In perhaps the best spot since the passing of Steve Jobs, Apple and TBWA\Media Arts Lab’s latest for the iPhone, “Photos Every Day,” somehow mixes simplicity with more visually striking images than we’ve seen from the tech giant in quite a while.

“Photos Every Day” takes us outside of Apple’s infinite environment of white space and Helvetica and into the great outdoors, which may be the first time Apple’s ever done that to my recollection. However, I’m young, so correct me if I’m wrong here. The spot highlights one of the iPhone’s greatest, if overlooked feature: its 8-megapixel HD camera. Now, in this day an age, every phone on the market is a camera-phone, as has been the case for nearly a decade now. However, the iPhone’s camera is, and probably will continue to be, a step up from every Nexus or HTC phone on the market.

This is Apple’s way of saying, “Hey, remember this thing? We have the best, and, unlike Siri, it’s actually one of our features that you’ll use constantly for just about everything.” Add to that Instagram, which began as an iPhone exclusive and still works best with iOS, and you have yourself some simple, yet beautiful. Credits after the jump.

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While Nokia and AT&T aren’t yet taking explicit credit for a new campaign codenamed “Operation Rolling Thunder,” some poking around on the part of WPCentral.com shows that the above spot (which debuted during yesterday’s NBA broadcasts) and its companions are perhaps the handiwork of Butler, Shine, Stern and Partners, which is hyping Nokia’s Lumia 900 LTE smartphone prior to an April 8 launch.

The “hidden camera” spots depict one naysayer doubting the functionality of a poorly-censored iPhone, criticizing its fragility, inability to be used safely outside, and barrage of antenna issues. In fact, the above spot, “Fragile,” compares using the iPhone to taking maybe the worst investment advice of 2007 (though the iPhone will bankrupt you in other ways). Following the spots to “smartphonebetatest.com” leads users to a microsite featuring a countdown clock, all three videos from the campaign, and a teaser trailer featuring SNL alum Chris Parnell (perhaps best known to the kids as 30 Rock’s “Dr. Spaceman”). Is the iPhone actually the result of a half-assed beta test gone awry? Conspiracy theorists, rejoice!

As Daily Tech points out, it’s a bit surprising that AT&T is endorsing such a blatant attack on one of its top-selling products. Perhaps it’s a stroke of revenge for Apple giving Verizon and Sprint access to the iPhone. So, dear commenters, who’s your money on in the great “War Against iPhones,” Samsung or Nokia? Two more spots, including one mocking the late Steve Jobs‘ “you’re holding it wrong” admonishment of 2010, after the jump.

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Those rapscallions at 72andSunny are back at it again with this pretty amusing clip starring the one and only Danny McBr–sorry, Kenny Powers–who dons sweatshirt, jeans and all and gets into Steve Jobs mode. Here, Powers promotes the shoe brand’s Blades line, which has the power of ballistic missiles and all. Let’s all watch in amazement.

-Vice launched its Noisey music channel on YouTube. link

-A Taiwanese spot imagines Steve Jobs as an Android lover in heaven (above). link

-In case you missed it, Doritos won the BrandBowl 2012. link

-Last night’s big game set records for Tweets per second as it ended. link

-Speaking of Twitter, could it go public in two years? link

-Facebook will start rolling out mobile ads by March. link

-Verizon and Redbox have joined forces to take on Netflix. link

-Initiative alum Jennifer Lyons was appointed as senior partner/digital planning director for MEC’s digital offerings on the Campbell’s account.

-GM marketing chief Joel Ewanick let people ask him anything this morning on Jalopnik. link

-Cannes Lions rolls out its 323rd new category, or something within that range. link

-You know BBDO alum/current Google staffer Chris Baker, you love him (maybe), and now he’s got a new f*cking book. link

-Ready for the opening round of rejected Super Bowl ads? Well, look no further than this one from an America’s Next Top Model alum (above). link

-Washington Square Films signed director J.C. Chandor for exclusive representation in its commercial division.

-Want an infographic about football? Yeah, as championship weekend comes into play, we know you do. link

-Mr. Youth weighs in on SOPA. link

-Rumblefish and Zooropa Zooppa team up for a crowdsourced ad contest. link

-Lee Clow discusses Steve Jobs at the One Club. Only thing missing is the board. link

A few months back, we briefly mentioned a call for entries for the Original iPhone Film Festival, which featured a panel of judges ranging from Maroon 5 and director Lasse Hallstrom to ad folks such as Chuck McBride, Court Crandall and Regina Ebel. As you can deduce from the title of the inaugural competition, the OIFF was launched by obvious Steve Jobs fans Matt Dessner and Corey Rogers to show how the iPhone 4 can serve as a powerful filmmaking tool.

Anyhow, the 12 winners in categories including Music Video and Brand Film have been announced and below, you can see two examples of how the “mini-film studio” that is the iPhone 4 was put to good use. With the dozen top entries in tow, the guys behind OIFF are now asking you to pick a Grand Prize winner by liking you favorite film from the winners showcase here. The Grand Prize-winning effort will be announced at the MacWorld/iWorld Expo in San Francisco on Jan. 26.

2011: The year that “Instagrapher” became an actual job title at General Electric. I wonder what Jack Donaghy would think of this hip, social media-motivated development at the ol’ “General.”

From SF-based digital creative agency Mekanism comes the above video for GE’s “Be the Next Instagrapher” contest. It might seem a little odd at first for an old-timey brand like GE to create a contest based around hipsters’ favorite mobile photography app, but if you’ve ever seen GE’s Tumblr page, you already know that the General has been using Instagram and the social network to add a youthful, vibrant spin to its 120-year-old brand. After all, at 120, you’re not old, you’re “vintage.” And, don’t forget that GE was co-founded by the Steve Jobs of the late 19th century, Thomas Edison. (“Light bulbs were the original iPhones, bro.”)

Anywho, the best photographer Instagrapher gets a ticket to the UK to photograph a “world-class jet engine facility.” Interested parties can submit photos based off of GE’s designated themes on Twitter using the hashtag #GEinspiredMe or by posting them on GE’s Facebook page. And, though this idea may seem a bit ludicrous to the skeptical eye, realize that GE is actually doing better at engaging with a social media audience than the vast majority of comparable megabrands. Don’t believe me? Just wait and see how many people actually participate in this contest.

-A creative director at Chiat LA wants to help the kids and honor Steve Jobs at the same time. link

-Dallas-based digital shop Rocket Red was named AOR for something called Glowpoint.

-Non-profit org LA Inc. appointed Campbell-Ewald as its AOR.

-Facebook settled an FTC complaint over 2009 privacy breaches. link

-Cyber Monday did quite alright. link

-Director Philippe Andre joined the roster of Biscuit Filmworks for North American commercial representation.

-ADC Gold Cube-winning filmmaker John X. Carey signed with digital production studio The Famous Group.

-Former Google exec Chris McCarley joined Virginia Beach, VA-based BCF as account supervisor/digital planner.

-Colle+McVoy and Rumble give us a new Purina spot (above).

Well, not love in the Cupid’s arrow/Great Expectations ad kind of sense, but love as in whatever sparks your interest in life and how the iPad 2 can play a major role in it. Peter Coyote‘s gravelly, yet soothing VO once again carries the brief story along in TBWA\Media Arts Lab’s latest effort for Apple, which is apparently the first spot the Cupertino corp has launched since Steve Jobs‘ passing. Now, can anyone imagine someone like Coach K drawing up plays with an iPad 2? We think not, but hey, crazier things have happened.

Though still technically in development, HTML5 has already provided a bevy of groundbreaking websites. And, with the recent announcement that Adobe is discontinuing works on its mobile Flash player (which many are blaming on Steve Jobs and the popularity of iOS devices), the eyes of web developers worldwide are now glued to HTML5 and its promise of a platform that’s only restricted by one’s imagination.

In the spirit of web pioneering, the minds at Mcgarrybowen Labs have decided to combine online gaming with HTML5. The finished product, “Galaxy Explorer,” is not unlike Arcade Fire’s breakthrough interactive music video “The Wilderness Downtown,” utilizing automatically generating multiple browser windows to give a player a fuller interactive experience. As Mcgarrybowen puts it, the game “transforms the way browsers communicate not just with users but with each other, as well.” It can be an awful lot for a laptop to handle, so should you give “Galaxy Explorer” a whirl, make sure to close all other browser windows and stop simultaneously running programs to avoid slowing it down.

And, for the developers out there wondering how they did it, Mcgarrybowen says, “We’ve created illusions of transparent browser windows, animated them with JQuery and Bezier Curves and woven a complex relationship between the browser parent and child windows that communicate with each other and all come together in a cohesive side-scrolling adventure.” It’s pretty nifty, and it’s (hopefully) only a sign of things to come as Mcgarrybowen continues experimenting and creating with HTML5. Credits after the jump.