obscurantist rosie: New iPhone commercial focuses on Photos Every Day

Apple has aired a new iPhone commercial, Photos Every Day, which unlike previous, recent commercials, eschews cheery music, chanting, and a rapid fire parade of apps to focus on the camera and camera apps, and on capturing those special moments, at a variety of times, in a variety of places, under a variety of conditions.

It's an interesting change. At first glance, it might seem like a reaction to something like the Nokia Lumia 920 or the HTC One, both of which boast optical image stabilization (OIS), among other technologies, that help improve photos under low-light when subjects are relatively stationary.

However, neither of those phones will likely sell in any meaningful numbers compared to the iPhone. The just-launched Samsung Galaxy S4, on the other hands, is just as mass-market, and aimed just as much at "everyday" photography as the iPhone.

I spent much of the last week shooting photos with Alex Dobie as he prepared for his Galaxy S4 review, and while he called it the best all-around Android camera to date, to my eyes the iPhone 5 still out-shot it under a wider range of conditions, including and especially in low-light. Like the phone itself, it came off as spec-heavy but ultimately scattered and soul-less.

Opinions on that can and will vary, however, which is likely why we're getting this commercial now, and in this way. Apple's taking the competition seriously, and they're putting out a serious ad to address it.

And once again, they're doing it very, very well.