This week on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt are back and better than ever. Or, they’re pretty much the same as ever.

But that’s not a bad thing. In fact, the “same” for these two talented dudes is pretty much awesome. So, sit back, relax and enjoy this episode where the boys discuss all manner of topics including the awesome Insane Office Escape video, some visual effects news, X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Hobbit, the first day of shooting on Godzilla, new Ant Man footage, Jean-Claude Van Damme in The Avengers and, the most important thing, a fundraiser for their friend Flitz who needs an operation and doesn’t have the money.

Fortunately, you can help right here.

Chris and Matt also made picks this week incluidng Matt’s pick of Justice League Unlimited and Chris’ pick of the iOS app Feedly.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook or via email.

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It didn’t do it as fast as the iTunes store did for IOS apps but still, this milestone is pretty impressive. What am I talking about? Well, according to Apple, its Mac App Store has has now served more than 100 million downloads to eager customers who appreciate not having to buy a boxed product.

”In just three years the App Store changed how people get mobile apps, and now the Mac App Store is changing the traditional PC software industry,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, in a statement. “With more than 100 million downloads in less than a year, the Mac App Store is the largest and fastest growing PC software store in the world.”

See, pretty impressive. With numbers like these you have to wonder what exactly Apple has made from this? Like the iOS store, you can bet the company gets a percentage and, if rumors are to be believed, a pretty decent one.

Not bad Apple, not bad. At least we don’t have to worry about you going out of business like we used to back in the 90s. Let’s keep it that way, okay?

Click through for the full press release from Apple about this milestone.

For those of you still using Facebook who have not switched over to Google+ just yet there might be some great news for you just around the corner — especially if you also happen to use an iPad. That’s right, images of the yet-to-be-released Facebook app for the iPad have been leaked by TechCrunch and if they are really the app, they look pretty great.

Reportedly, the official application has been hidden inside the iPhone app all along. Waiting, dormant, to be officially released. TechCrunch‘s MG Siegler, who has already tested the application, says that it offers an “HTML5-rich experience” and that Facebook for iPad is a vast improvement over the mobile Web interface currently available.

That’s pretty good news, especialy considering using Facebook on the iPad now is rather lame. Using the iPhone app upsized for the iPad has been my go to for the most part as I really don’t like the experience using it via Safari. A dedicated app for Facebook on the iPad is the best way to go.

Facebook for iPad is expected to launch soon but an exact release date is still unknown. Click through for a few more images. Head over to TechCrunch for a lot more.

Today Apple announced that the much anticipated Mac App Store will open for business on Thursday, January 6 2011. The new service was announced back in October and offers developers a 70-30 split in revenues for applications sold. The new service looks to mimic the ease-of-use and utility of the iTunes-based App Store on the desktop. Let’s hope they succeed.

“The App Store revolutionized mobile apps,” said Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs. “We hope to do the same for PC apps with the Mac App Store by making finding and buying PC apps easy and fun.” Don’t worry, I’m sure by “PC” he means Mac OSX.

The store will be available in ninety countries at launch and will contain both free and paid applications. Click through for the full press release from Apple and start saving your pennies to buy all those great apps starting in January.

Late yesterday, everyone’s favorite social media website Facebook announced an update for their Android version of the Facebook app. This update brings the application to version 1.5, for those of you who keep track of that sort of thing.

Some of the main features of this update include support for Facebook chat (In both background and foreground) as well as the much requested Push notifications. Unfortunately, Push notifications will only work on devices running Android 2.2 or higher.

The update also includes the requisite other “bug fixes” which are, let’s face it, nice to have. Sadly, still no photo tagging in this update. But I guess you can’t have everything. . . yet.

As usual, the update is available in the Android Market. If you do update, let us know your experiences, good or bad, in the comments. Now to start updating our Android phones here at the office.

Yesterday, Google announced that its Goggles image search feature is immediately available in the App Store for Apple’s iPhone smartphone. The new feature, which will be bundled into the Google Mobile App, will support iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 devices running iOS 4 or higher.

“Computer vision is a hard problem and Google Goggles is still a Labs product. It works well for things such as landmarks, logos and the covers of books, DVDs and games. However, it doesn’t yet work for some things you might want to try like animals, plants or food,” explains Google. Ok, well, we won’t blame you for that. Maybe it will come in a future update?

This is a pretty darn cool app and makes the iPhone even more useful than it already is. Plus, if you use it correctly, it kinda makes you look really smart. Like you know stuff.

Want to know more? Check out this video from Google after the jump.

Feeling left out of the Twitter fun as a user of a Blackberry device? Are you a bit jealous of your iPhone and Android using friends who get to have fun using the official Twitter app for their respective devices? If so, your day has finally come because the folks at Twitter have released the “official” app for Blackberry too.

Late last night, Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones started to roll out into a full launch. The application reportedly features many user requested bug fixes, tweaks and feature additions received from users during the app’s long Beta period.

Here’s what you can expect from this app:

“Go to User” – the ability to access any user’s profile from anywhere in the application using auto-complete functionality for followers.
Push Notifications for Direct Messages
Timeline Support
Following and Followers
Posting, Sending, Deleting , Replying and Retweeting Tweets
User/Saved/Keyword/Proximity Search
Tweet Photos/Links
Trending Topics
Seamless integration into core BlackBerry applications
URL Shortening
Auto-Update

Have you been looking for a way to keep track of all the important news and info for Marvel’s upcoming blockbuster release of Iron Man 2? Do you also happen to be an iPhone or iPod Touch user? If so, then this is your lucky day. Why? Well, read on.

Today, Marvel has released the Iron Man Central application into the wild and its available on the Apple iTunes Store for iPhone and iPod Touch. Here’s all the info for this new app directly from the Marvel press release:

Suit up with the world’s most popular super hero in anticipation of Marvel Studios’ Iron Man 2 feature film, and learn everything about Iron Man with this totally free app!

Iron Man Central is perfect for Iron Man fans new and old, providing access to all things Iron Man including news, exclusive wallpapers, video content, direct links to Iron Man content on iTunes and more. This brand-new app also seamlessly integrates with users’ e-mail, Twitter and Facebook accounts, allowing them to share exciting new Iron Man content with friends and family.

Head on over to iTunes to get this app. Also, be sure to check out some screenshots from it after the jump. Oh, and as if you didn’t already know, Iron Man 2 hits theaters this Friday.

The iPad has shipped, the box has arrived and I’ve opened it and looked inside. Yes, the iPad is here. By way of refrence, I ordered a 64GB iPad with WiFi only. My rationale for this was I usually use most of my devices where there’s Wifi so the idea of having 3G capability on this iPad wasn’t really a factor.

Not only that, I don’t like the idea of giving AT&T any more money than I already do for my iPhone 3GS and I didn’t really want to wait another month to try out the iPad. So, Wifi version it is.

Although, after using it I may discover that having 3G is more important than I think it is. We’ll have to see about that one. I’ll do a more in-depth review a bit later after using the device for a few days but until then, here’s what I think so far.

Design and Build Quality

Apple designs nice looking productuct and nobody can deny that. They also tend to build them pretty well. The iPad is no exception. On first use it was a bit heavier than I expected but stil, as I usually carry a much heavier 13″ MacBook Pro around most of the time, the weight really won’t be a factor.

Also, once you see and use the iPad, the black bezel around the edges makes perfect sense. That’s where you hold it with one had while you use it with the other. In other ways, build quality is excellent with all the parts fitting together very nicely in a tight package.

Oh, and did I mention the screen is absolutely beautiful. Pictures and video look amazing and book text, either from iBooks or with the Kindle for iPad Application, is very readable. However, I would say that reading a book on the iPad is not quite as easy on the eyes as it is on the Kindle. I think the Kindle, at least for me, is a slightly better reading experience. But fortunately, the iPad does so much more and for shorter durations, or after I get more used to it, will probably end up being fine for reading books.

Even though Apple’s iPad won’t officially be available until Saturday, April 3rd, that doesn’t mean you can’t stock up on all those cool iPad application right now. Plus, the iBooks appication is available now as well. You can go to iTunes and browse hundreds of Apps designed specifically for the iPad, buy them, download them and have them ready and waiting  for your iPad’s arrival on Saturday.

Some of the coolest Apps I’ve seen so far include a few we already mentioned yesterday such as the ones from Netflix and ABC. Plus, here’s a list of a few more that I’ve already downloaded and have at the ready for tomorrow.

• The USA Today, New York Times Editors Choice, NPR and AP News applications. Each of these allows you to browse news and videos on the iPad. Free.

• Marvel Comics. Hey, who wants to read your favorite Marvel titles on the iPad? Who doesn’t? Free. Comics cost $1.99.

• StumbleUpon. Share links to your favorite sites using your StumbleUpon account. Free.

• NetNewsWire. The best RSS reader for the Mac is now on the iPad. $10.00.