Now that most of us have Facebook’s new Timeline feature, we’re able to add a bunch of things from our past to the social network. The question I’ve been asking is “why would I want to do that?”. I may have just gotten a pretty good answer to that.

In a joint project by Facebook and design firm Definition6, TimelineMovieMaker will turn all of the posts on your Timeline into a really eye-catching movie, complete with special effects and music.

All you have to do is give the app access to your Facebook account, and it will handle the rest. As you’re waiting for your movie to be created, you’ll see certain pictures from your Timeline that will be included:

It only takes a few minutes to create your movie and once it’s done, you can watch it and choose different music or replace photos afterwards:

Once you’re happy with your Timeline movie, you can share it to Facebook and let friends have a look:

While this is a dead-simple app that explains itself, it is interesting that this is an official Facebook product. Of course, with the word “Timeline” in the domain name, it would have to be. Whether Definition6 did all of the heavy creative lifting or not, this has to be one of the uses of Timeline Facebook thought about when it first released the product.

I’ll admit that seeing all of my Facebook activity in video form makes me want to fill in some of the gaps to make for a better “movie”. While my life isn’t interesting enough to hit the big screen, I do get a kick out of seeing it on the small one.

The bummer is that you can’t export or embed the video to share elsewhere, but hopefully that will be added since I’d love to put this up on YouTube.

➤ TimelineMovieMaker

I’m a big fan of simplistic design and when it comes to web apps, I want to know important things up front without having to click around a lot. If you’re a fan of minimalist web app design, and also a movie buff, this app might be exactly what you’re looking for.

WhatsOutt pulls in all of the latest movies that have hit theaters or are available for purchase on DVD and Blue-Ray. While the site could use a little bit of polish, I’ve found it to be quite helpful over the past week.

I’ve bookmarked the page as my default “I’m bored” alternative when there’s nothing to go out and do. I’m a big movie fan, so knowing what flicks are in the theater is important to me.

What’s out?

When there’s nothing left to do other than go to the theater for some popcorn and a (hopefully) mildly entertaining Hollywood movie, the question that you ask your friend or spouse is usually “What’s Out?”. This app lets you take a look two weeks in advance, and links you directly to Fandango for ticket purchases and Apple’s site for movie trailers.

Additionally, WhatsOutt will tell you what movies are available for purchase on DVD, Blue-Ray, or iTunes. Similarly, the app gives you the quick links to buy them just by hovering over the movie’s tile. I’m not a fan of using iTunes on the desktop so this is super helpful for me. I’d love to see the developer pull in Netflix’s latest titles for streaming as well, as it would make this app perfect for me.

I find that sites like Fandango and IMDB are extremely crowded when all I want is a tiny bit of information to help me make a decision, so when apps like this pop up they’re an automatic bookmark for me.

➤ WhatsOutt

TorrentFreak has listed the top 10 most pirated movies of 2011, according to download data from BitTorrent. The site points out that the #1 pirated film of the year wasn’t as popular as last year’s #1, Avatar, which was downloaded over 16 million times. The numbers also show a downward trend over all of the top 10.

Are people pirating less, or did the movies just suck this year?

After taking a look at this list of movies, I have to say that 2011 was a really crappy year for films. And after taking a look at the #1 movie, people who pirate films have no taste for cinema.

All jokes aside, I believe that online streaming has made this dent in download numbers. Downloading movies requires tons of bandwidth, and the quality isn’t always the best. With Netflix streaming pretty great movies and TV shows, I’d venture to say that it had something to do with the download decline. Also, with more people watching movies on iPads, Kindles, and tablets, they don’t have hard drives for huge movie files from BitTorrent. Streaming is the way to go.

Having said that, here are your top 10 most stolen pirated movies of 2011:

Seriously? Fast Five? Regardless, some think that pirating isn’t about stealing, as much as it’s a convenience. However, if you add up all of these downloads there’s a lot of money missing from some very sad bank accounts this holiday season.

The best one of the lot might be by comedy team Rooster Teeth. It’s called “Siri: The Holiday Horror Movie (Trailer)”, and has all of the fake gore and cheesiness you’d expect from a really crappy Horror movie. The only difference is that the evil force that stars in it is none other than Apple’s Siri.

Enjoy!

If you’re a movie buff, you’re aware that hours upon hours can be lost simply by searching IMDB and clicking all of the links. The site is like Wikipedia in that it’s one big rabbit hole.

If you don’t have hours to spend on IMDB, perhaps you’ll move over to Rotten Tomatoes. But even that site can take up an evening.

Enter Moviegr.am, a simple site that aggregates movie ratings from IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, and Metacritic.

Inception style

Instead of checking one source for movie ratings, Moviegr.am pulls them all together, and displays an aggregate rating. Not only is this a timesaver, but it can also help you find out if a movie is worth watching or not. I’ve found that ratings on IMDB seem to be higher and relaxed, while reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes are pretty hardcore.

Moviegr.am pulls in data from IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, You Tube, and Trailer Addict, so you’re pretty much covered for accuracy and detail when it comes to information about the movies you’re searching for. The site has real-time auto-suggest much like Google search, in case you can’t remember the exact name of the movie you’re thinking of.

Once you’ve found your movie, you can share the Moviegr.am page to Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, which have become the big three social networking sites to share things on.

Of course, IMDB still beats out all other movie sites for depth of information, but sometimes you just want to do a quick search without being tripped up by the Inception approach of deeplinking that the site takes.

Moviegr.am is one of the best quick-search movie sites I’ve seen, so it’s definitely worth a bookmark.

➤ Moviegr.am

In a unique move to build up excitement for the upcoming Mission: Impossible movie starring Tom Cruise, Paramount Pictures has made all previous iterations of the Mission : Impossible franchise available for viewing directly from the movie’s Facebook Fan Page.

Unfortunately, the movies aren’t available to watch for free, costing you 30 Facebook Credits ($2.99). Also, this initiative is only open to Facebook users in the United States.

Here’s what Amy Reinhard, Executive Vice President at Paramount Pictures had to say:

Over the past decade movie fans have followed the impossible exploits of Ethan Hunt and his team of IMF operatives. Now fans of Mission: Impossible on Facebook who are eagerly awaiting the release of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol have a chance to relive and share the adventures.

This is by far the largest movie initiative to take place on Facebook’s platform, as the last Mission : Impossible film made $47,743,273 in its opening weekend alone. Utilizing the sharing capabilities and Facebook ticker, which will alert your friends to the fact that you’re watching one of the movies, could help build excitement for an opening weekend that will destroy the last. Paramount did something similar for the release of the last Jackass film, but there is definitely a bigger fan base for the Mission : Impossible films.

I’m not sure that Facebook rentals are ready to take off, as most movie watchers who stream content use Netflix on their TV. The rentals are available for 48 hours, but with all of the activity going on with your friends on Facebook, can you really pay attention to a two-hour film? It will be interesting to see how the new film does, and if this content play has anything to do with its success.

Miramax is trying its hand at this too, having launched its own movie rental service on Facebook a few months ago.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol hits theaters in the U.S. on December 21st. Will you watch the other three films on Facebook to get your friends excited for it? Tell us in the comments.

➤ Mission : Impossible on Facebook

iOS app Can’t Wait! doesn’t want you to have to go to theaters to see the latest and hottest movie trailer, and it wants to deliver it right to your mobile device.

Once you set your account up, you’ll see a familiar Instagram style design for profile. You can amass followers, and follow others, and keep track of your actions. It’s pretty and it’s functional.

The app has three separate sections:

Discover

This is where you want to get started with Can’t Wait! It’s a list of movie trailers sorted by just added, popular, or release date. The design is slick, and all you have to do is tap on the movie trailer that you’d like to see. The video experience is great on Can’t Wait! and is probably its crowning accomplishment. Finding and viewing movie trailers on a mobile device can be a pain, especially when you can’t view flash on an iOS device.

The Feed

The feed on Can’t Wait! shows you all of the latest actions of the friends that you decide to follow on the service. This could be the movies they can’t wait to see, or the one’s they pass on. Those are the two options you’re given when checking out a movie trailer.

Inbox

Once you get a bunch of friends onto Can’t Wait! you can share movie trailers that you think they’d like with them. Also, you can post the trailers to Facebook and Twitter.

Movie studios are looking for new ways to get attention to trailers with big budgets and small, and Can’t Wait! could be a perfect fit for that. Right now the company is giving away Fandango coupons for actions taken within the app, so that’s a start in the right direction.

If you’re into movies, and you have an iOS device, this might be the app for you to check out. It’s free, and that’s way cheaper than going to the theater just to see the trailers.

There is a common thought that internet people hate to pay for things, which lead to an explosion of free apps and services that we called Web 2.0. That was the only price that people were supposed to be willing to pay. Sometimes however, that maxim is dumped on its head.

There is a project on Kickstarter raising funds to complete a documentary film on ThePirateBay’s three founders and their stories. It had a goal of $25,000 that it was trying to reach in a month. In three days it shot past that goal, and is now approaching 1000 backers and $30,000 in funding.

The film, according to its maker “is not a fan movie about the Pirate Bay, neither is it a journalistic piece on copyright conflict. It’s an observational, character driven film about three guys whose hobby homepage became the embryo of a global political movement.”

That everyone who watches the movie is going to torrent it is perhaps the irony for the cake’s icing. Either way, TBD AFK (ThePirateBay Away From Keyboard) is going to be well funded, and coming out in the future. How soon? The sad part of that question is that it depends what happens next for the three founders. According to TorrentFreak:

Now that the funding is in, Klose can hire a professional editor and studio to complete the film. That said, the final premiere date depends on several other factors, most importantly how the upcoming appeal of The Pirate Bay trial plays out.

Whatever the outcome of the trial, the film trailer looks great. I’ll have some popcorn ready when the film is released, and you are all invited.