ET/PT).  Directed by Peter Chung (Aeon Flux) and based on the comic book series by Phil Hester and Andy Kuhn, Firebreather delivers fierce action in the clash of two worlds where monsters roam the Earth and past secrets are exposed. At the center of it all, a teenage boy named Duncan struggles to find his place as half-Kaiju and half-human.

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As I may have indicated previously, I’m having a hard time getting very excited for Microsoft’s Kinect. Regardless, I’m sure it will probably sell very well. In fact, we will find out how well today as this is officially Kinect launch day around the world.

The new motion-based video game controller for Xbox 360 is, according to most industry analysts, expected to be one of the best-selling accessories this holiday season. Microsoft recently raised its holiday sales projections from 3 million to 5 million units. That’s a lot of units.

You have a couple options to get Kinect. If you currently have an XBox 360 (Or a few of them) you need to buy Kinect. If you don’t have an XBox 360 you can buy one that includes a Kinect. However, as I said before, this is probably going to be a hot seller so if you do want Kinect, I suggest buying one now.

As in right now.

Remember watching Zombieland and wondering why School of Rock and Nacho Libre screenwriter Mike White makes a 10 second cameo in the first half of the film? Well, it seems that’s because White is a diehard zombie fan. (Who isn’t?)

That love for zombies is a big reason why White is now at the top of the list to direct the adaptation of the Seth Grahame-Smith book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. For those unaware, the journey to get this film a crew has actually been a trying one. Here’s the breakdown from the LA Times:

The quirky auteur David O. Russell had been on board to direct the movie. But last month the “Flirting with Disaster” filmmaker decamped to make the video game adaptation “Drake’s Fortune.” That created a vacuum behind the camera, and four weeks weeks later, no filmmaker has been selected to replace him (although Lionsgate says a choice is expected soon).

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It’s looking like this holiday season will be stacked up with tons of cinematic treats for adults this year, rather than in previous years when it’s been geared toward families. While comedies like Yogi Bear, Little Fockers and Gulliver’s Travels will most likely flop, films like True Grit and Tron: Legacy will definitely be enough to make this a Hollywood Christmas.

Not counting a few trailers, we haven’t gotten to see much of the upcoming Tron sequel. Daft Punk released a music video that gave us a bit more of the 100% computer-generated TRON world. Now we’re finally getting something with human actors as a scene with Jeff Bridges and Garrett Hedlund, the on-screen father and son of the Flynn’s, has hit the web.

The film picks up almost 28 years after the events of 1982′s original film. Jeff Bridge’s Kevin Flynn has gone missing and it’s up to his son, Sam, to get to the bottom of the mystery. Mix this story with a bunch of amazing visual shots of the game grid and Olivia Wilde in a skin-tight Tron suit, and you’ve got yourself a film.

Check out this new scene after the jump. Be sure to catch TRON: LEGACY in theaters, IMAX, and Disney 3D everywhere on December 17th.

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For those who made the switch over to Facebook years ago, you more than likely abandoned your Myspace account either immediately or shortly thereafter. After that, the social networking site has gone through tons of facelifts and revamps in order to retain what little followers the site has. Those were all thanks to the site’s owner, News Corp, who purchased the Facebook competitor back in 2005.

Now, it seems that the media corporation may be pulling the plug on the site by the end of next years, says president Chase Carey. From THR.

Discussing online social network MySpace, Carey said he is happy with a just-launched redesign, but said that “current losses are not accceptable or sustainable.” He said the redesigned MySpace has the “potential to be an exciting business, but needs to show real progress in the coming quarters, not years, mainly by growing traffic and revenue and “a clear path to profitability.” \

Observers took this as a signal that News Corp. could look for a buyer if MySpace shows no real progress. The networking site’s revenue declined by $70 million in the latest quarter compared to the same period a year earlier.

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We saw a teaser trailer a few months back, but Zack Snyder’s eagerly anticipated Sucker Punch got an official full-length trailer release.  The trailer has Snyder’s fingerprints all over it.  It is highly stylized, dark, and features lots of his signature slow and fast motion sequences.

If you are already a fan of Snyder’s work, you will probably be pleased, but this movie probably won’t convert any naysayers. Snyder previously directed 300, Watchmen, and Legends of the Guardians.

Snyder wrote and directed the action movie, which stars a bevy of beauties: Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, and Carla Gugino.

Galliantly trying to offset all that estrogen will be Scott Glen and  Jon Hamm. The film looks like a trippy fantasy ride partially taking place in a prison, but it looks like all sorts of creatures show up in the movie.

Official syynopsis from Warner Brothers: Sucker Punch is an epic action fantasy that takes us into the vivid imagination of a young girl whose dream world provides the ultimate escape from her darker reality.  Unrestrained by the boundaries of time and place, she is free to go where her mind takes her, and her incredible adventures blur the lines between what’s real and what is imaginary.

The film is slated to open on March 25, 2011, but you can check out the brand new trailer after the jump. Enjoy!

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Directed by Eyad Zahra, The Taqwacores is the 2010 film adaptation of the novel by the same name (written in 2003 by Michael Muhammed Knight).  The Taqwacores depicts the fictitious lives of several young,  Muslim-Americans, all of whom live together in a house in Buffalo, NY and who embrace the Islamic Punk Rock scene.

We are first introduced to Yusef (Bobby Naderi), a conservative engineering student who acts as both a proxy for the audience and educator for those unfamiliar with Muslim tradition, as he becomes better acquainted with his new housemates.  Each of the residents – in their own way – have come to question the traditional beliefs of their religion and actively initiate debate and critical thinking with Yusef, eventually broadening his own perspective of what it means to be a Muslim in America.

It’s a fascinating topic and one which I found easier to relate to than I would have expected.  When a person’s experiences are in conflict with the traditions and beliefs they have been raised to accept – and when that person begins to directly question the fundamentals of their religious upbringing and culture,  how do they reconcile that schism in their foundation with the person they are becoming?   Faith – of any persuasion – is a difficult subject to address, which is precisely what makes this an intriguing premise.

The residents of the Taqwacore house all identify themselves as Muslim – even as they disavow certain tenants of the Islamic doctrine.  They have wild parties at night and then hold Friday prayer in their living room, conducting the service themselves using their own voices and interpretation of the Qur’an.  For me, these were the most engaging, interesting parts of the film – each resident had their own issue of conflict (though at times, felt too much like a broad characterization) which they addressed head-on during their lecture.

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This week on The Flickcast Matt and Chris return from a week off with way more energy and sense of purpose. Or, they do their best and just try to get through the show by bringing you even more interesting and exciting topics for discussion.

Some of these topics include Batman: The Dark Knight Rises casting rumors, Captain America photos, TV programs getting canceled, potential Superman casting, The Walking Dead, Matt’s love for all things Nic Cage and much more. The team also made some picks this week including Matt’s pick of the movie Hellboy and Chris’ pick of season one of the original The Bionic Woman starring Lindsay Wagner.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook and MySpace or via email.

Jason Statham either has a very specific goal in mind when picking films, or he really just doesn’t care. A lesser action star would feel the need to branch out into kid-friendly flicks to up his revenue stream and become more of a household name (*cough* Vin Diesel *cough*) but Statham takes a different approach.

Between the Crank films, the Transporter films, and anything done with Jet Li or Guy Ritchie, Statham has managed to keep his “badass quota” to a maximum level. The same holds with the trailer for his newest film, Blitz.

With a screenplay from Moon’s Nathan Parker, Blitz tells the story of a cop put on the case of a serial killer who makes it a point to kill police officers. You’ll definitely get the British crime side of Statham over the high-action martial arts in this film.

The very first trailer for the flick has surfaced, which you can check out after the jump. Be sure to catch Blitz in select theaters worldwide starting in February of 2011.

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It’s fate may be sealed by NBC, but that hasn’t stopped Community from being one of the most original and brilliant comedies on TV today. NBC has yet to make a decision on picking the show up for another season due to it’s mediocre ratings (damn you, Big Bang Theory!) while they are more than happy with the numbers for the new comedy Outsourced.

Before the decision gets made, we still get brand new adventures from our favorite Greendale Community College clique, and this week, things get even more interesting as Hilary Duff guest stars. From NBC.

After a classroom smackdown with a group of “mean girls” led by Meghan (guest star Hilary Duff), Britta, Shirley, and Annie bond with Abed by turning him into the ultimate “mean girl.” Meanwhile, Jeff and Troy embrace a zen-like spirituality under the guidance of a groundskeeper when they come across a secret trampoline on campus. Determined to uncover the source of their new bliss, Pierce ends up taking a disastrous turn on the trampoline and lands in the hospital.

We’ve got 2 brand new, can’t-miss clips from the episode for you after the jump, so check them out and catch Community this Thursday night on NBC.

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One of the big problems with Marvel’s super hero franchises being split up among several Hollywood studios is that continuity and lore goes out of the knowing hands of Marvel and into several different hands, most of which never communicate. So when rumors started floating around that Hugh Jackman was making a cameo appearance as Wolverine in the upcoming X-Men: First Class film, you could imagine the complaints fans had.

Not only does this story take place in the 1960′s, well before Wolverine comes across Weapon X, Adamantium, or anything to do with Xavier’s mutants, but they would have to shoehorn Jackman into a world that he clearly doesn’t fit in. In a recent chat with Coventry Telegraph, Bryan Singer spigave us more of a look into this new take on the classic team of mutants.

Asked about the First Class storyline, Singer explained: “It’s about how Xavier – if you know X-Men universe – how Professor Xavier and Magneto kind of met and became friends and how that friendship turned into something else.

“It takes place in the early 60s and it incorporates some characters I was able to bring back in time that are familiar, as well as some new characters, new mutants.

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