The launch window 
has been a rocky one for Activision’s Call of Duty Elite, but even with a few bugs remaining, the publisher is ready to start ramping things up.
This Friday, members of the subscription service will get the chance to see the first installment of Friday Night Fights, an original entertainment series that’s produced by Ridley Scott and Tony Scott’s RSA Films.
Google TV was 
the biggest thing that didn’t happen at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show. Released with a lot of fanfare in late 2010, it immediately hit resistance and most television manufacturers quickly scrapped plans to include it in their 2011 sets.
The system probably won’t have much of a presence at the 2012 CES either, but it looks to have found an ally with one of the largest names in TV.
The Entertainment 
Software Ratings Board is about to expand its territory.
The ESRB and CTIA (Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association) have called a press conference for next week to announce a new rating system for mobile applications – an area the video game ratings board has had an interest in for some time.
The Saturday 
morning serial model of the 1950s may be long dead in the film world, but a new eBook publisher is looking to bring it back in a more modern form.
Backlit is producing a string of Young Adult fiction in eBook form, recruiting Hollywood writers to pen the tales, which invariably end with a cliffhanger. It’s a model that, if it works, not only guarantees a fairly predictable revenue stream, but has caught the eye of producers.
The records keep tumbling for Modern Warfare 3.
Activision’s action shooter has set a new standard for the entertainment industry, earning more than $775 million in five days, beating all gaming, theatrical and book sell-through totals. The previous record, not surprisingly, was last year’s “Black Ops” installment of the Call of Duty franchise, which took in $650 million.
The SOPA anti-piracy 
bill might be strongly backed by the Hollywood community, but the Consumer Electronics Association – the group behind the annual Consumer Electronics Show – wants no part of it.
In a statement to the House Judiciary Committee on H.R. 3261 – the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (or SOPA) – the organization voiced concerns about the bill, warning of collateral damage to innovation in the electronics field.
Bob Iger, 
Disney president and CEO, is joining the Board of Directors at Apple.
The company today announced his appointment to the board as well as the company’s audit committee. At the same time, long-time board member Arthur Levinson (co-founder of Genentech) has been named chairman.
The Kindle Fire 
is on the way to customers – and with it, Amazon’s hoping to revolutionize the tablet business.
The $199 entertainment-focused device is actually shipping a day earlier than planned, as Amazon looks to build on the substantial buzz the Kindle Fire has generated since it was first announced. The company also plans to ship the Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G eReaders tomorrow – six days ahead of schedule.
It’s rare that 
a company is this candid about one of its products.
Logitech CEO Guerrino De Luca, in an earnings conference call with investors this week, dubbed the company’s Google TV set top box – officially called the Logitech Revue – “a big mistake” and said the company had no plans to build future versions of the product.
The growth of 
the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad as gaming devices has done plenty to worry executives at Nintendo and Sony for a while now, but new numbers from Flurry Research may cause even more agita.
The mobile analytics firm says revenues from the iOS and Android gaming markets are now higher than that generated from traditional portable systems from the two gaming giants. And in a $3.3 billion market, that’s noteworthy.
Chris Morris: Journalist 