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Apple launches two iPhone ads to flaunt new features

Apple released a set of snazzy new iPhone commercials today dubbed "Brilliant" and "Discover" to show off various features and apps on the smartphone.

Choreographed to upbeat music -- the same as its recent iPad ads -- the commercials display the phone in a pair of hands that click, tap, and swipe through various games, apps, and videos.

"Brilliant" highlights how people can use the smartphone to pay for a Starbucks coffee with the Passbook app, use the scientific MyScript math calculator, and control the dimming of a lamp with the new Hue Lighting … Read more

Samsung teases S4 colors in latest Jeremy ad for Unpacked

What is Jeremy's favorite color?!

Samsung today released Part 2 of its teaser ad series for the Galaxy S4 smartphone launch with its "secret messenger," a boy named Jeremy. In the first ad, Jeremy is allowed to look inside a box that ostensibly houses the Galaxy S4, and runs home with it. At the end of that video, Jeremy sits down at a desk in his room and the video ends with "to be continued."

In the second installment, Jeremy is hounded by a neighbor girl, Jane, who thinks the package is for her (or … Read more

Microsoft forges ahead with its anti-Google Scroogle campaign

Microsoft has confirmed that by no means is it winding down its anti-Google Scroogle campaign. In fact, the company was so pleased with the last two chapters of its crusade that it's gearing up for a third chapter.

"Scroogled will go on as long as Google keeps Scroogling people," a Microsoft spokesperson told CNET.

Microsoft began its Scroogle campaign with the goal of urging users to dump Gmail for its own Outlook.com over privacy concerns. Dubbed "Don't get Scroogled by Gmail," Microsoft addresses the issue that Google scans users' e-mails to determine relevant … Read more

Galaxy S4's awkward tween messenger

CNET Update can't keep a secret:

Soon we will know the secrets of the Samsung Galaxy S4. Until the smartphone is unveiled on March 14, the young Jeremy Maxwell must keep the secret smartphone safe. (Wait, what?) Samsung's odd teaser video for the Galaxy S4 might leave you asking, "What was Samsung thinking?"

Other stories mentioned in Monday's tech news roundup:

- An indie film premieres exclusively on Xbox Live

- YouTube's iOS app can send videos to your TV

- The Socialmatic Camera will be made in 2014, with support from Polariod

- … Read more

Facebook gives advertisers more opportunities to target users

By opening up an ad tool that thrives on user contact information, Facebook is giving more advertisers a chance to market directly to users.

The social network announced today that it's expanding access to its custom audience tool -- a tool that lets companies target their ads to existing customers based on their phone numbers and e-mail addresses. The tool, one of Facebook's several advertising tools that rely on user data, rolled out in September. The contact information is not directly shared between companies -- it's hashed to protect privacy and then used to place ads, according … Read more

Apple said to nix apps using 'cookie tracking'

Apple may be on the way to controlling more of how advertisers get user information from mobile devices.

According to TechCrunch, unnamed industry sources are saying that Apple's App Review team is denying apps that use "cookie tracking." This could be a signal that the company is going full force into its own Advertising Identifier technology.

Theoretically, the way cookie tracking works on mobile is similar to desktop: a cookie saves data and information on users' browsing history that can be used later by the app or Web site. According to TechCrunch, it was introduced as an … Read more

Samsung Oscars ad to feature Tim Burton

When it comes to advertising, Samsung thinks it has Apple a touch jittery.

With ad after ad, Samsung's brand image is becoming sharper, wittier, and more lovable.

So the temptation to take over an awards ceremony in which actors desperately try to be sharper, wittier, and more lovable than other actors has proved irresistible.

As Ad Age reports, Korea's finest is positively hijacking tomorrow night's Oscars broadcast with six ads.

The most fetching promises to be one in which the brilliant director of "Edward Scissorhands," Tim Burton, will make an appearance.

He will play something … Read more

Google focuses on going mobile with AdWords revamp

As people increasingly turn to mobile devices for their Web consumption, Google has decided to revamp its keyword advertising service to make it easier for marketers to reach target audiences on different devices.

Google's AdWords Enhanced Campaign aims to make it easier for advertisers to manage bids for ads across a variety of device platforms, locations, and times, the Web giant announced in a company blog post today. AdWords allows advertisers to bid on a given keyword and win premium placement with search results.

Google's goal in retooling AdWords -- a chief money maker for the company -- … Read more

Facebook experiments with bigger images in ads

Facebook is fussing with the look of those fuddy-duddy ads it shows to members on the right-hand side of the website. The point is to get the easily ignored ads more clicks -- and to make more money, of course.

The social network today confirmed that it is conducting a small test in the U.S. and showing some users advertisements with bigger images. The new ad unit is a tweaked version of the standard "marketplace ads," or the ads you see in the right-hand column, and is distinct from the ads you find in the News Feed. … Read more