The big announcement from Apple that everyone was waiting for happened this morning. Some were wondering if Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO who has been experiencing health-related absences of late, would do the honors of introducing the company’s update to the popular iPad tablet device. That he did.

Let’s just get this out there: the iPad is Apple’s most important product line at the moment. In 2010, the company dominated the tablet market by getting there first, producing the devices at the price-points they have, and frankly by creating a tablet far superior to anything else that has arrived to market since.

In 2011, that market dominance is by no means guaranteed. Hot new tablets like the Motorola XOOM are encroaching on Apple’s dominance and in response, Apple didn’t so much perform a year-end spiff of the iPad; instead, they completely revamped it. Meet the NEW iPad 2. Here are some bullet points on the device itself:

• All new design. Radically thinner.
• 1/3 thinner than the first iPad. 13.4 Mm down to 8.8 mm thick.
• The iPad 2 is thinner than an iPhone 4.
• White and black models. White will be available launch day.
• All new CPU, the A5, 2x faster but same power consumption.
• Graphics are 9x faster.
•  Front and rear cameras.
• Built in gyroscope.
• iPad 2 is lighter.  1.3 pounds instead of 1.5 pounds.
• AT&T and Verizon both supported from launch day.
• Same impressive 10-hour battery life.

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Tuesdays are always pretty exciting, because as you may know, new Blu-Ray releases hit the shelves of your local retail store as well as the virtual shelves of online retailers like Amazon.com. Sorting out what’s hot and what’s not, that’s a bit of a chore so I’ve put together a brief synopsis of the notable releases for Tuesday, March 1st.

Available on Blu-Ray Today:

• 127 Hours Starring James Franco and Kate Mara
• Love and Other Drugs Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, Judy Greer and Oliver Platt
• Burlesque Starring Cher and Christina Aguilera
• Faster Starring Dwayne Johnson and Billy Bob Thornton
• Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy (7-disc set) Starring Johnny Depp, Kiera Knightly
• Out of Sight Starring George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez
• Cannes Man Starring Seymore Cassel, Francesco Quinn, Johnny Depp
• Waiting for Dublin Starring Andrew Keegan, Hugh O’Conor, Frank Kelly and Jade Yourell
• Bambi Walt Disney Diamond Edition

Wondering what’s releasing next week? Hit the jump for more of my picks for flicks hitting Blu-Ray on Tuesday, March 8th as well as some special deals and promos on this week’s new releases available only through Best Buy retail locations.

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I’ve seen some fan-created trailers and title sequences that easily rival the sort of stuff we see out of professional studios. And it only makes sense, given the lengths some fanboys will go to when it involves one of their fave series.

Gary Shore, is just that kind of fan. And good news for us: he loves Wolverine. So, while we wait patiently for Darren Aronofsky to film the next chapter of one of our favorite X-Men characters, Gary Shore has released a moody take on Logan that offers a tiny peek at how the next flick may unfold.

Shore, who happens to be a commercial and music video director, filmed some storyboards showing Wolverine battling those evil ninjas known as the Hand and managed to lay down a score that is both moody and ethereal.

But enough talking, let’s get to the watching, shall we? Hit the jump and watch this amazing fan creation for yourself.

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One of the great things about producing a series for the web is that quite often, you get to do a project that has tremendous geek-appeal, yet whose economics are such it would never make it to television or the movies. Felicia Day is living that dream as the star of a new six-episode web-series based on Bioware’s successful Dragon Age video game.

Felicia day is, of course, already well-known to video game fans as the creative force behind The Guild web series, a hilarious sit-com now in its fifth season. The web-series follows a group of players of a fictitious MMORPG (largely based on WoW) and focuses on both their in-game and out-of-game hi jinx.

Felicia is reportedly writing, producing, directing and starring in the new series as sexy elven assassin, “Tallis.” The events take place around the same time period as Bioware’s forthcoming sequel, Dragon Age II. Fans of the original game can look forward to a demo of Dragon Age II on February 22 for the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 as well as a PC-version. The game will be available in stores in North America on March 8, 2011 on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 console, PC and Mac.

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Despite staying busy as the star of ABC’s Castle, we’re learning that Nathan Fillion will also be starring as Hal Jordan in an animated tie-in to this summer’s live-action DC Comic adaptation, Green Lantern. Set to release June 7, 2011 from Warner Bros Animation, the animated flick will star some amazing voice talent including Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men), Jason Isaacs (‘Harry Potter’), Kelly Hu (Hawaii Five-0, The Vampire Diaries), rocker/actor/spoken-word artist Henry Rollins and last-but-not-least, ex-wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper.

TV Guide is serving up an exclusive first-look of Fillion (pictured above) as he takes to the microphone in his unmistakable ‘Green Lantern’ tee-shirt. Fillion spoke briefly with TV Guide about his fanboy glee over being chosen to voice an iconic comic character like The Green Lantern:

“I was always reading the comic books, I was always a spectator,”Fillion told TV Guide. “Now I feel like I own a little piece of Green Lantern.“

Warner Bros Animation is planning to release ‘Green Lantern: Emerald Knights’ a mere 10 days before the release of the feature film starring Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan. With Fillion and Reynolds both alumni of ABC’s ‘Two Guys and a Girl,’ there seems to be nothing but respect between the two actors.

“He’s a great guy, a gem, deserves all the success that he’s getting,” says Fillion, “so it’s neat to have a little piece and share it with someone you know.“

As a huge fan of Nathan Fillion, I’m eagerly awaiting the June 7th release date of ‘Emerald Knights.’ And wow, summer 2011 is shaping up to be an amazing season for comic book-based flicks. With ‘Thor’ releasing in May, ‘Green Lantern’ in June, and ‘Captain America’ in July, it’s going to be an outstanding time to be a fanboy.

So what are you looking forward to this summer? Be sure to let us know in the comments section.

By now, fans of Captain America have seen the official Super Bowl trailer of the upcoming comic-based flick and even caught a glimpse of the official movie poster, but one thing I’ve been curious about is how the movie would portray  the hero’s loyal side-kick, ‘Bucky.’ In a recent interview with director Joe Johnston over at the L.A. Times, it turns out that James “Bucky” Barnes, played by actor Sebastian Stan  (“Gossip Girl,” “Kings”), will have a decidedly darker personality than fans of the comic may be used to.

In the interview, Johnston comments on how Bucky’s personality will receive a Hollywood update:

“Sebastian brought something really interesting and slightly on the dark side and really compelling to watch — when he’s on camera, you’re fascinated by watching him. You know, he was originally up for the lead, for the Steve Rogers role, but he didn’t have quite the same earnest, I-want-to-fight-for-my-country aura that Chris has for this role. Sebastian has a little bit of the bad boy, he’s a little bit of the James Dean type and that goes somewhat counter to the general perception of Steve Rogers. He wasn’t quite right for Captain America,  but I think he’s perfect for Bucky because, really, he can have a little bit of that dark side.”

Certainly an interesting development and somewhat understandable as the boy-wonder-esque sidekick character is unlikely to be received so readily by an audience in 2011. And it certainly seems that the writing team on ‘Captain America,’ including Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely and Joss Whedon, didn’t merely go part-way when putting their own spin on the duo’s partnership. Instead, they practically reinvented it.

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90′s nostalgia must be at an all-time high, as MTV announced they will be returning Beavis and Butthead to the network sometime this summer. After months of rumors, and even a brief cameo by the two head-banging animated idiots in the network’s flick ‘Jackass 3D,’ it appears the show will indeed be a part of the MTV line-up later this year.

In New York, at the channel’s annual upfront presentation, it was revealed that among the episodes being planned is a Jersey Shore spoof in which Beavis and Butt-head watch the reality show. According to the LA Times the two cartoon characters will poke fun at ex-Jersey Shore star Angelina and her orange tan in one episode.

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There’s nothing quite like the convergence of Star Wars and LEGOS to trigger goofy smiles on geeks everywhere. Well you may have felt a new disturbance in the force as LEGOLAND California announced a new Star Wars-themed exhibit will open at their Carlsbad, CA park on March 31st, 2011.

LEGOLAND workers in Carlsbad are furiously assembling huge models and scenes from the six live-action Star Wars movies as well as one from the animated flick The Clone Wars. Over 1.5 million LEGO bricks are coming together to form over 2,000 complete models as well as interactive exhibits including the moisture farm on Tatooine where Luke Skywalker grew up, scenes from Endor and even ones from the frozen planet of Hoth.

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After several missteps with their online registration process, San Diego Comic-Con organizers have finally announced an official registration date for 2011 attendees. For fans of the country’s largest comic convention, you may be familiar with some of the event’s online registration melt-downs that have plagued the con’s organizers over the last few months. Attendees trying to score passes to the July 2011 event were met with server errors, frozen screens and an overall frustrating time with the online registration system.

Con organizers faulted an online registration system run by a third-party company called  EPIC, which managed to fail twice in spectacular fashion: first on November 1st, the original on-sale date for Comic-Con 2011, and yet again on November 22nd. Potential attendees took to Facebook and Twitter in droves to complain about the technical glitches.

It remains to be seen whether convention organizers have switched registration providers, or whether they’ve perhaps worked out their problems for good this time around. Either way, we hope the third time is the charm.

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A few months ago, Google’s $6 Billion offer was roundly rejected by the object of the Internet giant’s overture: Groupon.com, a web-based local deals service who instead is preparing its own $15 Billion IPO. Fast-forward to today and Mashable has an exclusive report on Google’s attempts to compete in this important local niche.

According to the documents being leaked today, Google is preparing to beta their competing service, dubbed ‘Google Offers’ which in a similar manner to sites like LivingSocial.com, Groupon.com and an array of similar services, will offer local pre-paid offers to subscribers of the service. As of a few hours ago, it appears Google has officially validated the rumors with a prepared statement.

“Google is communicating with small businesses to enlist their support and participation in a test of a pre-paid offers/vouchers program. This initiative is part of an ongoing effort at Google to make new products, such as the recent Offer Ads beta, that connect businesses with customers in new ways. We do not have more details to share at this time, but will keep you posted.”

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Earlier this week, Apple released a beta version of it’s next iteration mobile operating system to developers. iOS 4.3 beta, which is not yet released to the public, incorporates a host of interface refinements and new multi-touch -gesture controls. As for a public release date, Apple isn’t saying, however it should be sometime quite soon as there is never much of a gap between beta releases and public releases of iOS.

The iPad will benefit from several new multi-touch gestures to control various aspects of the tablet. For instance, swiping up with four fingers across the tablet’s surface will cause the multi-tasking drawer to appear. Want to switch between apps? Swipe left or right while working with your current app, and the iPad will move seamlessly between apps that are currently running in the drawer. Want to return to the home screen? Pinch inwards with four or five fingers and you’re there.

Want to learn more about what to expect with iOS 4.3? There’s more after the jump.

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It’s no mystery that we here at The Flickcast offices are huge fans of the Starz original series, Spartacus. Having followed the original season, Blood and Sand, as well as keeping tabs on titular character actor Andy Whitfield’s ongoing battle with a recurrence of cancer, we eagerly awaited the dynamic show’s return for its second season. Well, it’s almost here, as the 2nd season, in prequel form, is set to air on Starz January 21st at 10PM EST/PST, so be sure to set your DVR.

The events of the prequel to Blood and Sand occur 5 years prior and was filmed last year without Whitfield. With only a shortened six-episode season, Gods of the Arena tells the story of the original Champion of the House of Batiatus, Gannicus whose skill with a sword is matched only by his thirst for wine and women. Check out the full official synopsis of the new season after the jump.

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