Ken Segall writes about Apple’s holiday advertisement.

Most of these people mistake their personal opinion, instinct, values and/or taste for actual marketing talent. There are tens of millions of people who will stop in their tracks at this commercial and wipe a tear from their eye. As a result, they will feel slightly more attached to Apple, which is the marketing purpose of this spot.

Couldn’t agree more. It follows along the lines of the Life on iPad ad campaign to show how Apple devices are enriching lives.

Tech in Asia writes about BlackBerry using the code name “Jakarta” for its new phone targeting the Indonesian market.

What better way to woo customers from a country than by code-naming a phone after its capital?

The phone better be a hit or BlackBerry will continue to see its market share slip away.

Apple Insider reports on Apple’s annual “lucky bag” sale in Japan.

As it has done in years past, Apple Stores in Japan will likely start 2014 with sales of Fukubukuro, roughly translated to “lucky bags,” in celebration of the Japanese new year. Apple retail locations across the country are scheduled to open at 8 a.m. local time on Jan. 2, some two hours earlier than usual, strongly hinting at an as yet unannounced sales event, reports Mac Otakara.

So what is a Fukubukuro?

In practice, retailers participating in the custom bundle various goods in a bag, which is then sold for a preset price. The contents of each bag can vary, but customers never know exactly what is inside until the package is opened after purchase. If tallied up separately, the products are usually worth more than the package sales price, thereby offering consumers a discount, albeit sight-unseen.

Mashable reports on BlackBerry’s $4.4 billion net loss in this quarter.

BlackBerry’s revenue in the third quarter fell by more than 50% from the same period a year earlier. The company’s net loss for the quarter topped $4 billion due to restructuring costs and unsold devices. Yes, billion with a “b.” And it barely sold more than 1 million BB10 devices, proving once more that its make-or-break smartphone product line is broken.

BlackBerry has decided to fight smaller battles by focussing on markets where they are strong in, such as in Indonesia. I know many Indonesians who love their BlackBerry devices but if the company does no prove to be an attractive alternative to the iPhones or Android devices, it will be a futile move.

Mashable reports on Facebook’s Year in Review for your friends.

On top of the Year in Review feature that highlights your top 30 moments, Facebook has introduced the Year in Review for your friends.

Facebook uses a different algorithm than the one that surfaces News Feed content. The Year in Review is made up exclusively of “life events and popular posts,” according to a spokesperson. The “popular posts” are determined based on engagement like comments and Likes.

Another new feature that will soon become a Facebook tradition.

Google announced an update to the Chrome Web Store policy to only allow single-purpose extensions.

Existing extensions that has multiple functions might have to be split into different extensions.

To keep with our principle of simplicity, we decided to take a different approach. Chrome extensions would be simple and single-purpose in nature, and each would only be allowed a single visible UI “surface” in Chrome, a single browser action or page action button. Toolbars wouldn’t be supported by design, and users would have more control over which features they added to their browser.

This initiative is to combat the clutter that builds up when users install many extensions, leading to a cluttered Chrome toolbar.

I loved browser add-ons back when I was on FireFox. However, those made the browser so bloated that when I switched to Chrome, I made a conscious effort to be selective when it comes to installing extensions.

Now, I use Safari with only three extensions. Pocket, Evernote and Buffer. This is the maximum in my new minimalist approach to browser add-ons.