Unless you’ve been living under a rock today, you’ve probably heard that Reed Hastings, co-founder and CEO of Netflix has announced that Netflix’s DVD delivery service will be spun off and renamed as Qwikster. While this may baffle some current subscribers, it actually does make sense. It will allow Netflix to evolve further as a streaming service without having to worry about the DVD side of the business.
I’m all for Netflix getting better as it is one of the streaming services I use the most. Hopefully with the split, it will allow for Netflix to concentrate on adding newer movies to the service which it has been seriously lacking lately. I’d also like to see them fill in the gaps of the older movies which didn’t show up on Netflix either and only had the option to rent them on DVD.
I was one of the Netflix customers who recently canceled my DVD subscription and switched to the streaming only service. This was done because I honestly did not want to pay an extra $7.99/month on what amounted to me renting at most, only 4 DVDs/month. However, Qwikster has piqued my interest because of one addition that the old Netflix service did not have – game rentals. This one one thing that I always wished Netflix had. Currently, I have a Blockbuster by mail subscription which is $8.99/month. Why have this if Netflix is $1 cheaper? Simple. Blockbuster allows me to rent games which is what I use it for because it is way cheaper then renting games through Gamefly and unlike Gamefly, I have the option to rent movies still if I wanted.
This is why I’m excited about the new Qwikster. Qwikster with games would be what I’m getting with Blockbuster, except with much better delivery times. That’s the one thing with the Blockbuster that annoys me the most and that is the amount of time it takes for them to deliver me games. Sometimes it takes days from when they ship out a disc to me before I actually see it where as Netflix, when they shipped out a disc, I’d ALWAYS see it the next day. It was very consistent and honestly, I had zero complaints ever about the service. If they can price the addition of game rentals on par with what I’m paying for Blockbuster, I’d easily sign right back up with them and drop my Blockbuster account.
Anyways, it will be interesting to see what Qwikster does as I’m all for evolving a company if it means I’ll get better service and more features.
You might remember the Darth Vader VW commercial from a few months back with a kid dressed up in full Darth Vader attire trying to harness the power of the dark side. Well, Marvel has spoofed that ad for its latest Thor movie with its version called Little Thor. Needless to say, the outcome is still very funny.
As I post this, this is the first time I’ve actually seen what the new X-Men movie will be like. X-Men: First Class is basically about Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr, how their friendship eventually leads to their rivalry as Professor X and Magneto. I don’t really know what my feeling are yet about the movie, but it does look pretty interesting. The trailer itself has almost a “Watchmen” type feel to it.
Description
X-MEN FIRST CLASS charts the epic beginning of the X-Men saga, and reveals a secret history of famous global events. Before mutants had revealed themselves to the world, and before Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Not archenemies, they were instead at first the closest of friends, working together with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to prevent nuclear Armageddon. In the process, a grave rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-Men.
GUNNAR Optiks today announced that they will be working in conjunction with Walt Disney Pictures to support the release of the upcoming film “TRON: Legacy.” If you’re as old as I am, you’ll probably remember the original TRON movie and am as excited as I am to see the new movie. GUNNAR Optiks currently has 3 styles available for 3D that feature GUNNAR’s i-AMP3D technology that uses circular polarized 3D lenses which are compatible with most theaters and those equipped with RealD 3D technology.
As a bonus, anyone who purchases a pair of GUNNAR 3D glasses will receive a free for TRON: Legacy.
I saw this trailer last night while watching the Iron Man 2 dvd from Netflix and it really caught my eye. The movie is called Super 8 and I know nothing about it other than the fact that it somehow involves Area 51. It’s produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by J.J. Abrams.
PlayStation.Blog today has some information from this week’s Tokyo Game Show 2010 about the next PlayStation 3 system update 3.50. The main feature of this update is the ability for the PlayStation 3 to play back Bu-ray 3D discs. Sony is really pushing 3D televisions so this is a no brainer of an update. System update 3.50 will also bring with it other new features but they are not yet announced.
Hi everyone, I wanted to share some news out of Tokyo Game Show. We’ve announced that the PS3 system will be able to play back 3D content on Blu-ray 3D discs with the next system software update (v.3.50), slated for release on September 21. We know that many consumers have purchased 3D TVs already and more of you will be purchasing them as the holidays approach – so we’re excited to offer this firmware update that makes all 38 million PS3s worldwide compatible with Blu-ray 3D discs.
This new feature expands the PS3’s 3D capabilities – as you may recall, we added the ability to play stereoscopic 3D games with the 3.30 firmware update in April.
While support for Blu-ray 3D discs is the primary new feature within the 3.50 update, there will be a few additional features. We’ll post more details on the blog prior to the firmware’s release, so check back here on Monday.
Gizmodo has a great post right now about this coffee shop in Chicago called The Wormhole. Unlike other coffee shops, this one serves up a healthy dose of geek with each cup. Inside, the place is decorated with oodles of 80′s geek paraphernalia from Star Wars to Ghostbusters as well as the star of The Wormhole, a DeLorean dressed up in Back to the Future livery complete with “OUTATIME” license plate!
I’m a huge Back to the Future fan so if I were ever to visit Chicago, I would definitely put The Wormhole on my itinerary of places to visit. Why visit Starbucks when you can visit The Wormhole – “the time traveler’s coffee shop.” While you’re there, be sure to try out their Mocha Puffs, a combination of Cocoa Puffs and espresso mixed with milk. Yum.
For years, I always thought the Stay Puft Marshmallows brand was real. Ever since watching Ghostbusters as a child, I never thought once to question whether or not it was a real brand. I just thought it was because of its awesome and believable mascot. It wasn’t until years later that I figured out there was no such thing as the Stay Puft brand…until now.
ThinkGeek is now selling these officially licensed Stay Puft marshmallows for $19.99/box which contains 16 marshmallows. These aren’t ordinary marshmallows however as they are seriously caffeinated so you’ll really only want to eat just one at a time anyways. I think while eating these, I’ll pretend that they are made from the actual remains of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man that met his demise in the original Ghostbusters movie.
The Destructor Form is delicious!
From the moment we saw that giant, smiling Destroyer of Worlds, our sweet tooth called out for revenge. Revenge for the bits of New York crushed. Revenge for the . . . ok, so not really revenge – we just wanted marshmallows. And even Walter Peck being covered in blobs of melted mallow man weren’t enough to crack our craving. It’s taken over 25 years, but we finally have the stuff that childhood dreams are made of: Stay Puft Caffeinated Gourmet Marshmallows!
Two major things to note about these sugary mallows of awake-ti-tude: First, they are gourmet. Delicate and delicious. Second, they are licensed collectibles, which for a marshmallow is pretty awesome. Third, Stay Puft Caffeinated Gourmet Marshmallows come in a marshmallowy-feeling box – a nice reusable keepsake. And finally, fourth: Stay Puft Caffeinated Gourmet Marshmallows are CAFFEINATED! Big time. You feel it as soon as you suck one down. Take that giant marshmallow man; we’re eating your eggs one by one. So get some Stay Puft Caffeinated Gourmet Marshmallows now, relive the 80s, stay awake forever, and satiate the need for sugary revenge.
Checking the AppleApp Store this morning, I noticed that the Netflix app is finally available for download. I checked a couple of nights ago and it wasn’t there. According to the App Store page, it was only just released this morning. With the release of the Netflix app for the iPhone and iPod Touch, this further convinces me that I need to get an iPhone 4 as my next upgrade which is in a month. I love Netflix and its probably one of the best services I currently pay a monthly fee for. I use Netflix on all my game consoles so why wouldn’t I also want it on my phone?
I did download the Netflix app to my test iPhone 2G and it downloaded without a hitch, however when trying to log into the service itself, it would continuously timeout when trying to connect to the login server. Not sure what that is about but I was only able to get to the 2 screenshots you see below. I will try it again tonight to see if it is finally working correctly.
UPDATE: after finally figuring out what I was doing wrong, I have finally been able to try the Netflix app and I must say that it is fantastic. The quality of the streams are terrific with all movies I’ve tried so far being smooth and clear over wifi. I’m very impressed by how simple and functional the app is.
Description
Get Netflix on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. Just download this free app and you can instantly watch TV shows & movies streaming from Netflix.
• It’s part of your Netflix unlimited membership. Not a Netflix member? Start your FREE trial today.
• Watch as often as you want
• Resume watching where you left off on your TV or computer
• Browse movies and manage your instant Queue right from your device
No scenes from the movie whatsoever except for The Avenger’s logo and Samuel L. Jackson’s voice, but you know what? His voice gets you pumped for the movie.
I just finished watching Batman: Under the Red Hood last night and I found it to be quite good. It is a more adult oriented Batman than say Batman: The Brave and the Bold. This movie does follow events presented to us in the comics so for anyone who does follow Batman on a regular basis, many parts of this movie should seem familiar.
I think most of you would enjoy this movie – I know I did. I however still find it strange when I hear someone else as the voice of the Joker instead of Mark Hamill. To me, Mark Hamill is the definitive Joker voice and they should always use him as the Joker in all animated versions of him. John Di Maggio does a good job, but he’s no Mark Hamill.
Do I recommend this for children? Maybe not small children. Mine is 4 and I don’t know if I would let him watch this. Some areas in the movie are pretty violent. Even the implied violence is a bit graphic. My advice would be to watch this on your own first and then decide if you think it is suitable for your children or not.
Movie Description:
Batman faces his ultimate challenge as the mysterious Red Hood takes Gotham City by firestorm. One part vigilante, one part criminal kingpin, Red Hood begins cleaning up Gotham with the efficiency of Batman, but without following the same ethical code. Killing is an option. And when the Joker falls in the balance between the two, hard truths are revealed and old wounds are reopened.
Right now, a few places have the Blu-Ray edition on sale since this is the first week of its release. Some quick searches at all the usual stores and we find the following:
I knew there was a reason I bought a PlayStation 3. Sony is set to bring DC Universe Online to the PS3 on November 1st. DC universe Online is an MMORPG where you as the player can be either a hero or villain. Of course none of that is important really because this trailer basically makes me think to myself, why doesn’t Sony just make a full length feature film based off this trailer? Seriously. Who needs live actors anymore? With cgi, the possibilities are endless and as you can already see from the trailer, its already better than most super hero movies we’ve seen using real people.
It looks like the PlayStation 3 version of Netflix has a new feature that I’ve always considered missing on all versions of Netflix on any console – the search option. On the PS3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii, you could not search for a specific movie title from the Netflix application. You had to do your movie searches on the Netflix website and then add to instant queue so it would show up in the app.
Not any longer, or at least not anymore for the PlayStation 3 version. You see, the PS3 version has been updated to include searches from within the app. You still have to use the Netflix disc to play movies, but now, it has the 1 function none of the other console versions have – search.
This week is the San Diego Comic-Con and I know a few sites and people who are there. If you’d like to follow along for all the updated Comic-Con news, check out these sites below:
There is a free movie rental today on the PlayStation Store and its for Godzilla 2000. I used to be a fan of those cheesy old school Godzilla movies with the worst dubbing known to man so I’m kind of curious how this movie is. I’m sure it probably not that great, but it can’t be any worse than Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus, and I’m sure it has to be at least entertaining to watch. I definitely know what I’m watching tonight.
