Every once and awhile, a groundbreaking idea creeps into the world of film and has experts and connoisseurs puzzled at exactly how it will play out to a mass audience. Whether it’s something like 3D that hits it big, or something that flops like “4D”, there is always room for new ideas and potential leaps in technology when it comes to the theatrical experience.

13th Street, a production company out of Germany, has recently tested out their newest project, which combines the classic horror film with the interactivity of a modern game show. Each viewer uses their cell phone to call in to the service and at the beginning of the film, one of them is chosen at random to “speak directly” with the film’s protagonist. From there, that person gives voice commands that dictate which direction the character will go, and what they will say.

Obviously, there are some pretty big potential flaws with this idea, such as “who wants to watch a movie when it’s encouraged for some jerk to scream at the screen?” or “why would I spend money for somebody else to interact with the film?” These are all valid points, which means that we could still be years away from seeing this project take off internationally.

The sheer idea that something like this is on the way only means that we’re getting that much closer to a Back to the Future 2-like lifestyle, which is exciting in it’s own right. Check out the trailer for Last Call and see exactly how it all works after the jump.

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Remember about a decade ago when everybody and their mother was using sound boards of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Chris Walken to prank call their friends and show off to their friends without phones? Well, after the age of the smart phone hit, not many people got the chance to punctuate their funny moments with cool catchphrases from their favorite flick. Until now, that is.

MGM has recently gone deep into their vault with some great sound board Apps. For just a buck, you are able to call up some of your favorite quotes from Army of Darkness, Silence of the Lambs, Robocop, Fargo, or just about any of the Rocky films. It was hard to believe that it could get any cooler than your phone yelling out “This is my boomstick!” until now.

Just released last week, the Hot Tub Time Machine Sound Board has been making it’s way up the ranks of the iTunes App Store. Not only do you get over 6 full pages of sound bites from the film’s stars like John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, and Clark Duke, but there’s also a direct link to the film’s trailer, as well as a synopsis, so you can explain to your friends exactly why you’re so stoked for this movie to come out.

Be sure to grab the Hot Tub Time Machine Sound Board App from the iTunes App Store (for free!), and catch Hot Tub Time Machine when it hits theaters on March 19th.

With the idea of Hulu coming to the iPhone still a distant pipe dream, other services on the device seem to be closer to reality than we thought. Netflix, which is slowly but surely becoming the leading company in online movie and DVD rentals, has put out some feelers on their site to see if fans would be interested in a streaming service for the iPhone. From a survey on Netflix.com:

“Imagine that Netflix offers its subscribers the ability to instantly watch movies & TV episodes on their iPhone. The selection availability to instantly watch includes some new releases, lots of classics and TV episodes. There are no advertisements or trailers, and movies start in as little as 30 seconds. You can fast-forward, rewind, and pause or watch again. The movies & TV episodes you instantly watch are included in your Netflix membership for no additional fee.

Whenever you want to instantly watch content on your iPhone, your iPhone must be connected to a Wi-Fi network (such as one you might have at home or at work, or in public places like coffee shops, book stores, hotels, airports, etc.)

If this functionality were available, how likely would you or someone in your household be to instantly watch movies & TV episodes on your iPhone via a Wi-Fi network?”

So what could this mean? Is it just a ruse? With Netflix allegedly having an exclusive streaming deal with Xbox Live, this could mean that we won’t see anything on the iPhone for another year, but with the Apple iPad hitting stores in the coming months, that may be just enough time for us to be ready.

What are your thoughts on Netflix streaming on the iPhone or iPad? Would you use it? Comment below and let us know!

Today, the mobile phone landscape has changed quite a bit because soon you’ll be able to make calls via Skype using your Verizon Wireless cell phone. The two companies announced their “strategic relationship” at the 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The new Skype mobile product enhances Verizon Wireless’ smartphones for users who have data plans by offering a new way to call around the globe, while also giving hundreds of millions of Skype users around the world the opportunity to communicate with friends, family and business colleagues in the United States using Verizon Wireless.

Here are the highlights of this new partnership:

• Users with a data plan can make and receive unlimited Skype-to-Skype voice calls to any Skype user around the world.

• Calls to international phone numbers, if made through Skype mobile, will be at the Skype Out calling rate.

• Users can send and receive instant messages to other Skype users and remain connected to see friends’ online statuses.

The rollout for Skype mobile will comprehensive and coming to existing phones like the BlackBerry Storm, the Storm 2, the BlackBerry Curve, the BlackBerry Tour, the Motorola DROID, the HTC DROID ERIS and the Motorola DEVOUR.

If you have one of those phones and a 3G data plan, you’ll be able to start using Skype mobile when it goes live in March. See AT&T, that wasn’t so hard.

There’s no denying Twitter’s popularity. It’s everywhere and many people use it all day, every day. So, if you need to Tweet while on the go, you need an smartphone with a Twitter app on it. The iPhone has several, with Tweetie and Twitterific probably being the most popular.

That’s great, but what if you’re using a cool Android powered smartphone like Verizon’s DROID? Fortunately, there’s a app for you too in the form of Seesmic. And now, the folks who make Seesmic have updated their app with some cool new features.

Among the new features are multiple account support with cross-posting, extra large font size, auto-correction of typing, automatic profile updates, on device twitter password management and optional timeline position memory so you jump back to the last tweets that you were reading.

The latest version of Seesmic is available now for free from the Android Market. If you check it out, be sure to come back and let us know how it compares to other Android Twitter apps like Twidroid and Tweetcaster.

With the Academy Awards just around the corner, it’s always fun to make predictions as to who the winners might be. To help you in this, and promote its Oscar-related content, Vanity Fair magazine is launching a free iPhone app that will allow you to make your picks for all the awards and receive realtime results on the night of the show.

Of course, you can also invite friends to vote for the people you think have the best chance of winning, compare your selections to friends and the Vanity Fair editors, and chat via the app the app in Facebook. On Oscar night, the app will show you who is winning from your picks.

The app also offers access to Vanity Fair’s content including background information on nominees, stories, photos, profiles, trailers of nominated films, and slideshows. Hey, they gotta pay for the app somehow, right? With some much hype surrounding the Oscars, its nice to see an app that caters to the most important aspect of the night: who’s gonna take home the golden statue.

If you check out the app, tell us what you think in the comments. Also, after the break, we’ve included a little video that helps you understand Vanity Fair’s vision for this app and a little more on how to use it. So check that out too.

The Academy Awards take place on Sunday, March 7 at 8/5P on ABC.

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iPhone and iPod Touch users rejoice! Are you tired of cursing the programming gods because you have to use clunky Safari in order to look up what ever happened to Jennifer Grey or remember the name of your favorite Sylvester Stallone movie? Well, the smart cats over at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb to us locals) finally decided to put their heads together and come up with a coherent, iPhone friendly app for browsing their site.

No longer do we have to backdoor through Wikipanion or Movies App. Instead, the IMDb app is slick, and one could even say that it’s easier to navigate than the site itself. Nothing is watered down either. Users get the same access in the app as they would on the regular website, including:

• Over 1.5 million movie and TV titles
•  Over 3.2 million celebrities
•  US movie showtimes
•  Trailers
•  Photos
•  US TV listings
•  Top ranked movies (MOVIEmeter)
•  Top ranked celebrities (STARmeter)
•  Celebrity birthdays
•  US Box Office results
•  Movies coming soon
•  Top 250 rated films of all time

Best of all is that the app comes 100% free (which makes sense, considering that the site itself is free). IMDb is currently available in the iTunes App Store, so go grab it now, and be grateful that we live in an age of such jaw-dropping technology.

In what could very well be the next step in comic book storytelling, Marvel entered the motion comics arena with Spider-Woman, based off of the recently launched series written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Alex Maleev. Available on iTunes, each episode is $1.99 US each or $8.99 US for the entire series with a total runtime of 53:46. Are we witnessing evolution, or merely a fad? And how is the story itself? Pouring through all five episodes, the answers may surprise you.

Starting with the story, Jessica Drew, aka Spider-Woman, finds herself lost in a world she doesn’t recognize. No, she’s still on Earth, but she was replaced by Veranke the Skrull Queen during the Secret Invasion storyline and has only recently returned to the playing field. Making matters worse, at one point Jessica was an agent of practically anything you can be an agent of in the Marvel Universe – all simultaneously – so it’s no wonder she’s a little out of sorts these days.

When SWORD Agent Abigail Brand tracks her down and offers an outlet for that pent up frustration, Jessica feels that she may find herself and knock a few heads in the process, so she sets off to the island of Madripoor. As the story unfolds, Jessica winds up in a whirlwind of activity as local authorities, Skrulls, the Thunderbolts and the New Avengers try to insert themselves into her booked-solid dance card. Once the dust settles, it’s the decisions going forth that has Jessica’s full attention as she continues to find her rightful place in the world.

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According to the official Google Blog, a long-awaited feature for Google Sync on iPhone and Windows Mobile has arrived. I’m talking, of course, about Push email. According Google, they “believe that our customers should be able to access their information on the mobile device of their choice, using the applications of their choice. That’s why we’re excited today to announce support for push mail on iPhone and Windows Mobile devices.”

According to the search giant, using Google Sync “you can now get your Gmail messages pushed directly to your phone. Having an over-the-air, always-on connection means that your inbox is up to date, no matter where you are or what you’re doing.” This new feature “works with your phone’s native email application so there’s no additional software needed.” But that’s not all.

If you only want to sync your email but not calendars, Google Sync can do that. It allows you to sync just your Contacts, Calendar, or Gmail, or any combination of the three. Google Sync for iPhone and Windows is free to all Google Apps customers. If you’re already using Google Sync for contacts and calendar, push mail is automatically enabled. iPhone and Windows Mobile users can set up Google Sync in a few easy steps directly from their phones, and those already syncing Calendar and Contacts can simply enable Mail sync on their phones.

Google Sync is also available for people with personal Gmail and Google Calendar accounts. So, its not just for business customers — which is a good thing. Now to configure this on my iPhone and hope it doesn’t break anything. Should be interesting.

Yesterday we posted a new video showing off the Auto-Tune The News guys and the master of the auto-tune himself, T-Pain. In the video, there is cool button on an iPhone that kicks off the song, allowing everybody to have the melodic and rhythmic styling of Mr. Pain. We thought it was fiction, but it turns out that the app is not only real, but is as amazing as it sounds.

From Smule, the developers of the highly popular Ocarina app, comes “I Am T-Pain”, a fully functional auto tuner for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The app allows you to have perfect pitch and melody just like every other song you hear on top 20 radio today, by simply pushing a button!

You can choose to go A Capella and make your own music, or use some premixed instrumentals of popular auto-tuned songs like “Bartender”, “Kiss Kiss”, “I’m Sprung”, and “Dreamgirl”, all of which are free. For $0.99, you can buy a few other premium songs such as T-Pain’s hit “Buy U a Drank”, “Freeze” and more.

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