Renting DVDs is fast becoming an antiquated concept, soon to join music stores and MySpace as nostalgic reminders of days gone by. With the prevalence of digital downloads and high quality streaming, brick and mortar rental stores are fast becoming an endangered species.

Redbox has been able to carve out a niche for themselves in the failing industry by bringing the maximum amount of affordability and convince with 1 dollar rental units in stores nationwide. Not just content with staying alive for a few more years Redbox has recently partnered with Verizon to bring a new streaming service to compete with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and all the rest.

Verizon and Coinstar, Inc. today announced the formation of a joint venture that will create a new choice for quality- and value-conscious  consumers seeking a simple and affordable way to access the video entertainment they crave. The venture’s services will offer all of the convenience, simplicity and value of Redbox® new release DVD and Blu-ray Disc® rentals combined with a new content-rich video on-demand streaming and download service from  Verizon.

The service is expected to roll out in the second half of 2012, and with the infrastructure of Redbox already in place this new service stands a real chance at biting into Netflix’s failing grip on the market place it basically invented.

Call of Duty Elite is a service that allows the most hardcore Call of Duty players to lose themselves in some pretty advance stat tracking and multiplayer progression. Now those gamers have even less of a reason to spend any time away from their account with the launch of the iOS app for the service.

The new app will be free for all registered users, and is available on all iOS platforms today. An android version is going to be hitting soon as well.

Immerse yourself in Call of Duty® wherever you go with the Call of Duty® ELITE mobile app. Evaluate your multiplayer progress with in-depth stat analysis. Formulate new strategies based on your recent performance and remotely incorporate edits to your loadouts. Push your changes directly into Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3 so you’re always ready to play.

Check out a list of features and some screen shots after the jump.

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Are you tired of reading the same old crap on movie news site after movie news site with no wit, insight, or opinion to be had? Then it’s time you stepped up and joined The Flickcast as a dedicated contributor!

We’re looking for a few good geeks in the realm of Movies, TV, Comics, Tech, and Video Games to help us bring in the new year with some fresh perspectives and opinions.

Think you got what it takes to spread the news, opinions, and crucial information for the exciting things that the upcoming year has to offer? Then let us know! Send a brief email with attached writing samples to writers@theflickcast.com and let us know why you’d like to write for us.

While there are plenty of fancy paid jobs out there, TheFlickcast offers you something better than that. We can offer tons of review copies of upcoming films, TV shows, video games, music, or tech products as they come to us, and possibly even make enough contacts to be a force unrivaled with in the pop culture news game.

Depending on the workload, we are also able to offer access to some of the hottest conventions and festivals these fine United States has to offer such as C2E2, Fantastic Fest, Emerald City Con, CES, and the mother of them all: San Diego Comic-Con.

So if you think you’ve got what it takes to join the ranks of these fine digital halls, feel free to reach out at writers@theflickcast.com and we’re happy to have you help out!

With entertainment technology jumping by leaps and bounds every year, it’s up to the audience to try to keep up with the ever-growing quality of video and audio for some of their favorite music, video games, movies, and TV. Video may be covered by bigger and badder TV’s, but it’s all about lightweight and compact when it comes to audio.

That’s where NoiseHush completely excels. They’re mastered car and mobile audio for the modern consumer, and now they’re tackling gamers and those who need HD audio in a stationary setting such as a bedroom, office, or living room.

With their newest release, the NX26 headphones, you get complete inundation of the deep bass and distortion-free audio you’re listening to and no pinching or pressure that most over-the-ear headphones leave you with.

With soft foam ear muffs and top, there’s no telling that these noise cancellation phones are even on your head half the time.

That’s nothing, however. The best feature lies in the set’s microphone and control button on the lengthy wire. The mic is on-par with some of the top-line mic’d headphones on the market today, and not only will the control button work with your mobile device, but it will control iTunes when the headphones are plugged into your computer.

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Reading comics digitally on a tablet is the future. The size of tablets, and their vibrant images, make it an almost perfect reading experience. Well, Marvel Comics has an app for that and it has just received a new face-lift!

Marvel Comics app 3.0 is available now and it offers a ton of upgrades, making the the digital comics reading experience all the better:

Anyone that’s been to a department store in the past two weeks has noticed that Halloween decorations and costumes were only shadowed by the overwhelming Christmas and holiday products taking over the shelves. We here at The Flickcast are taking that as a cue to start our famous Holiday Gift Guide leading up through the holiday shopping season.

One of the main categories for most guys (and gals) this holiday season is something to go along with their nifty iPod or iPhone. That’s where the world of Apple sound and science fiction find a nice home in Speakal’s new iKurve starship-like docking station & speaker station.

The image above gives you the money shot of how cool this space-age looking speaker can really be. It’s not just for looks, however, the device also has some pretty great features that will make this the only docking station and sound system you’ll need moving forward.

You can currently get this bad boy in black at Speakal’s website for $79.99, with a bunch of different colors on the way later down the road. Check out the complete list of features for this guy after the jump, and grab it while its hot this holiday season!

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If you’re one of the people who was enjoying your $9.99 instant streaming plus one DVD deal at Netflix, get ready to be disappointed. That’s right, that nice low price for the service you love is going away, effective today. Can’t say we didn’t warn you this day was coming.

Instead, you can now pay $15.98 (60% more) for the same service. Of course, you can opt for the streaming only plan like most of us here at The Flickcast do. That’s still only $7.99, which is a pretty good deal.

Sadly, the selection of movies that are available for streaming is still not all that great and if you’re looking for relatively new movies, you can forget it. Most of them don’t ever make it to Netflix streaming. However, there are some and there is also a pretty decent selection of older and classic movies. Plus, the selection of TV programs is pretty good, even including some cable and non-US shows in some cases caught up with their current seasons.

So, it’s not a total loss and worth it for the money. Still, for those of you who enjoyed that low priced plan for streaming and for a DVD now and then, today just isn’t your day.

Now that this new pricing is in place, will this cause you to leave Netflix, change to a different plan or just pay the higher price? Sound off in the comments.

Some days news from the tech world is pretty amazing. Today is one of those days. Why? Read on.

Today, Google announced that it will be acquiring Motorola Mobility for $12.5 Billion. Yes, you read that right. Google is buying Moto.

According to reports, this move from Google will hopefully allow it to better compete with Apple’s iPhone, which owned two-thirds of profits among the world’s top-8 smartphone vendors in the second quarter. A Google-owned hardware arm would give the company complete control over the device, software and services, resulting in an end-to-end user experience that is completely under Google’s command.

Much like Apple does with the iPhone. And you know how that turned out. The deal will also give Google control of Motorola’s patents, of which there are quite a few.

“Motorola Mobility’s total commitment to Android has created a natural fit for our two companies,” Google CEO Larry Page said in a statement. “Together, we will create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers. I look forward to welcoming Motorolans to our family of Googlers.”

Very nice of him. Check out the full press release after the jump.

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It’s another great day for those of you currently using Googles new Google+ service and also Apple’s iPad or iPod Touch. Why? Because it’s the day Google has finally released an update for the app for iOS and made it work with not only the iPhone but the iPad and iPod Touch too.

The new version of the app not only works with all iOS devices it also adds Huddle settings and aggregated circle add notifications, a nice couple of improvements. If you recall, Google first launched Google+ on Android and then a few weeks later for the iPhone. At that point, iPad and iPod Touch users were left wanting. No more.

If you haven’t had a chance to try Google+ yet, see if you can convince one of your friends already using it to send you an invite. Or, if you really want one, drop us a note in the comments and we’ll see what we can do.

If you’re already rocking Google+ and want to get the new, updated app, head on over to the iTunes Store. Oh, as a special bonus, we can also confirm that this version of the Google+ app now works with a certain Beta version of iOS that’s coming soon. But please, don’t tell Apple we said so.

According to Bloomberg, struggling Internet-based film and TV streaming service Hulu is looking for a buyer. One of the companies supposedly in the running for the service and considering a purchase is Apple.

In case you’re not up on the current Hulu situation, in July the company announced that it had hired Morgan Stanley and Guggenheim Partners to assist with a the sale and rumor was that Yahoo! and, possibly Microsoft and Amazon, were interested.

However, it seems Apple may be the frontrunner now. Although, at this time, no company has made an actual bid for Hulu.

A Hulu purchase may seem like a good thing for Apple. They’ve already got iTunes but Hulu would allow them a better way to compete with streaming services like Netflix since, at the moment, you can only purchase or rent videos from within iTunes.

Something to keep in mind, though, is that Apple isn’t really know for acquiring companies. They are just as likely to take an idea and spin it and launch a new service of their own as an addition or enhancement of their existing service. Plus, Hulu only has about 1 million subscribers at the moment and that’s not really all that many.

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The battle for Smartphone Supremacy seems to have come down to two companies: Apple and Google. Of course, Apple has the iPhone and iOS, a device and operating system many would say has revolutionized the way people communicate and interact on the go.

And Google has it’s Android operating system that is increasingly being adopted by more and more Smartphone manufacturers and has a growing fan base of its own. That’s pretty much the way it seems to be coming down and a new survey from ChangeWave seems to support that.

According to the survey, 48% of those planning to buy a new smartphone during the next 90 days plan on buying an iPhone. Also, 46% of those buying a smartphone in the next 90 days said that they would prefer an iOS-powered device, 32% want a smartphone running Android, and only 4% want a device running BlackBerry OS.

It’s not just potential new users, however. Current users are pretty excited for the iPhone too. 70% of those surveyed said that they were “very satisfied” with iOS. 50% said they were very satisfied with Android, 27% were happy with Microsoft’s Windows OS (which we assume means both Windows Mobile and Windows Phone), and 26% were pleased with RIM’s BlackBerry OS.

That may seem pretty definitive but it doesn’t really tell the full story. There’s people who will always dislike Apple and it’s “closed” architecture and people who like Google and Android for being more “open.” However, 48% versus 32% isn’t really a slam dunk for Apple and the iPhone. There’s still a lot of fight left in this battle.

Click through for the full ChangeWave press release.

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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.