If you’ve been waiting for a replacement for your aging PS3 or XBox 360, your wait may be a bit longer than you think. According to Kotaku, neither Microsoft nor Sony will launch new gaming consoles before 2014.

“Both [Microsoft] and Sony are telegraphing to each other that they’re delaying, to milk the current [generation] and fill in previous craters better,” one source told Kotaku. In contrast, Nintendo’s next generation gaming console is expected to land sometime next year.

But wait, all is not lost. Microsoft and Sony may decide to build onto their current systems. For example, Microsoft may release a “Kinect-upgraded” Xbox 360 in 2013. “Sony definitely isn’t launching a successor before 2014 and could stand to benefit by having Microsoft launch first as PS3 builds in North America and builds a strong position in Europe,” said Billy Pidgeon, an analyst with M2 Research cited in the article.

Microsoft has stated it will offer support for the Xbox 360 through 2015. So, it stands to reason we should see a replacement for it sometime before that. So, the 2014 date makes some sense.

Although, if I were Microsoft I might worry a bit more about how to sustgain consumer interest in a console that’s already over six years old. In the tech and gaming world, that’s almost an eternity.

Taylor Schilling is Dagny Taggart, a strong, independent woman keeping the family railroad business (railroads being the dominant mode of transportation in AS’s alternate future due to restrictive oil prices) alive despite the irresponsibility, short-sightedness, and political exploitation of her co-manager and brother James.

A major disaster on one of the lines leads Dagny to replace the tracks with a new kind of steel alloy developed by like-minded entrepreneur Hank Rearden (Grant Bowler), who shares Dagny’s independent spirit and is similarly being worn down through a miasma of regulations spearheaded by corrupt politicians and competitors. And against this backdrop is the ongoing disappearance of the country’s most productive members and the pervasive question, “Who is John Galt?”

I didn’t get a screening invitation to the film; I paid to see and went with a friend and die-hard fan of Ayn Rand. And while I agree with Rand on many of her points, both my friend and I left the theater disappointed. Atlas doesn’t quite deserve the scathing reviews it’s been getting, but it’s not a good film either—regardless of where you stand on Rand’s philosophy.

Continue Reading →

Late yesterday, Amazon announced that Kindle customers will soon be able to borrow eBooks from more than 11,000 U.S. libraries. Amazon’s Kindle Library Lending project will enable users to check out eBooks from local libraries and then read them on their Kindle or on any device with Amazon’s free eReader software installed.

But wait, that’s not the only cool thing about this service. Unlike traditional libraries, which don’t allow borrowers to write in books, with this new service readers can make notes and highlight as much as they want. “We’re doing a little something extra here,” said Jay Marine, director of Amazon Kindle.

“Normally, making margin notes in library books is a big no-no. But we’re extending our Whispersync technology so that you can highlight and add margin notes to Kindle books you check out from your local library. Your notes will not show up when the next patron checks out the book. But if you check out the book again, or subsequently buy it, your notes will be there just as you left them, perfectly Whispersynced.”

Sounds pretty cool, right? I wonder if this will in any way help save libraries? Or, will this cause them to be obsolete faster? Either way, its a nice feature for Kindle owners. It would be nice if this could aslo help keep libraries around longer. We’ll see.

Also, what will this mean for the Amazon tablet rumored to be launching later this year? My guess is they will probably hit around the same time.

Amazon is working with OverDrive on its Kindle Library Lending program, which it says will launch later this year. Click through for the full press release from Amazon.

Continue Reading →

This week marked one of the biggest decision making events in recent geek history, as both NetherRealm’s Mortal Kombat reboot and Valve’s sequel to the hit game Portal both hit gaming stores on the same day!

Needless to say, this made quite a quandary for most gamers that couldn’t afford $120 for both games. Both have an intense single player and online multiplayer aspect, so there’s the possibility of missing out on what your friends are playing either way.

What is one to do? Buy Mortal Kombat and listen to all of his friends gush about GLADOS and all of her issues in Portal 2? Or pick up the latter and miss out on bone-crunching action and braggability rights when whupping your online pals in a deathmatch?

Well, rather than solve the problem, the guys over at The Game Station offered a third alternative…Portal Kombat!

Check out what we’re talking about after the jump, and pick up either Portal 2 or Mortal Kombat (or both!) in stores today.

Continue Reading →

We haven’t seen any of these body-switch comedies in the last couple years but I guess it was inevitable they would return. And, they have with Universal’s newest entry into the genre The Change-Up.

Late yesterday the company released a brand new Red Band trailer for the raunchy body-switching comedy where Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman switch identities and have to deal with the ramifications. Written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, the team that brought us The Hangover, and directed by Wedding Crashers helmer David Dobkin, this new film takes the somewhat tired formula and seems to give it a bit of new life.

Yes, the trailer actually has a few funny bits — although that’s not always a good indicator of anything. Still, these two actors are very appealing and it could be good.

Take a look at the trailer after the jump. By clicking through you certify you are old enough to know better blah, blah, blah. The Change-Up hits theaters on August 5th.

Continue Reading →

You might have expected this considering her husband, Len Wiseman, is the director. However, news has come out that Kate Beckinsale has been offered one of the lead female roles opposite Colin Farrell in the Sony Pictures remake/reboot of Total Recall.

According to the report, Beckensale would play Lori, the role made famous by Sharon Stone in the original. In that film, Lori is the happy wife of Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger ) who, after Quaid begins to discover things are not what they seem, changes into someone who tries to kill him.

The other main female role of Melina (played in the original by Rachel Ticotin) is also reportedly still up for grabs with Eva Mendes and Rosario Dawson as the apparent front runners. Of those two I think I would prefer Dawson, although Mendes wouldn’t be a bad choice either.

In case you’re not familiar with the story of the original Total Recall film, it’s based on Philip K. Dick’s story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” and centers on Quaid, a seemingly unsophisticated construction worker, who is haunted by a recurring dream of going to Mars.

He buys a literal dream vacation from a company called Rekall Inc., which sells implanted memories. It turns out he is a freedom fighter from Mars who has been relocated to Earth, and he must restore order, and reverse the corrupt influence that commercial powers had over the red planet.

We don’t know if the new film will follow that storyline as well but you can imagine it will be similar. Look for the new, improved Total Recall to hit theaters in August of 2012.

Warner Premiere has been on a roll lately in both the animated world and the live action one. Their newest live action webseries, Mortal Kombat: Legacy has blown up online, and their continuing success with animated films for the DC Universe have put them on top of the map for both genres.

Continuing in that trend, their newest film, Batman: Year One has got some brand new images, and they give us a hint at what we can expect from the film. Here’s the breakdown of the all-star cast from THR.

Bryan Cranston, Ben McKenzie, Eliza Dushku and Katee Sackhoff have been tapped to star as the voices in Batman: Year One, the adaptation of the Frank Miller comic book classic from Warner Premiere, DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation.

Cranston is playing Gordon, while McKenzie is Wayne/Batman. Dushku voices Catwoman, while Sackhoff is Detective Sarah Essen, a Gordon love interest.

The animated feature is based on the 1987 miniseries written by Frank Miller and drawn by David Mazzucchelli, about the time between Bruce Wayne seeing his parents murdered and becoming the caped avenger that we all know and love today.

The flick is expected to hit DVD and Blu-Ray players everywhere later this year. In the meantime, check out two brand new images from the film.

Continue Reading →

This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt are again joined by Joe Dilworth of Pop Culture Zoo to discuss all manner of new and recurring topics. This goes far better than expected.

This week those include HBO’s Game of Thrones, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Avengers, Batman: The Dark Night Rises casting and more. In addition, they talked about  the next Superman movie, Superman Returns, Captain America and the Nazis, triumphant trio and the tragic passing of Sarah-Jane herself, Doctor Who actress Elisabeth Sladen.

Of course, your hosts also made some picks this week including Matt’s pick of the movie Fortress, Joe’s pick of the upcoming new season of Doctor Who and Chris’ pick of the classic 70′s film Dirty Harry, starring Clint Eastwood.

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.

It may be about a month over, but that hasn’t stopped the marketing machine for James Gunn’s Super from bringing us some great internet material to enjoy while still pimping out the film.

In this case, said marketing is in the form of both Rainn Wilson and Ellen Page (the film’s heroes) fighting crime in Austin, TX for this year’s South by Southwest film festival.

The film stars Wilson, Page, Kevin Bacon, Michael Rooker, Liv Tyler, and Nathan Fillion in a very dark, very hilarious look at a regular nobody who decides to take justice into his own clenched fist.

Take a look at the clip of Wilson taking to the streets of Austin after the jump, and catch Super in theaters everywhere and on demand via Comcast, Cox, Cablevision, Time Warner, and Bright House.

Continue Reading →

Rumors abound regarding Nintendo’s follow-up to the Wii. Very few actual facts are known but there seems to be a lot of leaked information regarding the new console. Here are just some of the details that have come to light.

IGN.com reports sources who told them: “The new Nintendo controller will feature dual analog sticks in addition to standard d-pad and trigger buttons. It’ll mirror a Gamecube controller in general function but not in specific form.”

French website 01.net says: “The touch capable screen on the controller is 6 inches in size.” IGN followed up by saying sources claim the new controller will be able to stream game contact directly to the controller, having it act almost like a “miniature television.”

There has also been tremendous speculation on the actual tech specs of the system. Some sources claim it could be twice as powerful as the current PlayStation 3, although tech specialists have commented that this could result in an exorbitantly expensive system, a trend Nintendo has veered away from in the past.

One thing remains consistent in all of these reports though, something most hardcore gamers are thrilled about: the absence of motion controls. While the gimmick of the WiiMote helped the Nintendo Wii worm its way into millions of homes across the country, it also alienated the most hardcore of Nintendo fanboys from their beloved system.

Even traditional Nintendo titles were forced to include “waggle” controls. As a result, players couldn’t enjoy titles like Super Mario Galaxy without awkwardly shaking their controller to perform moves that in the past could have been more accurately controlled using a standard controller.

Continue Reading →

In what is a potentially disturbing development that will surely be blown way out of proportion, several researchers at O’Reilly have discovered a somewhat troubling feature of the iPhone and 3G iPads running Apple’s iOS 4. In a blog post and video, the site details that Apple is storing GPS coordinates of cellular iOS devices locally (as in on the device) and in an unencrypted and unprotected form.

“Ever since iOS 4 arrived, your device has been storing a long list of locations and time stamps,” say the researchers. “We’re not sure why Apple is gathering this data, but it’s clearly intentional, as the database is being restored across backups, and even device migrations.” The researchers go on to state that along with a list of timestamped GPS coordinates, the file also contains a list of Wi-Fi access points that the device has been in range of.

“Anybody with access to this file knows where you’ve been over the last year, since iOS 4 was released,” they continue. The file in question, which is called “consolidated.db”, is in the backup file created when syncing the cellular iOS device with iTunes, and on the iOS device itself. “Why this data is stored and how Apple intends to use it — or not — are important questions that need to be explored,” they conclude.

Check out the video made by the gang at O’Reilly after the break. I wonder how Apple will respond to this? I can guess. They won’t.

Does this bother you or is it something you don’t worry about? Sound off in the comments!

Continue Reading →

If you’ve got a movie directed by J.J. Abrams, Produced by Steven Spielberg that features some kids who team up and try to save a town from a misunderstood monster, you’re probably going to appeal to a geek audience. However, with all the movies, games and more available for geeks (and others) these days how can you be sure to reach the audience you need to?

How about putting an easter egg trailer for your upcoming film inside a newly released video game? That’s just what Paramount did with J.J. Abrams upcoming Super 8 and the brand new Portal 2 game.

The interactive trailer, which we have for you here, transfers the action to videogame graphics and puts you inside the train car that crashes and unleashes the alien. Sadly, while you can’t really do all that much in the level, it is a pretty cool way to make sure your target audience is fully invested in seeing the movie — not that Paramount really has to worry about that.

Check out the teaser after the jump. Portal 2 is available now. Super 8 hits theaters on June 10th.

Continue Reading →