With award season in full swing in Hollywood, it only makes sense that we’d see some new Oscar-themed offerings in the iPhone’s app store. And Redwind Software has three new ones out that should keep movie lovers happy.  

"The Oscars Guide" and "The Razzies Guide" are now available for download for free.

Both offer comprehensive histories of the awards shows that celebrate the best – and worst – Hollywood has to offer. All award categories are included and each has a robust search engine.

Aalso available from Redwind is “Movies Challenge: Oscars Special”. The app is a good one for trivia buffs, featuring over 2,000 questions about the Oscars in six game types. Players can also try to predict this year’s winners for the chance for a $100 credit on iTunes.

The games are officially sanctioned by the Academy, so there’s no chance of a copyright suit squashing them before the big night.

 

 After seemingly endless months of speculation, the iPad has finally become a reality. Apple CEO Steve Jobs formally unveiled the company’s tablet computer today, with a host of features and a surprisingly low retail price.

The knee-jerk reaction from the Apple faithful, though, wasn’t as enthusiastic as expected, raising the question of whether the iPad will be able to succeed at the same level the iPhone and iPod Touch have.

First, though, the good news. When it’s released in 60 days, the iPad will start at just $499 (for a WiFi enabled 16GB model), significantly lower than many analysts had forecast. A 32 GB model will cost $599 and a 64GB version will run $699.

A month later, Apple will begin shipping versions that include 3G capabilities – with a $130 premium over the WiFi only models. 3G service will be provided exclusively by AT&T, but will not require a contract.

Apple will offer two plans: 250MB of data per month for $14.99 or unlimited data for $29.99 per month. Either plan can be activated directly from the iPad.

Got some gadgets around the house you’re not using anymore? Amazon may soon be willing to take them off of your hands.  

The FT reports the online retailer is in the process of setting up a trade-in program for consumer electronics, letting customers swap products they’re not using for Amazon gift cards.

It’s an expansion of sorts for Amazon, which kicked off a video game trade-in program last year. That experiment was successful enough for the company to begin accepting DVD and college text book trades as well.

It’s also a move to stay competitive. Best Buy currently offers a similar program for laptops, mobile phones and other devices.

Amazon is reportedly in the process of recruiting software engineers to create the service. As yet, there’s no timeline for launch.

This was bound to happen sooner or later. YouTube will kick off a new service Friday, offering paid rentals of streaming films.  

Five movies will be offered initially – including some that will be shown at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The prices – and length of time the rental period will last - will be set by the filmmakers. Each film will be available until Jan 31.

It’s a small test now, obviously. And it’s sticking with art-house films, but it’s still a huge step for YouTube and Google. This pilot program will let the company get an idea of the impact this sort of thing will have on its servers and could position the service as a viable alternative (or competitor) to Apple’s iTunes, Netflix and Hulu.

YouTube hasn’t given any indication on when it hopes to expand the program. It’s worth noting, though, that like Netflix, YouTube is available on many Internet-streaming TVs and Blu-ray players. So if the company rolls out a substantive paid streaming program, it will automatically have a large installed base of customers in both the living room and desktop.

Rumors that Microsoft has been planning to launch its own smart phone have been swirling for several months now, as industry watchers and gossip mongers try to figure out exactly what the company’s “Project Pink” is all about.  

Now Jefferies analyst Katherine Egbert is weighing in. Citing “industry checks,” Egbert predicts Mister Softy will roll out a Zune-like phone with 720p video capability and a a 5 MP or higher camera. More surprisingly, she expects an announcement within the next two months – either at the Mobile World Congress in mid-Feb. or the CTIA show in March.

The phone, she speculates, will be based on the as-yet unreleased Windows Mobile 7 operating system. It will support the Zune video store and music subscription service, along existing Microsoft partners, including Facebook, Twitter and Xbox Live.

Microsoft, it's worth noting, has denied plans for a Zune phone for the better part of the past year. 

 

“Come see our latest creation” shouts the email invite from Apple to the consumer electronics media. Either Steve Jobs & Co. are finally ready to show off the long rumored Tablet computer – or they’re having one hell of a laugh at the media’s expense.

Frankly, it could be both.

The Wall Street Journal earlier this month reported that the tablet would have 10- or 11-inch touchscreen, wireless access and would cost roughly $1,000. Of course, it could be something as mundane as adding video to the iPod Nano.

Either way, we’ll know for sure Jan 27, the date of Apple’s next media event. We’ll have full coverage on Technotainment. (The Journal, by the way, also predicted that date – lending even more credence to its other reports.)

Here's a prosumer piece of equipment that we somehow missed at CES last week (a more complete look at others is coming soon in Variety weekly). The Tiffen Steadicam Smoothee for the iPhone 3GS uses Hollywood technology to allow tracking shots to be taken with the device's video recorder.

No word on price just yet, nor a release date, but Tiffen seems to be aiming at a broad audience with this, meaning you can expect it to be well below the $60,000 studios pay for a proper steadicam.

Yeah, the PlayStation 3 is typically something that's discussed in the world of The Cut Scene, but it looks like Sony is making baby steps to turn the system into an even bigger part of the living room.  

The company has introduced torne - a USB TV tuner that lets users watch and record television through their PS3s - even when they're playing a game or watching a Blu-ray film. The catch here is that the product is only available in Japan at present - and Sony hasn't announced any plans to bring it to the U.S.

It may be just a matter of time, though. Europe has its own TV tuner for the PS3 - and many American consumers have been hoping they could blend their PS3 with their Tivo since the system's launch. Now that the system is sold with a significantly larger hard drive than it had at launch, the time could be right to add tuner/DVR functionality.

torne will be available this March. The standalone product will cost ¥9,980 ($108.78), while a bundled version with a 250GB PS3 will run ¥42,800 ($466.52).

(Thanks Joystiq)

Though 2010 is only 12 days old, it's safe to say this is going to be one hell of a year for Vudu.  

The streaming media company was all over CES, outnumbered (it seemed) only by the eReaders and netbooks. At the show, Vudu announced several new partnerships which will put the service on HDTVs and Blu-ray players from LG Electronics, Mitsubishi, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Toshiba and Vizio.

Note that the only stragglers in that list are Sony and Panasonic - and there was some grumbling from customers of both companies when the names were left off of the new partner list.

The company also jumped on the app bandwagon, announcing a program that allows customers to do more than just watch movies. Over 100 apps were rolled out, providing access from everything from content from the Associated Press and NBC Nightly News to the now standard Twitter and Facebook interfaces.

No wonder the rumor mill is beginning to churn about a possible buyout.

If you’ve got a Panasonic set with VierraCast functionality, don’t get too excited about the company’s newly announced partnership with Netflix.  

Earlier this week at CES, Panasonic announced it would be bringing several new partners, including Skype, Twitter, Pandora and Netflix, to its line of Internet-enabled TV sets. Existing customers will receive the new services via a firmware update.

Expect, it turns out, for Netflix. That widget will only be included in sets or BluRay players that are built in 2010 or later. Early adopters of the technology are being left out in the cold.

Apparently, there were contractual restrictions – which would seem to point the finger of blame at Netflix. What Panasonic couldn’t answer was why other manufacturers, some of which have had Netflix included for a while now, haven’t faced similar problems.