Another day, another iPhone or iPad rumor. Hey, it’s fun to speculate, so why not? Today’s latest is a report over at This is My Next that a new iPad is coming later this year, around the same time as the reported launch of the iPhone 5.

The device will not be a replacement for the current iPd 2, however. Instead, it will reportedly be called the “iPad HD,” will feature a double resolution 2048 x 1536-pixel screen and be targeted to “Pro” users like photographers and videographers.

In addition, and this makes sense if you’ve checked out Final Cut X at all, the new iPad HD will reportedly ship with new mobile version of Apple’s Final Cut and Aperture applications.

As always, take any rumors of this sort with a large grain of salt. However, with the way things work these days it is often hard for companies to keep all their secrets, even Apple. Obvioysly, Apple will be coming out with new versions of both the iPhone and the iPad. It’s inevatible.

The real question always is what will those new version be like. If we apply a bit lof logical deduction, the idea of an iPad HD running Aperture and Final Cut isn’t so hard to believe. Whatever is coming, we’ll all find out in September.

For those of you anxiously awaiting the return of Batman to the big screen with Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, this may just help you get through the months, weeks, days and hours until that happens. Over at MTV’s Splashpage, they’ve got a trailer for the upcoming animated feature Batman: Year One, the next installment in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies series.

In case you’re not familiar with the story, Batman: Year One the movie is based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller and focuses mostly on Bruce Wayne’s emergence as Batman. However, it also included many other great characters as well such as eventual commissioner Jim Gordon, his partner Sarah Essen, and the mysterious Selina Kyle (aka Catwoman).

Batman: Year One features Benjamin McKenzie as Bruce Wayne, Bryan Cranston as Jim Gordon, Eliza Dushku as Catwoman and Katee Sackhoff as Sarah Essen. It will be available October 18 on Blu-ray, DVD, OnDemand and via download. Also, if you happen to be going to Comic-Con in two weeks, the film will have its world premiere on Friday, July 22 at 8PM in Ballroom 20, followed by a panel discussion with cast and crew.

Click though to check out the trailer after the break.

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Today, Amazon announced it has made some improvements and changes to its Cloud Drive and Cloud Player services. The first change of note is that anyone who signs up will get now unlimited space for music. That includes users who sign up for the minimum $20/year 20GB plan.

Amazon also announced that Cloud Drive customers can now store all MP3s purchased from the Amazon MP3 music store for free. This includes songs purchased before Amazon launched the Cloud Drive and Cloud Player services. And, those songs won’t count against your total storage.

Finally, Amazon announced that its Cloud Player for Web is now available on the iPad, and that it’s been optimized for use with that device’s Safari web browser. To try it out, head over here: www.amazon.com/cloudplayer.

For more, click through for the official press release from Amazon.

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As one of the great modern TV writers of the current time, Damon Lindelof has certainly gotten into the hearts and minds of science fiction fans everywhere with both LOST and several other projects with J.J. Abrams. That coveted spot didn’t come without work, however, and that’s just what we have today.

Back before the show was a hit, Lindelof wrote a short play about a young time traveling boy genius and his awkward dinner with Nazis who were setting out to kill him and his family. The screenplay was then turned into a short last year, and had some pretty impressive guest appearances. Here’s the premise:

When Dade Klublershturf (Samm Levine) brings home his new girlfriend Daniella (Rachel Nichols), it’s as awkward as you’d expect any meet-the-parents dinner to be. However, events take an unexpected turn when Dade’s brother Ollie (Super 8‘s Zach Mills) reveals that Daniella, along with a couple of other last-minute dinner guests (Chris Hemsworth and Norman Reedus) are actually secret Nazis trying to steal Ollie’s time travel machine for sinister purposes. Jack Axelrod, Lainie Kazan, and George Segal also star.

Check out the full short after the jump, in all of it’s dialogue-heavy drama, and be sure to comment below as to how you can see why showrunning partner Carlton Cuse decided to pick up this young writer Lindelof after a simple play about a dinner party.

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Film composers for the Pixar films have been a pretty exclusive club up to this point. It began with Randy Newman, then stayed in the family when Thomas Newman came over to work with Andrew Stanton,. Finally Michael Giacchino came aboard with Incredibles and that was basically it. Randy Newman and Giacchino both won Oscars for their Pixar works and Thomas Newman has been nominated for three of his own. So when a new composer is signed to join those storied ranks it is exciting news.

The Scotsman is reporting that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire composer Patrick Doyle has been hired to write the music for the next Pixar film Brave. The new film centers on a Scottish princess and boasts many other departures from the normal Pixar mold.

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For those who are planning on heading to San Diego Comic-Con in a few weeks that were disparaged by the fact that most major film studios are not planning anything major, there are smaller projects popping up that will likely be the winners of the show this year.

One of those is the new indie comedies titled Knights of Badassdom, starring True Blood’s Ryan Kwanten, Summer Glau, Danny Pudi, and Game of Throne’s Peter Dinklage. A little bit of Your Highness and a little bit of Role Models, the film looks to take a pretty funny look at the very real world of LARP’ing. Here’s the premise.

In this humorous fantasy adventure from IndieVest Pictures, Joe (Ryan Kwanten) is a heavy metal rocker who’s just gone through a painful breakup with his girlfriend, Beth (Margarita Levieva). His concerned roommates (Steve Zahn, Peter Dinklage) kidnap him to their LARP (Live Action Role Playing) gathering, where he enters a realm of fantasy escapism in which pretend knights, elves, and barbarians clash with foam weaponry on a mock battlefield.

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We’ve already heard from some of the other networks and now it’s NBC’s turn to reveal its new Fall schedule. The official fall primetime schedule, which begins Tuesday, Sept. 13 with the season premiere of Parenthood, contains several new series as well as returning favorites.

It’s nice to know this info, but for us the most important thing is that both Chuck and Community are back this season. We would have missed them if they were gone.

Here’s the schedule. New shows are in CAPS and all times are Eastern:

Thursday, September 8
8-8:30 PM: “NFL Kickoff Special 2011” (regular season)
8:30-11 PM: “Sunday Night Football” (regular season)

Sunday, September 11
7-8 PM: “Football Night in America” (regular season)
8-11:30 PM: “Sunday Night Football”

Tuesday, September 13
10-11 PM: “Parenthood”

Wednesday, September 14
8-10 PM: “America’s Got Talent” (season finale)
10-10:30 PM: “UP ALL NIGHT”
10:30-11 PM: “FREE AGENTS”

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With Google rolling out its Google + service recently in an attempt to take some of Facebook’s social media dominance away, what’s Facebook to do to stay on top? Well, fear not, they’ve got something up their virtual sleeves. What is it? Read on.

Today, the social media giant unveiled a major addition to its service : video chat. Through a partnership with Skype, Facebook users will now be able to video chat with each other through the company’s new service.

The best part, it’s all free. The service works just like Skype’s normal video calling with video calls initiated from right in your Facebook profile with a simple click.

“A few months ago, we started working with Skype to bring video calling to Facebook,” said the company on its blog. “We built it right into chat, so all your conversations start from the same place. To call your friend, just click the video call button at the top of your chat window.”

Facebook will bring video chat to its users over the next few weeks. Or, if you can’t wait, click here to get it now.

After a long run, and multiple Emmy Awards, on David E. Kelly’s Boston Legal and The Practice, as well as a terrific guest spot on The Office season finale, James Spader will be back on TV in a more permanent role in the Fall.

That’s right, Spader will be joining NBC’s The Office next season. He won’t, however, be a replacement for Steve Carell’s Michael Scott. Instead, Spader will return to his role as Robert California, who has been hired as the CEO of Sabre, Dunder Mifflin’s parent company.

This is good news for those Spader fans out there (and here at The Flickcast). His work on The Office was pretty great and could help the show stay funny and bring in viewers. Good job NBC.

If you want to know more, click through for the official press release from NBC. The Office returns later this year.

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As it’s been quite some time since the iPhone 4 made its debut, naturally speculation on the next version of Apple’s flagship device is running rampant. Even the venerable Wall Street Journal, it seems, wants to get into the act.

The paper is reporting that Apple is preparing to release a redesigned iPhone 5 later this year. Citing anonymous sources in Apple’s supply chain, the Journal says Apple has placed component orders with key suppliers for fifth-generation iPhone parts.

In addition, the device is reported to feature an 8-megapixel camera and Qualcomm radios. Also, and this goes against earlier reports that the device will retain the same form factor as the iPhone 4, the new iPhone 5 will be thinner and lighter than the current model.

While a new case and being thinner and lighter are nice additions, I’m personally looking forward to an iPhone that works on Verizon’s 4G network. That would be pretty cool indeed.

The next iPhone is expected to begin shipping in September. So, you gonna upgrade when it does?

We’re pretty big fans of all things viral here at The Flickcast, but given that there is just so much to report on when it comes to awesome web videos, we thought it was time we just spelled it all out for you in a comprehensive list for you to enjoy it all in a digestible package.

We all know how terrible Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark is, either by first or second hand experience. But 4 minutes from the new Batman Live! stage show gives us Batman fighting a giant disembodied Joker head. Meh?

Who doesn’t love a good trailer mashup? How about when the two themes are both eerily similar in histories? That’s exactly what you get when My Little Pony meets Dark of the Moon in TransforMares: Dark of the NightMare Moon.

Speaking of trailer mashups (that are less ironic and more funny), here’s a mashup of the Source Code trailer with the popular game Half Life.

What if Luke Skywalker was the Billy Mumy, aka the creepy kid from the Twilight Zone episode where he made people disappear? Take a step into the Star Wars Zone to find out.

Getting deeper into the world of impressive shorts, this one takes a look at life from two different perspectives. We present to you Splitscreen: A Love Story.

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There aren’t nearly enough animated horror comedies out there these days. Burton managed to capitalize on not only Nightmare Before Christmas but Corpse Bride as well, Monster House may be one of the only ones to make it onto that list. After that, the list falls to mainly puerile comedies that only appeal to those under 20.

That may be changing with the cast announced for Sony’s upcoming Hotel Transylvania. Here’s the full breakdown from THR.

Adam Sandler leads off a voice cast that includes Kevin James and Andy Samberg for Hotel Transylvania, a 3D family comedy from Sony Pictures Animation. James is voicing Frank/Frankenstein while Fran Drescher is his in-your-face, over-the-top and larger-than-life bride.

David Spade plays Quasimodo, once the hunchback of Notre Dame and now a crazy, passionate gourmet chef. Steve Buscemi and Molly Shannon will play Wayne and Wanda, a pair of married, harried werewolves, parents to an ever-increasing litter of pups, who are looking forward to their family vacation at the hotel.

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