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Tech ads 2012: Samsung best, Facebook worst

The lovely thing about advertising is that most of it is forgettable.

Which makes the task of remembering the very good and the very bad at the end of the year much, much easier.

The best, most certainly, is barely even a contest. As the spittle flew in court between Apple and Samsung, the latter had some very clever ad people produce ads that, at last, began not only to improve Samsung's own image, but also to dent Apple's.

Indeed, from the Super Bowl onward, Samsung relentlessly pressed Apple on its cultism, its allegedly sheep-like following and its, … Read more

FTC, EU to postpone Google antitrust decisions, report says

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission's final decision on its 20-month long antitrust probe of the search giant will be delayed until next year, Bloomberg reported late yesterday after speaking with unnamed sources.

The results of the probe were expected to be announced this week.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company has been in talks with the FTC over the past two weeks, and according to Bloomberg, Google has been preparing a letter with voluntary changes to try to end the FTC's investigation without it resulting in a formal settlement or eventual lawsuit.

In addition, the FTC has … Read more

Watch out NORAD: Here comes Google's new Santa Tracker

Google has announced a new way for children around the world to track Santa as he makes his rounds.

The appropriately named Santa Tracker was developed by Google Maps engineers who developed a new route algorithm that will let users track Santa's journey on a special page the search giant has set up. The tracking won't begin until 2 a.m. PST on Christmas Eve.

Until then, Google has set up an interactive Santa's Village page, offering everything from a tool that lets users send a call or message from Santa to a game centered on the … Read more

iOS 6 adoption surges after release of Google Maps app

A surge of people adopted Apple's iOS 6 since last week, but it has been months since the latest operating system was released.

This growth in iOS 6 upgrades may not be as random as it sounds. According to TechCrunch, which got data from mobile ad exchange MoPub, iOS adoption has bumped 30 percent since Google Maps released its app for iOS. MoPub surveys more than 1 billion ad impressions a day across more than 12,000 different apps and got its data from seeing users upgrade to iOS 6.

"We observed since the launch of Google Maps … Read more

Shoot and share videos with YouTube Capture for iOS

Google just made it easier to capture and upload videos to YouTube from your iPhone or iPod Touch. Its new YouTube Capture app lets you share a video with as little as two taps (including the tap to launch the app). Here's how it works.

When you first launch the app, it'll ask you to sign into your Google account. You can skip this step and sign into your account later, and instead swipe through a brief, four-slide tutorial.

After the tutorial, you'll be taken to the capture screen, which, when held in landscape mode, features two … Read more

Six features you don't want to miss in Android 4.2

Android 4.2 is full of new features, some are fairly minor, such as the Settings shortcut in the notification bar. Other features, such an improved photo editing process, are bound to have a bigger impact on the overall user experience.

Here are five new features you can find in Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, with the sixth item being a workaround should you decide against lock-screen widgets.

Developer Options Developer Options is an important settings menu for developers and those who like to fiddle with their Android device. For whatever reason in Android 4.2, Google hid the Developer … Read more

Instagram rivals try to lure users away after photo rights flap

Instagram's competitors are pouncing on the company's claim that it will be able to sell users' photos for advertising purposes without payment or notification.

They're hoping that irritation over Instagram's controversial decision -- which came three months after Facebook completed the acquisition -- will lure users away from the popular photo-sharing app, which passed the 100 million user mark in September.

"We will certainly do our best to make sure that Instagram users are aware of 23snaps as an alternative service," Meaghan Fitzgerald, head of marketing for 23snaps, a London-based company that makes an … Read more

Google to submit antitrust probe settlement offer in January

Google is getting ready to make its settlement offer to the European Union's antitrust commission, the commission's head said in a statement released today.

EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said he met with Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt today and expects a "detailed commitment" in January, according to an e-mailed statement from Alumnia's office.

"Since our preliminary talks with Google started in July, we have substantially reduced our differences regarding possible ways to address each of the four competition concerns expressed by the commission," he said in the statement.

When reached for comment, … Read more

Scan and match arrives in U.S. Google Play store

Less than two months after rolling out its scan-and-match music service in Europe, Google is bringing the feature to the United States.

Starting today, users who create Google Play accounts will see a message asking if they would like Google to scan their hard drives for music. Anything that matches its extensive library will be added to the user's online library, and can immediately be re-downloaded or streamed from anywhere. Over time, current users of the service will see their own cloud libraries upgraded. Best of all, and unlike its competitors, the service is free. (iTunes Match costs $25, … Read more