Even though this episode is a wee bit late that doesn’t mean it isn’t chock full of awesome. Okay, how about it has an abundance of mediocrity? Better?

Anyway, This week on The Flickcast brings more insight, innovation and innuendo from your favorite co-hosts. That’s right, Chris and Matt are back and discussing all sorts of new and returning topics.

Some of those topics include the Superbowl and its ever-present advertising, new trailers for Captain America, Super 8, Cowboys & Aliens, the future of the world and all-things Verizon iPhone.

Chris and Matt also made new picks this week including Matt’s pick of the TV series Saved by the Bell and Chris’ pick of the new Shawn Ryan TV series The Chicago Code.

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 and MySpace or via email.

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I know, reading that headline you may be skeptical because you haven’t received your iPhone 4 notification of shipment yet from Big Red. However, as I got mine last Friday night, I can assure you that Verizon is indeed sending out the iPhone 4 a little earlier than they originally let on. Actually, several days early.

In fact, the news for those of us who stayed awake until midnight West Coast time to order is even better than that. According to an update at Fedex, my particular iPhone 4 is actually on a truck and out for delivery today. See, miracles do happen.

Of course I realize that the iPhone from Verizon is exactly like the iPhone from AT&T and isn’t exactly revolutionary, more like evolutionary. Also, I realize it will actually have some subtle, but potentially problematic, differences from the AT&T version. However, that doesn’t stop me from being pretty excited about the prospect of the best smartphone on the best wireless network.

So, once it arrives in my hands expect a full report and maybe even one or two unboxing photos. In the meantime, if you’ve ordered yours via the Verizon pre-order, don’t lose hope. Your shiny new goodness is probably on the way very soon too.

With all the hype over the recent announcement that the iPhone is coming to Verizon, it’s nice to see at least one show offering a sober and reasoned commentary on the event. That show is, of course, The Daily Show with John Stewart. In a seven-minute spot that gets funnier by the minute, Stewart begins with iPhone users’ (including himself) troubles with AT&T.

”For the past three or four years, those of us in the iPhone community have sacrificed one thing for the ability to carry around every photograph we’ve ever taken, or song we’ve ever listened to, or home video, or compass,” Stewart said during the segment. “We have sacrificed the ability to make phone calls.”

It was supposedly so bad for Stewart that he had to send text messages by typing them out on his iPhone 4 and then having an assistant bring the phone to the message’s recipient so they could read it. John Oliver then joins in, reporting live via video chat from yesterday’s Verizon event using his AT&T iPhone. As you might expect, the quality is bad and the video call drops several times.

There’s a lot more in the video that you will enjoy, even if you’re not really caught up in the whole Verizon iPhone thing as many of us are. Funny is still funny.

Check out the video after the jump.

I don’t know about you but I never get tired of Verizon iPhone rumors. Maybe because I wish for it to happen almost more than anything. Don’t get me wrong, I do like my Android powered HTC Incredible. I just miss the iPhone but I won’t go back to it as long as it’s only on AT&T’s network.

So, if I could have something that combines the amazingness of the iPhone with the awesomeness of the Verizon network, I would be a happy person and could then go about my life in blissful contentment . . . until then next version comes out of course.

The rumor this week is about Apple’s search for engineers to work on some new projects. The info, dug up by the gang at Fortune, is about a job for a full-time Cellular Systems Performance Engineers who will deal with protocol issues and field test hardware. They are also looking for people with experience in GSM, GPRS, EDGE, and more to the point, CDMA technologies.

In case you don’t know that last one, CDMA, is the kind of network Verizon uses. That bit of info is made all the more significant by the fact that no currently shipping hardware from Apple — including the iPhone 4 — uses that technology. So, just another piece of the puzzle that when finished will hopefully reveal a shiny new iPhone for Verizon users.

I’d wait in line for that if. . . and I bet some of you would too.

It’s a glorious day Apple fans as Verizon is now selling your favorite touch computing device the iPad. It can now be purchased online or in stores so if you’re getting ready for the full transition away from AT&T, this is a great place to start.

You may notice the pricing of the device is the same for both Verizon Wireless and AT&T (16GB: $629, 32GB: $729, 64GB: $829) despite the fact that AT&T sells the iPad Wi-Fi + 3G and Verizon Wireless is only selling the iPad with Wi-Fi. How can this be?

Well, it’s because Verizon is bundling a MiFi 2200 with each iPad. However, in a bid to stay competitive with AT&T, Verizon will not require a contract. Instead, the carrier is offering month-to-month data packages of 1GB for $20, 3GB for $35 or 5GB for $50. AT&T’s data packages for the iPad remain unchanged at $15 for 250MB/Month, $25 for 2GB/Month, or $30 for unlimited if you were one of the lucky ones to have had the deal prior to the change.

As someone who already has an iPad, this won’t really have much effect on me. However, it does bode very well for the future as Apple and Verizon solidify their relationship in time for the company to begin selling the iPhone next year.

We know, we know, these rumors have been swirling for so long now, you probably don’t believe anything anymore. But this time around, TechCrunch is reporting that a source intimately familiar with the hardware supply chain for Apple has noticed an order for millions of units of Qualcomm CDMA chipsets. Why is this unusual? Because Verizon’s wireless network requires CDMA chipsets to be present in the wireless devices that run on their network.

This can only point to one thing: Apple is revving up their supply chain for a Verizon-compatible iPhone. And because lead-times in the semiconductor market can be quite lengthy, sometimes as long as 26 weeks, we can start to forecast that a real-live Verizon iPhone looks to be a strong possibility in January 2011.

On its own, this latest bit of news is a strong prediction of AT&T’s expiring exclusivity arrangement with Apple, yet there’s more. In a SEC filing made by AT&T a few days ago, the company detailed what may happen to the company’s profitability in the wake of just such an event:

“We believe offering a wide variety of handsets reduces dependence on any single handset as these products evolve. In addition, offering a number of attractive handsets on an exclusive basis distinguishes us from our competitors. As these exclusivity arrangements end, we expect to continue to offer such handsets (based on historical industry practice), and we believe our service plan offerings will help to retain our customers by providing incentives not to move to a new carrier.”

And AT&T is even more clear in their final paragraph of their SEC filing:

“Although exclusivity arrangements are important to us, such arrangements may not provide a competitive advantage over time, as the industry continues to introduce new devices and services. Also, while the expiration of any of our current exclusivity arrangements could increase churn and reduce postpaid customer additions, we do not expect any such terminations to have a material negative impact on our Wireless segment income, consolidated operating margin or our cash from operations.”