Analysis – “I don’t get it” was the answer we most often heard today when we asked people what they thought about Microsoft’s first Seinfeld ad that aired yesterday. Producing commercials is an art o skewing of perception, transporting underlying messages and achieve effective comprehension. So we thought about it and found at least 17 possible messages packed in a 90 second commercial. Some of them being funny, some very intelligent, some controversial, some boring and some may even be considered very disturbing. Join us for a journey on taking this commercial apart, piece by piece.

Samsung is reportedly aiming to increase its share of the global flash business by acquiring Sandisk, the world’s largest flash memory card vendor. Following an article published by a Korean website, Sandisk surged by about 28%, giving Sandisk a market capitalization of about $3.85 billion.

If you are still scratching your head over the first Gates-Seinfeld commercial, perhaps some explanation from Microsoft will help to figure out the reasoning behind the campaign. In short: Windows is a long story and every such story needs and introduction.

While praised, today's multi-touch input methods are clearly in its infancy. It recognizes only a handful of gestures, it isn’t terribly accurate and not a great tool for precise object manipulation. It seems, however, Apple has many more ideas for multi-touch and is working on adding new technology that could improve multi-touch accuracy, enable more detailed gestures and perhaps change the way you use your computer.  

Comcast today filed a complaint in the DC Court of Appeals, challenging the FCC’s August 20 conclusion that the cable Internet service provider’s approach to slowing down Internet connections violates federal policies. The outcome of this complaint is unclear, as the company also said that it will comply with the FCC’s request to provide details about its network management techniques.  

By now it should be well-known that the Obama campaign is counting on the Internet as a powerful marketing tool in the 2008 presidential race. Comscore’s latest advertising numbers update the online picture of the two candidates and Obama’s dramatic lead in advertising, but it also shows that the McCain campaign is making inroads on Obama – for example in video views.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Sony issued a recall for about 73,000 Sony Vaio TZ-series notebooks (440,000 globally), which include a manufacturing defect that can cause a short circuit and overheating. Buyers these notebooks should stop using the devices “immediately”.

Google's new browser has zoomed past 1% market share in just ten hours after its release yesterday at 3:02 p.m. EDT and reached almost 1.5% earlier today. Although it is too early to tell which competing browser makers were hit by Google’s new software, the initial numbers numbers indicate that Chrome is off to a good start.

AMD is getting itself into position to announce a spin-off of the company’s manufacturing business into a separate company. An analyst report this morning suggested that AMD is set to release the news in September, confirming an earlier report by TG Daily. Industry sources reaffirmed to TG Daily today that an announcement of “Asset Smart” is imminent, but noted that an actual separation of product design and production may take years.   

A lawsuit against Apple and AT&T over the much discussed 3G issues should not come as a surprise in a sue-happy nation like this.  The two companies are hit with a lawsuit that accuses them of overselling buggy iPhone 3Gs, causing cell towers to reduce the network’s 3G performance due to excess power requirements of the handset. The filing accuses both companies of failing to inform users of these issues in their marketing materials and if class action status is granted, the lawsuit could force Apple and AT&T to compensate all California-based iPhone 3G users.