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"Did you hear that? I'm cool."

These are the words by which all parents will be greeted, the minute they exchange their iPhones for a Samsung Galaxy S4.

This is the conceit, at least, of one of the latest ads for Samsung's new Phone, which will launch from Monday.

Parents live for grains of approval from their upstart, self-righteously technological children.

Last Thursday, Samsung offered some chilling brutality in a graduation pool party ad that suggested all iPhone-owning parents were gormless social Neanderthals.

With these new ads, it wants them to know all hope of cool … Read more

Apple is good at addressing design oversights. Will Microsoft be as adept?

The Retina iPad, for example, violated Apple's design creed: products should get thinner and lighter -- aka, cooler. Not thicker and heavier.

But Apple fixed this quickly (six month later) with the iPad Mini trifecta: thinner, lighter, cheaper. And the iPad, reinvented as the Mini, has been a runaway success.

Now that Microsoft is in the business of making tablets, can it act fast when it commits product-design sins?

Surface is not a success -- yet. The Surface Pro is too big and heavy (and expensive), according … Read more

You thought it might be all over?

You thought that Samsung had tired of suggesting Apple was a fading brand for geriatrics?

You may also have thought that the world runs on Cabernet and common sense.

Yes, the Galaxy S4 was launched on a rocket of the beige and the tasteless. But those were just the corporate folks doing their thing.

Now, the American arm of Samsung has returned to its own style. This involves squishing Apple till it's cider.

Here we are at a high school graduation pool party presented by the latest Samsung ad.

The cooler people … Read more

Maybe it's time to hold off on the Apple negativity.

The iPhone franchise captured 39 percent of the U.S. smartphone market in the first quarter, extending its lead over Samsung, which garnered 21.7 percent of the market, according to research firm ComScore.

Interestingly, Apple's iOS took market share away from Google's Android, which traditionally has seen more rapid growth.

Apple saw its smartphone market share rise by nearly 3 percentage points in the quarter, while Samsung's share inched up slightly. The next three largest handset vendor, HTC, Motorola, and LG, all lost market share … Read more

A trade group that represents Apple, Hewlett-Packard, and several other device makers is pushing to change international rules to make it easier to ship broken mobile phones and other gadgets to developing nations.

The Information Technology Industry Council is suggesting the changes at this week's meeting of the Basel Convention, which oversees the international treaty intended to prevent international toxic waste dumping. The group is proposing new language in the treaty that could reduce the types of gadgets currently considered electronic waste.

The changes are esoteric shifts in what for most consumers is an obscure international document. But, according … Read more

An operational Apple-1 will go on the auction block later this month, and the rare computer is expected to fetch as much as $392,000.

The 37-year-old machine -- thought to be one of only six in working condition -- is expected to sell for between $261,000 and $392,000 at the current exchange rate, according to German auctioneer Breker, which is conducting the sale. As impressive as that range may sound, it's far off the record mark of $640,000 set last December for Apple's first production computer.

Constructed in 1976, the Apple-1 is one of … Read more

Just how much is Apple's new, six-part, $17 billion bond plan going to end up saving the company in taxes it would have needed to pay if it used its overseas cash pile?

Try $9.2 billion, says a senior vice president at Moody's Investors Service.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Moody's Gerald Granovsky said that's how much Apple's not going to pay in U.S. taxes as it pays out $55 billion of its $100 billion capital returns program.

To put the figure, which was first reported by the Financial Times (subscription required) late Wednesday, in … Read more

It seems like only yesterday that the iTunes App Store hit its 25 billionth download...actually it was only last year. It's incredible that the online marketplace (currently at over 49.2 billion downloads) will soon be doubling that number. To mark the momentous occasion, Apple is holding a contest that app addicts will surely appreciate. Feeling lucky? Then download on.

If you happen to download the 50 billionth app, you will win a $10,000 App Store gift card. Though the odds seem stacked against you, don't despair, as the first 50 users after the 50 billionth … Read more

Apple once again is counting up to its next digital sales benchmark.

This time it's to 50 billion downloads on the App Store, its digital software store that launched in 2008, and currently has about 793 million downloads to go.

Similar to previous contests, the person who downloads the 50 billionth app gets $10,000 in App Store credit. The company is also doling out $500 gift cards to the 50 people who buy an app immediately afterwards.

Apple's last big contest for the App Store was for the 25 billion benchmark last March. Chunli Fu, a customer … Read more