Around the Net – May 16, 2012

And the winner is… Game of Thrones, for most pirated show of 2012. Also in this edition: Thor’s bad joke, a new Tron, the XBOX gets explored –and a subscription plan, CW gets green, DVD’s and Windows 8, another Spider-Man preview, and no streaming for you!

  • Game of Thrones –projected as most pirated show of 2012
    HBO’s Game of Thrones has been all the craze since it’s launch last year sometime. With a barrier to entry of subscribing to HBO through a cable or satellite provider, it wasn’t far-fetched at all to assume such mass-piracy would have happened. Cable and satellite providers only offer HBO or other premium channels with their most expensive tier of services, and with most people trying to trim costs these days, premium cable is probably the first thing to go. HBO, please consider this an opportunity to offer up a streaming-only plan.
    –By the way, if you are a big a fan of this series as I am, and know nothing about the books or have no plan of reading them at all, you should check out A Cast of Kings podcast. They breakdown each episode scene by scene, and discuss things that may be different from the books.
  • Avengers joke ignites petition
    In The Avengers movie, after Black Widow states that Loki has killed eighty people in two days, Thor replies, “He’s adopted.” A petition has actually been started in opposition to the joke, which in my opinion, was just an attempt of Thor to distance himself from the actions of him brother. Then again, I’m not adopted (or at least that I know of), so I can’t truly know how an adopted individual would feel upon hearing this.
  • Watch the 30-Minute Tron: Uprising prelude online
    This one was not on my radar at all, but seems interesting none the less. I’m not a big Tron fan so I’m not sure how much actual story is behind the movies, which is probably why it would lend itself well to an animated series format.
  • The $99 XBOX is official, only at Microsoft stores
    The rumors from the past few weeks are true. If you are anywhere near one of the few Microsoft stores and really want to game on a budget, this may be a good solution. The package include the core console, a Kinect, and XBOX Live membership for a mere fifteen bucks a month. Plenty of people have done the math, and it actually is only about forty bucks more than it would cost you to purchase the same package outright. I guess the real issue here is getting locked into a contract, much like we have seen with cellular companies.
  • Green Arrow show picked up by CW
    Although I don’t give a crap about Green Arrow, this project does have some interesting names attached to it. With the relative unpopularity of Green Arrow as a brand, this project almost seems doomed from the start. This one will probably go the way of ill-fated Wonder Woman reboot.
  • DVD/Blu-Ray Playback, not built into Windows 8
    No DVD or Blu-Ray playback in Windows 8, no worries. This is not really an issue, although that has not prevented various media outlets from sounding off. You see, a lot of people stream media these day. Netflix isn’t thirty-seven percent of internet traffic for no reason. But still, not everyone has a high-speed internet connection. Again, no worries. There are a myriad of free and paid media players that provide such capability. Let’s face it, physical media is going the way of the dodo bird.
  • Internet Explorer finally coming to Xbox
    PlayStation has had the leg-up on this one for years now, and while currently only being internally beta-tested phase, I hope to see this one soon. About time Microsoft.
  • Four Minute Amazing Spider-Man Preview
    Everything I see about this movie only makes me more and more exited. This preview features a bridge scene in which Spider-Man attempts to say a boy who is about to take a swim in the Hudson.
  • C-Spire Streaming Tier Revisited
    I have been hearing rumblings that C-Spire has finally started charging for their streaming tier, which was free since the release of the iPhone late last year. Needless to say, customers are furious over this and it will be interesting to see how it all plays out. With the main feature of most handsets starting to focus more around the ability to stream media, i see that only becoming a bigger issue going forward.

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