movies

As if troubled movie rental company Blockbuster didn't have enough to deal with already: an angry Facebook user has taken issue with its participation in the social network's controversial Beacon advertising program, and is pursuing legal action.

Cathryn Elaine Harris, a Texas resident, filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for eastern Texas on April 9, claiming that it's a violation of a federal statute for Blockbuster to participate in Beacon, which shares rental history on Facebook members' "news feeds" unless they manually opt out. She is seeking class-action status, hoping to eventually … Read more

Remember Giveaway of the Day, the site that offers one commercial software program free of charge every day? They've got a gem today: Aplus DVD Ripper (Windows), which lets you back up your movies to your PC and/or convert them for viewing on your iPod, Zune, cell phone, or other portable device. It normally sells for $39.99.

Remember, there's a catch: You have only until midnight tonight (ET) to download and install the program. After that, it's gone (though GotD does occasionally repeat its giveaways). But that's the one and only catch, so if … Read more

On today's show Phil Ryan and Caroline McCarthy help Jeff get through a lonely Friday. We'll talk about gorilla suit workshops, a California beer tax, and this weekend's disasters at the box office. All that plus an entertainment report from Kamini!

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Audi has recently made big media pushes with a luxury forum at the Super Bowl and rides for celebrities at the Oscars, and now the company touts its involvement with the upcoming superhero movie Iron Man. Audi got director Jon Favreau to include the Audi R8 as Tony Stark's personal car in the movie, citing it as an appropriate car for the most technically knowledgeable superhero. As luck would have it, we have an Audi R8 in our garage for review this week, so of course we had to make our own duplicate of a still from the movie. … Read more

Apple's tool for media management, Final Cut Server, is now available, the company announced Tuesday.

The software application is meant for managing the production of large-scale video projects. Final Cut Server enables automatic cataloging, viewing, and annotating of video, and is available for both the Mac and PC. It is integrated with Apple's video-editing software, Final Cut Studio.

The product was announced a year ago, was originally supposed to ship last summer, but was delayed.

Final Cut Server pricing starts at $999 for one server and 10 licenses, and $1,999 for one server and unlimited licenses.

It seems as if the hype over Iron Man has been going on forever, so we're surprised that it's taken this long for someone to release a phone dedicated to the movie. (Side note: Are we the only ones who think Robert Downey Jr. is totally miscast?)

Like other promotional movie phones, including Homer Simpson's cellie, this customized LG Shine will bear the colors of its hero and include exclusive footage from the film. The main difference is that this handset is finished in 18k gold (not iron) and will be given away in an online drawing, … Read more

I have no idea how many titles have been released on DVD, but the 90,000-title library available at Netflix gives a pretty good indication. That's a much larger pool of titles than the infant Blu-ray format (still far fewer than 1,000 titles available), but it's far from comprehensive. Despite such guilty pleasures as Gymkata and Strange Brew hitting the the silver disc in the past few years, there are still some high-profile movies (and TV shows) that have yet to be released on DVD.

There are a variety of reasons for the no-shows. Sometimes there are … Read more

Update at 6:15 p.m. PDT to add areas that may likely see delays in delivery.

Update at 7:55 p.m. to reflect that the site has since come back online.

Netflix customers expecting a little red package soon may be disappointed.

The largest online video-rental service has suffered a technical glitch that has knocked out its Web site as well as its logistics and delivery systems, according to a Steve Swasey, a company spokesman.

The malfunction, the source of which the company won't reveal, began at about 7 a.m. PDT. The site came back online … Read more

Updated at 4:00 p.m. PDT: We have posted a completely new story here that details how Netflix will be forced to delay deliveries.

Internet movie rental company Netflix suffered a site outage beginning at 7 a.m. PDT Monday, and the company doesn't know when it will have the problem fixed, a Netflix spokesman said.

Customer service personnel told CNET News.com that they were told the site was undergoing routine maintenance when something went wrong, information they then passed on to customers. That is incorrect, according to Steve Swasey, the company's director of corporate communications. … Read more