Transparent displays are nothing new, but while trawling the labyrinthine backstreets of CES in search of hidden gems, we couldn’t help but stop at IL WOO’s booth and ogle one. The company was demoing a couple of its Transview display cases with see-through Samsung panels, intended for interactive advertising and other commercial uses. We were particularly drawn to the 22-inch, 1,680 x 1,050 model with infrared touch control, mainly because of the nifty Flash program running on it, which did a great job of showing how the cases could be used. It was very much a treat for the eyes, so we’ll leave it there and just point you to the gallery and video below.
Apple commercials are so popular that they’re like a TV series all by themselves. A YouTube user collected all the Apple commercials—iPad, iPhone, iMac, iPod, etc.—in a giant playlist for you to watch every single one. You can see the themes develop for each product and laugh at the horrible mistakes Apple made (those Genius ads, for instance) and the celebs they get to shill for their products. More »
Today, Apple posted up two new iPhone 5 commercials on their YouTube account. One is titled “Orchestra” and the other is called “Turkey.” Obviously, we knew they would release a Thanksgiving-themed ad, so we’re not too surprised here. However, the two advertisements focus on smaller features of the iPhone 5 and iOS 6 — Photo Stream and the ambient noise sensor.
The Orchestra advertisement shows off the iPhone 5′s ability to reduce background noise during phone calls using the ambient noise sensor. This necessarily isn’t an iPhone 5 exclusive feature, since it was on previous models as well, but it’s a small important feature that Apple has overlooked in their ads, so it looks like they decided to focus on it this time around.
The Turkey advertisement shows off the Shared Photo Stream feature of iOS 6. It’s rather timely, since it’s also “picture-taking season”, so Apple decided to highlight some of iOS’s photo-sharing features that will certainly get used quite a bit over the holidays. You can select as many pictures as you want from your camera roll and share them with friends through Photo Stream, or even over Facebook.
We can probably look forward to many more television ads from Apple as the weeks progress. The holiday season is when they like to get their last say in before you go out and buy your gifts for your loved ones. Of course, this applies to all companies and manufacturers, so prepare for an influx of advertisements this year, folks. It’s going to be a busy one.
The last time we saw Steve Ballmer star in a commercial for Microsoft, he was extolling the virtues of a 286-based PC running the glory that was Windows 1.0 — in 1986. You can imagine the surprise we got 26 years later when Microsoft premiered an ad featuring the now-CEO during its Windows Phone 8 event. If you were expecting that same kind of unbridled enthusiasm Crazy Eddie once used to hawk underpriced TVs, you may be either pleased or disappointed. It’s a very level-headed and well-spoken Ballmer this time around, with the executive calmly highlighting the advice he gets through his HTC Windows Phone 8X from people like his wife and a certain Billy G. Besides evoking nostalgia, the pitch is an illustration of what Windows Phone’s live tiles can do as well as a reflection of Microsoft coming full circle — as it was two decades ago, Redmond is fighting for market attention at a time when new interface concepts are challenging its main business. We’re just glad there’s fewer plaid business suits in 2012.
Apple announced the new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina at its event on Tuesday, and now its released the first TV commercial. Aired during “Modern Family,” the 31 second advertisement features a slowly rotating Retina MacBook Pro and the tagline “For the pro in us all.” The commercial is titled “Colors.”
“Introducing the new 13-inch MacBook Pro with a stunning Retina display. For the pro in all of us.” The commercial is as simple and elegant as it is effective, providing just enough taste for the sleek-looking device to catch viewers’ attention while keeping the message cryptic enough to send the curious off in search of more info. The background is dark, amplifying the laptop’s display.
This new MacBook Pro features a 13.3-inch Retina display with a 227ppi resolution of 2,560 x 1,600. To put that in perspective, the 15.4-inch MacBook Pro with Retina has a resolution of 2,880 x 1,800. The display offers wide viewing angles, and is exceptionally crisp. Check out our hands-on review for more info.
Screen aside, the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro featurs a dual-core i5 processor and 8GB of RAM for $1,699. The model has a 128GB SSD drive, 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, and Intel HD Graphics 4000. The device weighs in at 3.57lbs.
As we get closer to Windows 8’s October 26th launch, expect the floodgates to open on a barrage of tidbits, insider peeks and revelations. One such early arrival is these four clips, lasting just under a minute, that demonstrate some of the new features that’ll soon arrive on your computer, tablet or hybrid. We’ve included them for you after the break, but be warned — there’s no Alex Clare blasting in the background like those catchy Internet Explorer ads, so we’ll just have to sing it ourselves. On three… “and it feels. like. I. am. just. too. close. to. love. you…”
Update: Looks like all four videos have been pulled. Good thing you only have to wait two weeks or so to view them through more official channels.
It’s managed to get to one billion users without the aid of a traditional ad campaign, but the social network has now taken advantage of that milestone to try something different. Mark Zuckerberg has today introduced the company’s first proper ad, a one minute and thirty second video dubbed “The Things That Connect Us” that was produced by ad agency Wieden & Kennedy and directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. According to Zuckerberg, the ad was made to “honor the people we serve” and “express what our place is on this earth,” adding that Facebook belongs to a “rich tradition of people making things that bring us together.” Like chairs. See it for yourself below.
Samsung is at it again this morning. Releasing another one of their comical and irreverent commercials showing just how awesome their Galaxy S III smartphone truly is. Calling the commercial “The Next Big Thing is Already Here,” clearly aiming at the iPhone 5 and all those folks waiting in line for days on end.
We knew this was coming, and mentioned it earlier last week. Samsung released the same type of edgy and very direct commercials with the Galaxy S II last year right around the iPhone 4S release date — so this shouldn’t really be much of a surprise. There’s no funny lines like, “dude, you’re a barista” like they had in the last commercial but you’ll still want to take a peek below and have a laugh.
Actually we take that back. Best line of the new Samsung TV spot is, “yea yea, but they make the coolest adapters.” Obviously Samsung is taking aim at the iPhone 5 here. Talking about 4G LTE finally hitting while SGIII owners have been enjoying it for a year, then they poke fun with NFC capabilities showing off sharing music playlists with a tap using S-Beam, or WiFi direct photo sharing.
Clearly Samsung is upset with the lawsuit settlement reaching the 1 billion mark, and this is surely just one of many new commercials we’ll be seeing from good ol Sammy coming soon. So the question is what will you be getting? Do you own the Galaxy S III, or have you been waiting for the iPhone 5? Take a peek at our hands-on and reviews of both devices below.
Well, we know there’s an LG event right around the corner and, if we were the betting type, we’d put our money on the flagship Optimus G making its stateside debut. Perhaps the biggest clue to what the company has up its sleeve is that the quad-core Snapdragon S4-powered handset just made its video debut. The sleek 4.7 inch handset is staring in its own commercial, currently posted on YouTube, that will be airing in the manufacturer’s homeland shortly after launch. The brief clip doesn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know, but we can’t find any reason complain about a few extra peeks at it before release. Check out the video after the break.
If you’ve made it a habit of viewing YouTube videos on your mobile device in an effort to flout the site’s pre-roll ads, your days of bliss are quickly drawing to a close. Today, the site implemented TrueView in-stream ads for the mobile platform, and like you’ve become accustomed to on the desktop, you’ll begin to notice these commercials on your smartphone and tablet. Now, we get the need for content producers to make some coin, but the move certainly represents the end of an era. Fortunately, just like on the desktop, you’ll have the ability to skip these ads after five seconds. Maybe now, you can take pride in making an independent producer rich beyond imagination — or, at least helping them buy some lunch.
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