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Today we'll take a critical look at the way people respond to celebrity deaths in the wake of Maurice Sendak, Adam Yauch, and Vidal Sassoon. We'll take you through the five typical stages of "grief" based on what Vice Magazine calls the Facebook Death Patrol.

We also have some bad news to report to children of millennials: your parents are still getting it on, and they're probably using a smartphone at the same time. A survey from Meredith's Parent Network questioned 1,000 moms born between 1977 and 1994 and found that 21 percent of them used their smartphones in the bathroom, while an astounding 12 percent admitted to using them in coitus! Sorry if we just ruined your day, kids.… Read more

What feature have viewers been waiting for since the "beginning of television?"

According to Dish, it's commercial-free TV, and it's added a new "Auto Hop" feature to its Hopper HD DVR system that allows you to jump over all commercials in recorded prime-time programs from ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC when viewed a day after airing. … Read more

Just one month ago, Tumblr CEO David Karp announced that displaying ads was the "complete last resort" for the microblogging service. Well, financial temptation must have gotten the better of him.

Tumblr announced the introduction of Tumblr Radar and Tumblr Spotlight today, which are two types of advertising products available to sponsors for an entry-level price of $25,000, according to VentureBeat. Although this is an about-face to what Karp said last month, there are still some conditions for potential advertisers.

First, the advertisers must be "approved" by Tumblr. Second, they must be willing to shell … Read more

A rare, internal video that Apple originally aired during its 1984 international sales conference has been put online.

Networkworld today posted a full version of the 9-minute film, which shows an exuberant -- and costumed -- Steve Jobs and other early Apple execs staging a World War II-style assault on tech rival IBM, just ahead of launching the first Macintosh.

In it, Apple stages a multi-front attack against IBM, saving office zombies from the mundane with Macs that can talk. Jobs also dons full suit, bow-tie, cigarette, and gray hair coloring to look like Franklin Delano Roosevelt No really.… Read more

Privacy concerns have been at the top of many tech industry reports lately. Between Apple's Flashback Trojan issues, Google's faux pas with Safari privacy settings, and a myriad of other privacy-related stories, consumers, lawmakers, and the media have been pressing for greater privacy restrictions.

Partly in response to a Congressional inquiry, Apple has begun restricting access to consumers' UDID numbers, a unique identifier that individually accounts for all iOS devices Apple sells.

Ad servers, like MoPub, have been using UDIDs to serve particular ads to targeting demographics for years. Now that Apple has begun rejecting apps that continue … Read more

Video is moving to the Web in enormous leaps; the promise of online video seems to be at our doorstep. Millions are cutting the cord, beloved television shows are returning through the seemingly divine intervention of online distribution, and people are consuming Web and mobile video in increasingly staggering numbers.

But all that video consumption is saddled with a burden that's keeping it from reaching its full potential: the ads just haven't caught up.

You all know the problem I'm talking about, and yes, you've seen it on our own site -- on videos hosted by … Read more

I'd like to discuss a new trend in online marketing that will make you exceptionally wealthy and be in a position to buy Facebook with your own personal funds.

But first could you answer this question: When you are in the bath, do you a) read a book about fangless vampires? b) smoke substances of an illegal nature and then get annoyed when a little hot detritus falls onto your naked chest? Or c) plot how you will murder your boss without anyone noticing?

I am, you see, homing in (as I so often do) on the latest marketing trend … Read more

We now know something about Spotify's press conference scheduled for today in New York.

Spotify has signed new advertising deals with AT&T, McDonalds, Intel, and Reebok and a worldwide ad deal with Coca-Cola, CEO Daniel Ek said today at the AdAge Digital conference. The Verge reports that Spotify will create new "brand apps" that will live inside Spotify's desktop.

The news, which was first reported by All Things Digital, comes hours before a Spotify press conference scheduled for this afternoon.

There's a lot of attention on Spotify now. The worst thing the company … Read more

It's no secret Tumblr is big and growing, but now, the time has come for the company to start generating some cash. Just don't expect ads to play a role in that.

Speaking to AdAge in an interview published today, Tumblr CEO David Karp made it abundantly clear that his company has no interest in placing ads on its service, saying that the microblogging tool is "selling our desks to avoid that, it's a complete last resort."

Still, the temptation to bring ads to Tumblr, which has yet to effectively monetize its growth, might be … Read more