Well, that didn’t take very long, did it? No sooner did Ed Norton get the boot off of Marvel Studios’ The Avengers (or left for “creative differences”) we already have a strong contender to take over the role. His name is Mark Ruffalo and you may know him from his many appearances in films such as The Last Castle, Zodiac and the recent Shutter Island.

According to the report, the deal is now in “late-stage discussions” between Marvel and Rufflo’s brand-new agency United Talent for the actor to play this key member of The Avengers. Like Norton, Ruffalo is a very capable actor who brings something extra to each role he plays. But unlike Norton, he isn’t a movie star but more like an accomplished character actor. This may actually serve the film better.

Even though I enjoyed Norton’s work in The Incredible Hulk, his on-set reputation isn’t one of collaboration. Instead, most reports paint him as quite the diva and “difficult” to work with. Not something you want on a big budget ensemble film as important as The Avengers.

Ruffalo, in contrast, is almost universally regarded as a “good guy” and easy to work with. With the actors being relatively equivalent talent-wise, why wouldn’t Marvel want to work with the nice guy? Seems like a solid decision to me.

We’re you one of the people waiting in line lasts week to get your hands on a shiny new iPhone 4? If so, you weren’t alone as Apple has released the first official sales figures for the last three days and, to say the least, things are looking pretty good.

According to Apple, Inc. the company managed to sell 1.7 million iPhone 4 units from Thursday the 24th through this Saturday the 26th. At an average of 200 bucks each, that’s a good chunk of change the company received during that time. Hey, we hate math too, that’s why we run a website. However, that adds up to at least an additional $340 Million for the three days.

Not bad, not bad at all. Especially for a company that has been declared dead at least 53 times since 1995. How things have changed.

Click through to check out the full press release from Apple.

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In just about two months, Apple has made what must be a record in the tech industry, reportedly selling two million units of their uber-popular iPad. And amazingly, the majority of those numbers came from domestic sales as the iPad only went on sale internationally last weekend. When international sales figures start rolling in, the ‘magical’ tablet will be on course to outpace sales of just about every must-have device, including Apple’s own iPhone.

Additionally, apps specifically built for the iPad’s much larger screen have topped 5,000 in recent days, but represent only a small fraction of the nearly 200,000 total apps most of which are designed for the iPhone or iPod touch. The big concern now seems to be whether the Foxconn factory in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen can produce enough iPads to meet demand. Apple CEO, Steve Jobs mentioned this issue as the new sales figures were announced.

“We appreciate [customer] patience, and are working hard to build enough iPads for everyone,” said Jobs.

Keeping up with demand isn’t Foxconn’s only concern at the moment as an investigation into an alarming rash of worker suicides has begun. More than 300,000 people sleep, eat and work at the sprawling factory complex and thus far in 2010, 10 people have committed suicide, while three others have tried. Other manufacturers besides Apple contract with Foxconn, including Dell, HP Dell, and Sony, each of which have begun their own investigation into worker conditions.

We don’t often cover straight business news here at The Flickcast, but this one is pretty amazing. Sure, as Apple fans, we expected it to happen eventually, but not quite this quickly. As of yesterday, Apple, Inc.’s market capitalization now exceeds that of longtime “friendly” rival Microsoft.

Yes, you read that right. Apple is now worth more than Microsoft. As of the close of market yesterday, Apple’s total share value stood at $222.5 billion, while Microsoft was at $219.53 billion. What does this mean? Well, it means that in terms of market capitalization (determined by multiplying all outstanding shares by their value) the only company based in the U.S. that’s more valuable than Apple is Exxon, who’s market cap is at $278 billion.

Although this news is pretty impressive, it’s not entirely due to the awesomeness of Apple. In fact, it probably has more to do with Microsoft’s problems than Apple’s successes. Recently, Apple’s market cap has grown by less than $10 billion, while Microsoft’s has shrunk by almost $40 billion.

So, even though Apple is doing many things right, obviously Microsoft is doing more things wrong — or it is at least perceived that way by investors. But no matter how you look at it, the news is still pretty impressive. Made even more so by the fact that we can still remember a time, not that long ago, when most business stories about Apple were discussing its impending death. Nice work Mr. Jobs. Nice work indeed.

When the iPhone made its debut in 2007 everyone knew it would be an exclusive to AT&T for some time. The exact length of that exclusive agreement was rumored to be five years but it was never possible to get confirmation on the exact terms of the agreement from any of the parties involved, especially Apple. That is, until now.

Based on court papers filed in 2007 as part of an ongoing class-action lawsuit in California which claims Apple and AT&T illegally exerted a monopoly over iPhone service by telling customers the iPhone’s required service contract was two years long when the Apple / AT&T exclusivity deal was actually for five years, there’s now some light to be shed on the deal.

Responding to the lawsuit, Apple’s lawyers argued that no one was ever promised an unlocked iPhone after two years and they repeatedly confirm the existence of the five-year agreement while noting it was publicly reported in USA Today.

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I think it’s pretty much a given that DVD looks much better than something like VHS. Of course, now there’s something even better than DVD: Blu-ray. If you’re as big a fan of this awesome High-Def format as we are here at The Flickcast and you love saving money, then this post is for you.

Starting  today, at the all-new DVD2Blu site, over 85 Warner Bros. films including Gran Torino, 2001 Space Odyssey, Superman II, Ocean’s Eleven, V for Vendetta, The Shining, Pans Labyrinth and dozens more are available on Blu-ray for as low as $4.95. Yes, you read that right.

What’s the catch? Well, in order to get this rock bottom price you need to exchange your old standard def DVD’s for band new, shiny Blu-ray versions. You simply select the title you to upgrade, and mail in your standard DVD with pre-paid postage.

Then, a short time late you’ll get a copy of the same film on Blu-ray. They even offer free shipping on orders over $35.00. Cool, right?

Of course, you still have to have the standard def DVD’s to trade in for the lowest price but if you do already have them , why not get a Blu-ray copy instead? Seems like a pretty good deal, especially if you were going to buy the Blu-ray version anyway.

With strong sales of over 300K units this past weekend for the iPad Wi-Fi + 3G version, Apple today issued a statement that it has now sold over one million iPads in 28 days. A pretty amazing achievement considering it took the iPhone 74 days to reach that milestone during its initial release way back in 2007.

Other items of note from today’s announcement include: over 12 Million apps downloaded from the App Store and over 1.5 Million books downloaded from the new iBookstore. That’s a lot of apps and books and they are really just getting started, especially with the book offerings. Imagine that section in six months or a year.

Given today’s announcement, the iPad appears to be a success. Although, even with strong initial sales, it still has a long way to go to catch up with iPhone’s over 50 Million units sold to date. That said, I think it will make it.

Check out Apple’s full press release after the jump.

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Palm, Inc., the somewhat beleaguered company known for innovative software, hardware and the webOS has been in serious financial trouble of late. They have some really interesting products but sadly, still manages to lose money. Now it seems those trouble are behind them as Hewlett Packard today announced it is acquiring Palm for $1.2 Billion.

The acquisition has been approved by the boards of both Palm and HP, but is subject to regulatory approval by the Federal Government. Palm CEO John Rubinstein is expected to remain at the company in an as yet undisclosed capacity. It also appears likely webOS will live on, at least if you can believe what you read in press releases.

Want more info? If so, check out this official pres release from HP after the jump.

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If you were one of the many people waiting for Google’s Android powered Nexus One smartphone to hit Verizon so you could finally get your hands on one, you’re not going to be very happy after reading this post. Sadly, it seems, Verizon has decided to get out of the Nexus One business and instead, will stick with HTC and the pending release of the DROID Incredible.

While this move may not come as a surprise to some, particularly the folks over at Tech Crunch, it did seem to come out of left field a little. After all, up until the last few days, the release of the Nexus One was trumpeted as coming soon by Google at the site where they sell the phone. Now it directs potential customers back to Verizon’s website to buy a competing product in the Incredible? Again, seems a bit out of left field.

As highlighted over at Tech Crunch, it seems Verizon is choosing to offer the latest and greatest device to its customers and doesn’t seem to think the Nexus One is that device. When it came out, it was the best Android phone on the market. Then, Motorola released the DROID, which has reigned supreme. Now, the Incredible looks to be the top Android phone, at least for now.

Competition is a good thing and often leads to great innovations as companies strive to come to market with better and cheaper products. I the end we may not understand Verizon or Google’s reasons for making certain decisions, but in this case at least, it looks like Verizon’s decision will benefit consumers who want the best Android phone they can get.

Today Apple announced the availability of the second version of the iPad, aka the iPad 3G. For those of you who’ve been waiting for some iPad goodness, you have a definitive date to count the minutes until: April 30, 2010. In addition, those of you who pre-ordered the 3G iPad should start to receive shipments the same day.

The iPad 3G will set you back $130 premium more than the Wi-Fi-only iPad. You will also get the pleasure of using AT&T’s 3G network for your needs but in a somewhat surprising move, you won’t have to agree to a teo-year contract in order to do so.

The 3G service from AT&T will be available on an as-needed basis. In other words, if you need it for a day, you pay for a day. A month? Pay for a month. That’s quite a bit better than having to stick with a company for a minimum of two years, especially given their relatively poor track record of network performance.

On a related note, Apple also announced its second quarter earnings today and, no big surprise, the numbers look pretty good. It reported adjusted earnings of $3.33 per share, well above Wall Street estimates.

Total revenues were $13.5 Billion. That’s more than $700 millon above even the most optimistic predictions. Gross margins up to 41.7 percent, from 39.9 percent a year ago.

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Even experienced tech analysts can be wrong, especially if they may have been caught up in some of the recent iPad pre-release hype. Hey, we’re not saying we weren’t excited for the iPad too, just that our predictions may have not been quite so optimistic. What am I talking about? Read on.

Before launch, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster first predicted Apple would sell between 200K and 300K iPads on its first day. But later, after doing some more research and perhaps feeling a bit more optimistic, he bumped up those first day sales estimate to between 600K and 700K. That’s a lot of iPads.

Well, it didn’t do quite that good but still, you can’t argue the thing is a success right out of the gate. Yesterday, Apple announced that “over 300,000″ iPads sold on the first day, which confirmed Munster’s original estimate. Should have stuck to that one I guess. Apple also announced software sales related to the iPad launch, which were 1 million apps in the iTunes App Store and 250,000 e-books in the iBookstore.

“It feels great to have the iPad launched into the world — it’s going to be a game changer,” Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO said in a statement to the media. “iPad users, on average, downloaded more than three apps and close to one book within hours of unpacking their new iPad.”

Yes Steve, people seem to like the iPad. No surprise there.

Detective Comics #1. Amazing Fantasy #15. Captain America #1. All iconic issues that most true comic fans would give their left leg for. In some cases, maybe even the whole left side of their body. But as rare as these books are, only one stands above the pack as the ultimate issue for a collector to lay their hands on. Action Comics #1. While you can’t trade the left half of your body for it, you can apparently pick it up for a cool $1,000,000.

So how did this first appearance of Superman break comic sales records? Monday morning, comic auction website ComicConnect.com posted the a 8.0 graded, non-restored copy of the issue at 10:30 eastern time. Minutes later, the book was reported to a “well known individual” who has chosen to remain private.

John Dolmayan, drummer of System of a Down and owner of Torpedo Comics, once paid $317,000 for a lesser grade issue of Action Comics #1 for a customer of his. Talking about the book, Dolmayan said, “It’s considered by most people as the most important book… It kind of ushered in the age of the superheroes.” Take a second and think about what Dolmayan has said and imagine a world without Superman or any other superheroes at all.

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