Australia's Biggest Movies Aren't Available As Streaming Rentals 
Why AFACT's Piracy Stance Remains Hopeless 
The Complete Guide To Creating A Seamless, Play-Everything Media Centre 
Turn Your Phone Into A Universal Media Hub 
In-Flight Entertainment Is Insanely Up-To-Date 
Five Best Movie Recommendation Services Apple has started loading the iTunes Store with higher-quality, 1080p versions of movies, and despite the fact that they’re nearly 1/10th the size of their Blu-Ray counterparts, Ars Technica found that the quality is almost as good. Sharpness and colour reproduction were just about on par, though iTunes lost a bit of detail in grainy shots and had lots of issues with dark gradients (at least in the one movie they tested).
A month ago, we reported on how in-flight entertainment on some Qantas planes is now ludicrously up-to-date. I’m pleased to report that the title list is continuing to be updated, with The Descendants, My Week With Marilyn, The Arist and many others all in evidence on a flight I took yesterday.
Your phone is already the centre of your digital life, handling everything from calls to games to email to entertainment. Let’s take your phone and all of the media you have on it to the next level, by turning it into a jukebox full of music, movies, and photos that you can play on almost any TV, stereo system, computer or other device you may come across, whether you’re moving from the living room to your bedroom or your house to a friend’s place. The technology is already built into your phone and the gear you have at home; all you need to do is unlock it. Here’s how.
The excellent Meryl-Streep-channels-Margaret-Thatcher movie The Iron Lady is still running in Australian cinemas and hasn’t been released on DVD anywhere in the world, but I legally watched a copy on the small screen on the weekend. How? I happened to get on the right plane.
Whether you’re planning a dinner and a movie with a special someone for Valentine’s Day, or you just like to read up on what’s worth seeing before you spend your hard-earned cash on a theatre experience, you have plenty of options to find out what’s new in theatres or what’s worth seeing before you go. Here’s a look at five of the best movie recommendation and review services, based on your nominations.
Last week, I helped Alex at Gizmodo test out the SmartDigital Handitheatre, an inflatable screen and projector for outdoor movie fun. Regardless of whether you want to $3500+ spend on the gear, there’s one clear lesson for anyone aiming to set up an impromptu outdoor cinema: use a groundsheet.
For the last year-and-a-half I’ve been learning Spanish. I grew up around Spanish speakers and took the subject in high school. But you know what has really helped with my Spanish language skills? Movies.
Over at our sibling games site Kotaku, Mark has written an excellent analysis of why SOPA (and similar legislation) is pointless and how movie companies should concentrate on making it easier to buy their products online. Definitely worth a read. [Kotaku]
Windows: If you have lots of movies ripped or downloaded to your hard drive it can be difficult to keep track of the details. Movie Explorer scans your hard drive and pulls movieup posters and details from iMDB. You can use Movie explorer to browse your movies, then launch your selection directly from the program for viewing in your default player.
Quickflix rolled outs its WatchNow all-you-can-eat streaming service for movies for Bravia TV owners in October, for computer users in November and for PS3 owners just before Christmas. So it’s early days, but the initial numbers seem encouraging: around 10,000 people are currently using the service.
