It must be a bit difficult to be Microsoft sometimes, especially these days. Sure, they still make a desktop OS that dominates the world, but that lead is dropping as fast as sales of desktop computers.

And their other products, like the Surface, don’t seem to be catching on with the kids. And don’t get us started on the XBox One.

Microsoft just doesn’t seem to get it. So what do you do when you are a big company that’s falling behind the times? You go negative, of course.

In a new ad that’s just come out, Microsoft again decides to mock Apple and the iPad via Siri, the company’s voice-enabled personal assistant. The chief reasons the iPad is bad this time: it doesn’t have a zoomable home screen, lacks an SD card slot and for not being able to multitask as efficiently as Windows RT.

Sure, okay. Now that you put it that way we’re going to throw our iPads in the trash and rush out to buy a Surface right now. Not.

Check out the ad after the break.

As someone who made one or two commercials in the past, I can’t say all that much about the creative merits of this particular commercial except it didn’t really motivate me to buy an Audi. But that’s not really the purpose of this commercial anyway.

What’s the purpose then? Well, that’s debatable. However, to a Star Trek-loving geek like myself, I also say it’s pretty irrelevant. I just loved it because I get to see two great actors, who’ve played one of the most iconic characters in history, have a bit of fun. Plus, after today’s earlier sad news, I could use a bit of fun.

The two actors in question are Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto who, of course, both played Spock in various incarnations of Star Trek. The commercial in question is “The Challenge” and in it Spock battles Spock to see who can get to the golf course first. The loser buys lunch. Who wins?

Well, I won’t spoil it for you except to say that the solution found by Spock is highly logical, pretty darn funny and a great twist.

Check out the commercial after the break.

Effective commercials, and advertising in general, is an under-appreciated artform. Often, the right advertising and marketing campaign can greatly help a new product succede.

In other cases, an ill-conceived advertising and marketing campaign can hurt, and in some cases kill, a product before it really gets going. For Samsung’s upcoming new flagship device, the Galaxy S4, we’re not sure if it’s latest teaser video campaign is one that will help, or hurt.

With the unveiling of the Samsung Galaxy S4 now less than two weeks away, Samsung has begun dropping video teasers for the device featuring a kid named Jeremy, who is the “secret messenger of Samsung Unpacked 2013.”

In the new teaser released today, Jeremy is back and still trying to keep his secret, in spite of the persistance of the little girl down the street. Women. Isn’t that always the way?

Check out the latest teaser video, and the first one from last week, after the break. Do these make you want the Galaxy S4 even more, or do you care?

Even though tablets from Apple are still the most popular, many people prefer buying a device from someone else that runs the Android OS. One very popular alternative to the iPad that does just that is Google’s own Nexus 7.

It’s getting closer to the holidays so that means we’re going to be seeing more ads trying to convince us to buy one product or another. A prime example of this is the latsst Nexus 7 commercial from Google.

In it Google continues the theme of using the tablet in your daily life to be creative and have fun with friends and family. It starts off with a girl listening to the Life Aquatic soundtrack, which then leads to a group of friends creating a life sized aquarium to call their own.

Check it out after the break. If you want an iPad alternative, the Nexus 7 isn’t a bad way to go. Pick one up here.

With the next James Bond actioneer, Skyfall, set for release in November, you can bet your hard-earned dollars we’re going to start seeing a crapload of promotional material for the movie. One of those promotional materials just happens to be a new commercial for Heineken featuring Ian Fleming’s master spy.

Heineken you say? Why, isn’t that a beer? I thought James Bond drank a vodka martini, shaken, not stirred? Sure, everybody knows that. . . Everybody except, it seems, the makers of Skyfall.

In the new Bond film, 007 is a beer drinker. His brand of choice? Heineken, of course. Yeah, we don’t really like the idea either.

Even so, the commercial is pretty cool and from what we’ve seen so far, the movie looks pretty cool too.

Judge for yourself after the break.

Even if you’re not a fan of Apple or its products, you have to admit the company does make some interesting commercials and also tends to get top talent both in front of and behind the camera for them. The latest example of this is the company’s new add for Siri, the iPhone 4S’ “intelligent personal assistant” featuring director Martin Scorsese.

In the new spot, the director of Hugo, Goodfellas and Taxi Driver sits in a New York City cab, ordering Siri to rearrange meetings, locate a friend named Rick, and call up real-time traffic reports — a hint to a new feature of Apple’s upcoming iOS 6.

“I like you, Siri,” Scorsese says. “You’re going places.”

She is indeed. Check out the new spot after the break.

Recently, a video surfaced of an older Matthew Broderick playing what seemed, at least on the surface, to be his famous character Ferris Bueller. Of course, this set off a wave of speculation that a sequel to the seminal 80s film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is in the works.

Sadly (or not) it appears the rumors of a sequel were just that. Instead, now that the full video has been released, we can clearly see that it was, in fact, a commercial for the new Honda CR-V and not a new movie.

We don’t usually post commercials here at The Flickcast but because this one is highly referential to the original film, features a prominent film and stage actor basically reprising his role as one of his most famous characters and the commercial is directed by Hangover helmer Todd Phillips, we think it probably warrants a mention. So, we’re mentioning it.

We won’t, however, comment on the rather sad physical state Broderick looks to be in nor the relative creative mertis of the commercial itself. We’ll leave that for you.

Check out the full commercial after the jump.

One thing we’ve learned is there are too many games and too little time to play them all. This also means there isn’t even enough time to give all of them awards, but we try our best. Today we take a look at both the most time consuming efforts of the past year as well as give some awards for games that deserve some notable mentions as well.

Game Most Likely to Consume Your Life: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Two Hundred and Fifty Hours. By most estimates, this is how long it’ll take an average player to explore MOST of the content of Skyrim. To give some perspective, if the average person works a 40 hour a week job, Skyrim would take six and a quarter full work weeks to complete. Now, we realize that most gamers work jobs outside of the gaming industry and cannot devote a full forty hours a week to a single game.

As owners and users of all sorts of Apple gear, we understand that others who don’t “get it” could misunderstand our love for all-things Apple. So, in the interest of presenting some counter-points to our Apple fanboy/girl nature, we’ve got this video from Samsung that sheds some light on those that don’t use Apple’s gear.

The video pokes fun at the Apple faithful and how we buy whatever Apple is selling, regardless of how good (or bad) it is. This video is actually an ad for the Samsung Galaxy S II, which is billed as the free thinker’s alternative to Apple’s iPhone “sheep.”

Of course, the add fails to mention that Apple’s most recent iPhone, the 4S, has pretty much flown off shelves and is the biggest selling smartphone of all time. I guess that point didn’t make it past the ad guys and gals at Samsung. Why mention the truth, right?

It’s always fun when those at the bottom pick on those at the top. Let the fun continue after the break.

Even though this episode is a wee bit late that doesn’t mean it isn’t chock full of awesome. Okay, how about it has an abundance of mediocrity? Better?

Anyway, This week on The Flickcast brings more insight, innovation and innuendo from your favorite co-hosts. That’s right, Chris and Matt are back and discussing all sorts of new and returning topics.

Some of those topics include the Superbowl and its ever-present advertising, new trailers for Captain America, Super 8, Cowboys & Aliens, the future of the world and all-things Verizon iPhone.

Chris and Matt also made new picks this week including Matt’s pick of the TV series Saved by the Bell and Chris’ pick of the new Shawn Ryan TV series The Chicago Code.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook and MySpace or via email.

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