The movies meet Foursquare

Foursquare, a location-based application that rewards points and badges to users, is one of the fastest growing iPhone apps on the market. Now, another company is taking the framework of that technology and blending in films.

Miso focuses on the films you’re watching on your iPhone/iPod/iPad, awarding avid users who check in and share their favorite shows badges tied to genres and sub-genres of film and television.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

Windows Media Center coming to the set-top box?

Microsoft is looking to expand the footprint of its Windows 7 Media Center – and that could have folks at Tivo real nervous.  

The company today announced that it was releasing what amounts to an embedded version of Windows 7 to OEM manufacturers for use in systems other than PCs. The Media Center is front and center among the elements Microsoft trumpets in its announcement, noting that it can be used in set-top boxes, connected media devices and consumer TVs.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog.

Now Redbox will delay new DVD releases

Netflix isn’t the only movie rental service that has agreed to delay giving its customers new releases. Redbox has struck a deal with Twentieth Century Fox and Universal to wait 28 days before offering movies in its machines. 

The agreement might cost Redbox some customers, but it will ultimately save it money. The studios have agreed to sell the company DVDs at a lower price. The agreement is pretty much instantaneous and will begin with Universal’s “It’s Complicated,” and Fox’s “Avatar”.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

Constantin Films vs. the Internet

Stories about film studios that have had YouTube rip down videos featuring copyrighted works are a dime a dozen, but it’s not that often that you see the surfers of the Web unite in protest over it.

Constantin Films is in the middle of a PR disaster for just this reason, though. The German production company has asked the streaming video service to remove the hundreds of parody videos that used the climatic scene from its film “Downfall”.

Read more at Variety’s “Technotainment” blog

Mandalay’s Guber lands Board seat at Demand Media

Demand Media, the company behind online hits such as eHow, Livestrong.com and Cracked, is expanding its reach, adding both Hollywood and Internet heavyweights to its board of directors.

Peter Guber, chair of Mandalay Entertainment Group, and Josh James, senior vice president and general manager of the Omniture Business Unit of Adobe, have joined the company’s board to help the company in its content creation and audience behavior.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog.

ABC’s iPad crush

It was no surprise that Disney-owned ABC was one of the first media companies to embrace the iPad. Steve Jobs, after all, is a prominent board member. But now that the first numbers are coming in, you can bet that executives at the network are awfully glad they signed on early.

In just 12 days, ABC’s iPad app was downloaded more than 212,000 times. And users have already streamed more than 680,000 episodes via that app.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

Caan strives to give indie filmmakers a break with Openfilm

With consolidation sweeping through the film industry and indie shingles closing down at a rapid clip, it’s harder than ever for budding filmmakers to get a break. But a new Website that counts three members of the Academy among its ranks is looking to make it a little easier.

Openfilm.com emerges from its beta period Thursday with a series of grants for filmmakers, its own distribution company and an advisory board that includes actors James Caan, Robert Duval and Scott Caan, along with director Mark Rydell.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog