Microsoft boards-up research lab amid more layoffs

Image credit: flickr/Marc Smith

Microsoft Research is shutting down its Mountain View, Calif., facility as part of a move that included a reported 2,100 more layoffs throughout the company.

Derek Murray, who identifies himself as a researcher of distributed systems at Microsoft Research on his Twitter account, tweeted that "Today they announced that the lab in Silicon Valley will be closing Friday."

Microsoft confirmed that the facility is closing but that some of the researchers would be offered jobs elsewhere at Microsoft Research, according to blogger Mary Jo Foley who broke the story.

The layoffs at the lab are part of a wider plan to reduce the headcount at Microsoft by about 18,000, many of them expected to be workers who became Microsoft employees when the company bought Nokia. Layoffs announced today total 160, but the total company-wide is 2,100, Foley says.

A Microsoft Research site about the Mountain View lab says the facility employs more than 75 researchers.

Microsoft Research has 11 other facilities worldwide that employed more than 1,100 researchers, according to its Web page.

Work at the one in Mountain View is described on the site like this: "Silicon Valley research work focuses on distributed computing and includes security and privacy, protocols, fault-tolerance, large-scale systems, concurrency, computer architecture, Internet search and services, and related theory."

"Well, so long Microsoft Research Silicon Valley. It was nice while it lasted."

source: http://www.itworld.com/node/437050

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Hello World, We Are BACK!!!

Computer Cluster is BACK!

We are glad to inform you that we are back to get you the most out of web!

Computer Cluster went shutdown for some copyright issues but the hard time has passed away and we, now, taking a beautiful new start!

Please visit computercluster.blogspot.com daily, for awesome content and information!

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Obama selects cryptologist to head US NSA

Obama selects cryptologist to head US NSA

U.S. President Barack Obama has nominated an expert cryptologist to head the National Security Agency at a time when the agency is under pressure to reform its surveillance.

The Department of Defense announced late Thursday that Navy Vice Admiral Michael S. Rogers was the president's nominee to command the U.S. Cyber Command of the military. Rogers will in addition serve as director of the NSA and chief of the Central Security Service.

The NSA has been at the center of a privacy controversy after disclosures since June last year by its former contractor Edward Snowden. The NSA's bulk collection of phone records in the U.S. has been criticized by civil rights groups, legislators and Internet companies.

The NSA has also been charged, among other things, with having access in real-time to content on servers of Internet companies, spying on leaders of other countries, and breaking into the main communication links that connect Yahoo and Google data centers around the world.

The NSA has said it needed the collection and storage of bulk data for its analysis tools to be effective, though it has filters in place to prevent unauthorized access to personal data.

Rogers will lead the NSA at a time when it is planning reforms aimed at bringing more public transparency to its operations. Earlier this month, Obama called for changes to NSA surveillance, with new privacy advocates assigned to argue for the public in the secret U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and a move away from the bulk telephone records collection program, with the goal to have a new program that does not include the NSA holding onto the records.

Vice Admiral Rogers currently serves as the U.S. Fleet Cyber Command commander. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he will replace General Keith Alexander, who has served as the NSA director since 2005, and as the U.S. Cyber Command commander since 2010, according to the statement by the Department of Defense.

Rogers has served in many functions as a cryptologist, including leading cryptologic direct support missions aboard U.S. submarines and surface units in the Arabian Gulf and the Mediterranean.

An Obama-appointed review group on intelligence and communications technologies recommended to the president last month that the head of the military unit, U.S. Cyber Command and the director of the NSA should not be a single official, to distinguish the "warfighting role from the intelligence role." It also recommended greater civilian control over the agency, including Senate confirmation for the director and being open to having a civilian director. "NSA should refocus on its core function: the collection and use of foreign intelligence information," it added.

Rogers has the wisdom "to help balance the demands of security, privacy, and liberty in our digital age," Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said in a statement Thursday. The government has also appointed Rick Ledgett, a civilian, as deputy director of the NSA, according to the statement. He was heading a task force to assess the damage from the leaks by Snowden.

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Microsoft may boot Gates as chairman, replace Ballmer with Nadella as CEO

Microsoft may boot Gates as chairman, replace Ballmer with 

Nadella as CEO

Microsoft founder Bill Gates may be out as chairman as part of the move to replace CEO Steve Ballmer, Bloomberg is reporting

The likely replacement for Ballmer, the news service says, is the company's cloud and server chief Satya Nadella, who has worked at Microsoft since 1992.

The story is sourced to "people briefed on the process" who said that while a decision is coming soon, the "plans aren't finished."

The sources say John Thompson, the board member running the search for Ballmer's replacement, could take over as chairman, according to Bloomberg.

Nadella is one of several Microsoft insiders rumored to be in the running for the CEO slot. Among the others former Skype CEO Tony Bates and boomerang exec Stephen Elop, who left Microsoft to run Nokia and who is coming back when Microsoft's bid to buy the company goes through.

- See more at: http://www.itnews.com/software/73853/report-microsoft-may-boot-gates-chairman-replace-ballmer-nadella-ceo#sthash.p3givxYx.dpuf

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Why IT Job Search is Getting Harder

5 reasons why your IT 

job search is getting 

harder.

The IT job market is slowing down, use of contingency workers is picking up, and Congress has an unfinished fight ahead on the H-1B visa.

In sum, this is going to be an interesting year for IT employment, politically and on the job front.

In quick summary, here are five of the major IT hiring trends.

1. More electrical engineers do their own thing

IEEE-USA data shows that the number of electrical engineers declined by 35,000 last year, or about 10.5%.

What happened to them? This anecdote may give an idea of where electrical engineers are heading: Approximately 120,000 people attended a Maker Faire in the Bay Area last year, which draws many who are do-it-yourself (DIY) inclined.

An attendee study, commissioned by Maker Media, which runs the event, found that 31% of the attendees identified themselves as engineers. The five top areas of interest at the event were science, electronics, robotics, 3D printing and innovation.

Some engineers may have moved into management consulting, software engineering and other IT occupations. U.S. Labor Department data doesn't show where these workers may have ended up, if anywhere. But last year, government data reported that 15,000 electrical engineers were unemployed.

Employers, increasingly, are hiring workers on a contingent or contract basis, say IT labor analysts. IT research firm Computer Economics said the use of contingent workers is at its highest since 1998.

2. IT job growth slides

IT labor analysts agree that the pace of IT job creation began to slow late last summer. They don't agree on the number of jobs created in 2013, but that's because some use a broad set of labor occupations to track IT hiring, and others a more narrow set. But the hiring trend is clear.

TechServe Alliance, an industry group, said there were 197,000 IT jobs created in 2013. At the low end, Janco Associates puts this figure at 74,900. In the middle is Foote Partners, which said 128,500 jobs were added. Foote said that in the last five months of 2013, the pace of hiring declined by 60%.

The economy gets the blame for the slowdown in hiring. Victor Janulaitis, Janco's CEO, points to the declining labor participation rate, which fell last month to 62.8%, or 3.3 million fewer people in the labor force since 2007. This decline includes all occupations, but is nonetheless "causing many companies to consider whether they should expand IT staffs," said Janulaitis, in recent commentary about the hiring data.

3. Salaries flat for computer science majors

The average starting salary for humanities and social science majors who graduated in 2013 increased 2.9%, the National Association of Colleges and Employers recently reported.

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Nintendo's strategy: We're not losing focus on consoles

(Credit: Nintendo)

Things have been a bit rocky in Mario land. A day after Nintendo announced disappointing earnings, including a 30 percent decline in profits and lower Wii U sales than in 2012, its president, Satoru Iwata, on Wednesday held a strategy briefing in Tokyo to discuss a strategic turnaround.

Iwata kicked off the briefing by insisting he's not pessimistic about the outlook for gaming consoles. He also said that Nintendo doesn't plan to give up on its hardware business -- game consoles will continue to be the center of its strategy.

This reiterates the statement he made to Engadget yesterday, denying earlier reports that the company would offer free minigameson smartphones that will act as demos of full-priced console and 3DS games."Lots of people have said we should go onto smartphones over the last few years, telling us our business would increase," he told analysts. "But our approach is not to put our games on smartphones."

Itawa acknowledged that change is important, but he pointed to the massive changes that the company has undergone throughout its history, including moving from Hanafuda cards to game consoles.

Perhaps the worst bit of news during Nintendo's earnings call was that the company expects to sell just 400,000 Wii U units worldwide during the first quarter of 2014. Itawa said the company plans to counteract this by focusing on making software that takes advantage of the GamePad's abilities, particularly the NFC (near-field communications) technology.

On the plus side, Nintendo announced that it plans to release Mario Kart 8 in May, which should be welcome news to avid fans of the popular franchise.

Iwata also hinted at a new market the company is planning to enter: health. Noting that there are already a bevy of wearable devices on the market, he said Nintendo is going to try out "non-wearables" to monitor people's health -- though what he meant by non-wearables wasn't entirely clear. The only hint that he gave was that it wouldn't be something you would use in your living room. The company plans to discuss what it means by non-wearables in more details later this year.

Source: Cnet

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Google sells Motorola unit to Lenovo for $2.9B

Source: Cnet

The Droid Ultra is one of Motorola's key franchises in the US.

(Credit: CNET)

Google is unloading Motorola Mobility onto Chinese PC maker Lenovo.

Google confirmed on its site that it has sold Motorola for $2.91 billion, consisting of $660 million in cash and $750 million in Lenovo shares, with the remaining $1.5 billion paid in the form of a three-year promissory note. Reuters earlier reported on the deal.

Lenovo gets the Motorola brand, as well as its portfolio of devices, including the Moto X and Moto G. In addition, it will also receive more than 2,000 patent assets, while Google will retain control of a majority of the patents it originally obtained when it acquired Motorola several years ago.

A deal instantly gives Lenovo, which has a thriving smartphone business in China but few other places, an established global brand. Google, meanwhile, will shed a business that has continually dragged down its profits.

The deal marks one of the worst investments in Google's history. In 2012, Google completed its acquisition of Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. At the time, it was thought that the primary reason for the acquisition was the treasure trove of Motorola patents that would help Google defend it and its partners against Apple.

The patents, however, have proven to be less than effective in warding off lawsuits, and much of the legal fighting as gone on between Apple and Samsung, with Google only tangentially related. Google and Samsungrecently signed their own cross-licensing pact.

Troubled handset business 
The handset side of Motorola, however, has always been a stress point between Google and its partners. While Google said it maintained a division between its Android group and the Motorola unit, other vendors have privately expressed irritation that a partner was also a competitor.

Google did legitimately try to revive the once vaunted Motorola brand with unique products, including the Moto X, which was built in the US and could be tweaked with different colors and covers, as well as the ultra-low-cost Moto G, geared toward emerging markets and lower-income consumers looking for a competitive smartphone.

The custom back of the Moto X.

(Credit: Motorola)

Throughout the last year or so, Motorola has continually posted losses. In the most recent quarter, Motorola posted an operating loss of $248 million, wider than the year-earlier period. Google reports its latest results Thursday.

Still, the move is a surprising one, given that Google has been moving toward becoming more of a hardware company. Beyond smartphones, the company is pushing its Google Glass headset and its Chromecast media dongle. It just purchased Nest for $3.2 billion to get into the smart thermostats and smoke detectors.

"This would be at odds with its recent push to hardware," said NPD analyst Stephen Baker. "Everybody was thinking they would get more hardware-oriented. This may signal a reversal."

Gaining a global brand 
Lenovo, meanwhile, could conceivably jump-start its smartphone ambitions with the purchase of Motorola. As the inventor of the cell phone, Motorola has a rich legacy and a still well-known brand that Lenovo could exploit.

"The acquisition of such an iconic brand, innovative product portfolio and incredibly talented global team will immediately make Lenovo a strong global competitor in smartphones," Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing said in a statement.

Indeed, Lenovo actually has a strong smartphone business itself, but one that is largely limited to China. Still, the market is big enough that it ranked No. 5 among global smartphone vendors in the fourth quarter, seeing its share rise to 4.7 percent from 4.2 percent a year ago, according to Strategy Analytics.

Lenovo's CEO said in May 2013 that it would bring its smartphones to the US within a year, but it hasn't updated its timing since then.

By buying Motorola from Google, Lenovo is repeating the same play is successfully pulled off in 2005, when it entered the global PC business by acquiring IBM's PC business. The deal instantly made Lenovo a major player with PCs, building on the business-centric ThinkPad with the consumer-facing IdeaPad.

"Lenovo intends to keep Motorola's distinct brand identity--just as they did when they acquired ThinkPad from IBM in 2005," Google CEO Larry Page said in a statement.

Lenovo reportedly attempted to purchase BlackBerry, but a deal was supposedly squashed by regulators sensitive to a Chinese company owning phones widely used by government agencies.

The Chinese computer giant is the world's biggest PC vendor, with about 17 percent share of the market, according to IDC.

Lenovo said earlier this month that it will buy IBM's server business for $2.3 billion.

With Motorola, Lenovo could use the company's established track record and contacts in the wireless industry to push its phones around the phone. And it doesn't have to build its own brand from scratch.

"We tend to think of the Chinese companies as rigid, but Lenovo has been adaptable in a lot of brands and geographies," Baker said.

Update 2:14 p.m. PT: Added confirmation from Google that it has sold its Motorola unit to Lenovo.

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Everything you wanted to know about Li-Ion batteries but were afraid to ask!

Everything you wanted to know about Li-Ion batteries but were afraid to ask!

So after noticing how much of a difference people get in their battery lives, I've decided to do some research and make a guide-line that will give us all we need to know about properly using our batteries. First part is a general information and usage techniques for LIBs, second part is taken from Google materials on Android-powered devices (G1, Magic, Droid, Nexus One, etc).

Sources:

Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-ion_battery
BatteryUniversity - http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm
Google IO Conference 2009 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUemfrKe65c
Electropaedia - http://www.mpoweruk.com/life.htm

xda-Developers - http://forum.xda-developers.com/

General Lithium-Ion Battery (LIB) Usage:

1. • Discharging your LIB fully (or less than 2.4 Volt per cell) is bad for the battery. Every time you do that, it can be said that small part of your battery (some cells) dies (they forever lose their charge). Do not store your batteries depleted, there's a high chance they will die completely or will become very "weak".
2. • You cannot restore bad LIBs by overloading/heating/praying. You gotta go buy a new one. They DO degrade overtime, some cells naturally lose the ability to gain/give electricity.
3. • Although it is said that LIBs do not have memory, it's not entirely true. LIBs have gauges that monitor performance of cells, and if you do a lot of small charges, it won't let those gauges to monitor a full battery potential, causing an invalid indication of charge level. A complete charge/discharge should be made when battery capacity seems reduced, that will calibrate gauges and they will provide your phone with correct charge level status. A full charge/discharge cycle should be done every 30 (or so) partial charges.
4. • LIBs have a shelf-life. Do not buy them to store them. Use them early, use them often, they will die whether you use them or not. Do not buy LIBs to use them in 6 months/year/etc, buy them right before actually using them.
5. • LIBs have short lives (in comparison to NiCa batteries, etc). You should expect to buy a new battery in 2-3 years after being manufactured. It is caused by internal oxidation and there's nothing you can do to stop or prevent that.
6. • Worst LIB treatment is to keep it at 100% charge level at high temperature (think laptop/phone under direct sunlight, like car dashboard).
7. • Best LIB treatment, or LIBs "favorite" charge level - 40%. That's also the usual charge level you buy them with.
8. • LIBs don't like heat. For example, while always at 100%, typical LIB in a laptop, at temperatures of 25C (77F) will lose 20% (twenty percent!) of full capacity per year. That capacity loss is reduced to 6% (six percent) at 0C (32F), and increased to 35% loss at 40C (104F). So, keep them cool (LIBs like fridges), don't let your devices sit in the sun or overheat at charge. Also, keep in mind that while in use, battery will be significantly hotter than phone/outside environment
   
9. • LIBs like frequent partial charges/discharges more than they like full charges/discharges.

General Android power usage advice from google:

1. • Although this part is somewhat controversial, they do recommend having a complete, full FIRST charge to be made. If time allows, a preferred time for the first charge is 12 hours. This may have more to do with the OS than the battery.
2. • Battery on a Android device, in average, will last about a full day with normal use (some videos, mail, calls). That's what you should kind-of expect.
3. • Speaking in averages, "idling" 3G/EDGE connection (when phone is sleeping and no data is transferred through 3G), drains almost no energy. Just a little more than having 3G/EDGE radio off completely. So when no apps are using 3G, you don't need to keep it off.
   
4. • Same goes to WiFi connection - although it's on, if there is no data flowing through it, it uses almost no energy.
5. • At full throughput (100% data flow), EDGE is using more energy than 3G. In average, 3G is more energy-efficient than EDGE.
6. • WiFi is using more energy than 3G (when both are at 100% use), but since it transfers files much faster and then goes to "sleep", it's actually recommended to use WiFi whenever possible. Since it'll "sleep" more often than 3G, overall it will use much less battery than using 3G.
7. • Some bad apps or widgets can use android's "WakeLock", keeping CPU at 100%, screen always-on, or both. I myself have encountered such widget (I won't mention the name, it's in the market) that used a WakeLock to keep CPU spun-up at 100% all the time. That makes a huge impact on battery life. My advice - use a CPU profiling app to monitor the CPU - make sure that CPU slows down by itself when it's not used. So, beware of such widgets/apps. To check for CPU cycles, many recommend OSMonitor (free from market, install it, go to options, sort by "Load" in descending order. It'll give you "busiest" processes at the top). At rest you should be getting about 10-20% for OSMonitor itself, and 1-10% Android System. At rest, everything else should be 0-1%.
8. • Android slows down CPU when not in use by itself, as a built-in feature. Apps that throttle/change CPU frequency, are not necessarily needed.

All this info comes from those reputable resources I mentioned above, I didn't make any of it up.

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Apple patents Solar-Powered Mac Books

Apple patents Solar-Powered Mac Books

Apple today was awarded a patent for a MacBook that would be powered with solar cells (photovoltaics), meaning your laptop could be powered or at least recharged through light.

The patent, titled " Electronic device display module" describes a two-sided display for the lid of a portable computer, such as Apple's MacBook. The front of the lid facing the user would still sport the typical display screen but the rear would serve as more than just a cover.

The patent describes a rear plate made of "electrochromic glass" also known as " smart glass" or "switchable glass."

"Electrochromic glass, which is sometimes referred to as electrically switchable glass, may receive control signals (e.g., voltage control signals) from control circuitry," the patent submission states. "The control signals can be used to place electrochromic glass in either a transparent (light-passing) state or a translucent (light-blocking) state."

A sketch of the proposed laptop, which uses an electrochromic glass back panel that can be made opaque or translucent through a small electrical charge. The back panel would have solar cells embedded in it to collect power from light.

In the light-blocking state, the interior of the MacBook's display would be hidden from the exterior view; the rear panel would appear opaque or translucent.

In the light-passing state, the rear panel would appear clear and allow images or other light output from status light-emitting diodes or other light sources, Apple stated.

The solar cells would be placed under the electrochromic glass layer on the rear plate.

"For example, photovoltaic cells may be interposed between a glass layer (rear plate) and liquid crystal display structures for display," the patent states. Photo voltaic cells produce electricity when exposed to light.

When the laptop is near a light source, the light rays would pass through the electrochromic glass that forms the rear plate.

The solar cells would take in light as it passed through the glass, converting it into electrical power at a rate of 10 milliwatts or more.

Apple proposed that the solar cells would be capable of producing from 100 milliwatts to 1 watt "or even more" in order to charge the laptop's battery or power the computer while it is in use.

The rear smart glass could also be used to display Apple's logo by incorporating an additional light emitting diode layer as well as backlighting.

"To ensure that display is evenly illuminated, the back light unit that provides backlight for display... may be provided with light-emitting diodes that are arranged along more than one of the edges of the light guide layer in the back light unit," Apple stated.

This article, Apple patents solar-powered MacBook, was originally published at Computerworld.com

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NSA gets its first civil liberties and privacy officer

NSA gets its first civil liberties and privacy officer.

The National Security Agency has reportedly appointed Rebecca Richards, a former deputy privacy official at the Department of Homeland Security, as its first privacy officer.

Richards will start her new role next month, according to a blog post Tuesday by former deputy assistant secretary at the DHS Paul Rosenzweig.

An NSA spokeswoman would neither confirm nor deny Rosenzweig's report. Instead, she pointed to comments by President Obama last August about the NSA's taking steps to install a full-time civil liberties and privacy officer following NSA contractor Edward Snowden's leaks about the agency's surveillance practices.

The NSA spokeswoman confirmed that the appointee would start in the new role next month. Additional details would become available today, she said.

As the NSA's Civil Liberties and Privacy Officer, Richards will be responsible for ensuring that adequate controls are implemented at the agency to receive, investigate and respond to civil liberties and privacy complaints raised by individuals and entities against the NSA.

Richards will provide advice and guidance to the NSA sirector and senior leadership to ensure that the agency's activities are fully compliant with all privacy and legal requirements, according to a job description posted by the NSA last September.

She will also be responsible for overseeing and explaining the NSA's privacy controls to the public and to stakeholders within the U.S. government and the intelligence community.

The NSA advertised the job position last September. At that time, the agency said it was looking for someone who was both well known and highly regarded by privacy and civil liberties professionals in the U.S.

The position, described by the agency as a "completely new job" is based at the NSA's headquarters in Fort Meade, Md., and has a salary of up to $173,000 annually.

Richards' new job combines what until now have been two separate functions for privacy and civil liberties at the agency.

The job is the result of an effort by the Obama administration to provide greater transparency to the NSA's surveillance programs following Snowden's leaks about the agency's practices. Since the leaks began, the agency has declassified some of the information pertaining to its domestic data collection activities under Section 215 of the U.S. Patriot Act.

Earlier this month, the president announced a series of modest proposals aimed at further reforming the NSA's activities in the U.S. and abroad.

The proposals included one that would prohibit the NSA from collecting or storing phone metadata records on U.S. residents and another that would require the agency to get court approval to search through the records.

This article, NSA gets its first civil liberties and privacy officer, was originally published at Computerworld.com.

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Obama should have talked about NSA in address, say trade groups

Obama should have talked about NSA in adress, 

say trade groups.

Technology trade groups faulted President Obama for not using his State of the Union address Tuesday night to address domestic and international concerns over the National Security Agency's surveillance programs.

The president's decision not to tackle the issue in any great detail could cost U.S. Internet companies billions of dollars in Europe and other markets, they contended.

In an address that lasted slightly more than 65 minutes, Obama mentioned surveillance and intelligence reform just once and made no mention of the NSA's controversial domestic data collection programs at all.

The president noted that he would continue to work with Congress to reform the nation's surveillance programs but offered no details on the reforms or when they would happen.

"Working with this Congress, I will reform our surveillance programs -- because the vital work of our intelligence community depends on public confidence, here and abroad, that the privacy of ordinary people is not being violated," the president said.

Obama's perfunctory treatment of the topic is disappointing said Christian Dawson, co-founder and chairman of the Internet Infrastructure Coalition (i2Coalition), a group representing several technology companies, including Google and Dell.

With regard to NSA surveillance, "it is imperative that we strike the appropriate balance between privacy and security," Dawson said in a statement after the president's speech. "Without actions that include meaningful reforms to both bulk surveillance, and the indiscriminate use of National Security Letters, all together such a balance is unlikely to be achieved."

Concerns over the NSA bulk data collection programs have a strong economic impact on U.S. companies. "At the same time, countries like Germany, Switzerland and Brazil are actively seeking to cut ties with U.S. web hosts, insisting that data will be better protected on domestic servers," Dawson said.

Daniel Castro, senior analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, noted that the president missed an opportunity to clear the air on surveillance issues that were not addressed in a speech on NSA reform the president made recently.

In that address, Obama had noted that he would prohibit the NSA from collecting or storing phone metadata records on U.S. residents and would require the agency to obtain court approval to search through the records.

Chief among the unaddressed issues is how the government plans to tackle the NSA's efforts to introduce vulnerabilities in cryptographic standards and commercial products to enable easier snooping, Castro said in a statement.

"As long as these questions go unanswered, U.S. technology companies will face a disadvantage in global markets and lose market share to foreign competitors," Castro said. "The president has declared that 2014 should be a year of action. He does not need to wait for Congress to affirm clearly and unequivocally that the policy of the United States is to strengthen, not weaken, cybersecurity," he said.

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Samsung opens 60 dedicated stores in Europe with Carphone warehouse

Samsung opens 60 dedicated stores in Europe with Carphone warehouse

Samsung Electronics is joining forces with retailer Carphone Warehouse to create 60 dedicated Samsung stores in Europe, hoping that will help keep the growing competition in the Android smartphone market at bay.

The stores will be opened in the next three months across the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Sweden and the Netherlands. The 60 stores will be a mixture of new locations and of existing Carphone Warehouse locations that will be converted to sell Samsung products, according to a Carphone Warehouse spokeswoman. About a third of the stores will be in the U.K. making it the largest market, she said.

The stores will sell smartphones, tablets, laptops and wearables, according to Samsung. With the European economy improving, the company sees an opportunity to increase sales with this push. Also, while consumers knows its smartphones and tablets, the dedicated stores will draw more attention to its laptops and the Galaxy Gear smartwatch, Samsung said.

Dedicated stores have been a mixed bag for manufacturers of consumer electronics. While Apple's chain of stores has flourished, other manufacturers, such as Nokia, are closing down their retail operations.

Samsung's retail push follows the opening of three stand-alone stores in Spain last year, also operated by Carphone Warehouse, so Samsung is convinced it has found a winning concept.

"The deal will benefit both sides. Samsung is desperate to replicate Apple's famous retail store experience, while Carphone Warehouse badly needs to develop fresh revenue streams in the saturated European mobile market. I expect Samsung to use its flagship stores as showrooms to generate a feel-good factor around the brand," said Neil Mawston , executive director at Strategy Analytics.

As all markets mature and become more crowded, retail becomes more critical. However, whether the stores can remain profitable long-term, as more sales of consumer electronics shift online, remains to be seen, according to Mawston.

Last year Samsung extended its worldwide lead over Apple to 160.5 million smartphones, but the company isn't impervious to increased competition in the smartphone sector. Its market share dropped from 29.1 percent to 28.8 percent year on year during fourth quarter, while Huawei Technologies, Lenovo and LG Electronics all increased their share, according to IDC.

"Samsung is a bit like Nokia a few years ago; very dominant, biggest product portfolio and biggest distribution, but everyone is gunning for them," said Mawston

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Apple iPad Air: The Best Experience of any 10" Consumer Tablet

Apple , with the iPhone and iPad, pretty much reinvented the personal computing market, that not only created a new market segment but also sent the personal computer market into a tailspin. That’s powerful. What is asdifficult for any company to do is to maintain dominance in a certain market, too.  Could the Apple iPad Air dominate the 10″ consumer market? You see, “dominance” really depends on the variable you are measuring.  Some people look at unit share, some look to revenue, some look to experience.  After using the Apple iPad Air for almost a month, I can confidently say that it provides the best experience of any 10″ consumer tablet on the market today and I wanted to share a little bit of my experiences.

Before I tell you about my experiences, I wanted to share a bit about my current primary devices as it adds context.  I say “current” as I change my devices routinely as an analyst.  By “primary” I mean the devices I spend the most time on.  My primary tablet is the Google Nexus 7 (2013), primary phones the HTC One and Moto X based on Google Android, and my primary PC I split between a Lenovo Yoga and a white-box Intel Haswell-based monster tower with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 card.  Don’t confuse me with what some refer to as an Apple, Google, or Microsoft  ”fanboy”.  As an analyst, I use a lot of products from every ecosystem as I believe it’s an important element to my role as industry analyst.

Overall, the Apple iPad Air provides by far the highest quality experience of any 10” consumer tablet on the market today. It provides incredible responsiveness in nearly every facet of usage, whether it’s general UI, transitions, opening apps, and using most apps. The camera is second to none, and the only close competitor to this is Nokia . There are some early growing pains as evident in the new 64-bit OS and apps, which I expected having personally helped lead the Windows PC 64-bit transition.

Experiential HighsNet-net, the Apple iPad Air is still king of the 10” tablets by a wide margin, and consumers pay for that level of superior experience.  Let me share some specific things I really like and some things I’d like to see changed.

• iOS 7 feel and look: iOS looks and feels modern.  I spend a lot of time on Google Android devices and now with iOS, many of the Google Android experiences look dated. Stock Google and HTC have modernized, but both Samsung and LG look dated, dated like they “borrowed” from iOS 4-5 devices.
• General UI speed and responsiveness: iOS 7 on the iPad Air is fantastic, the fastest I’ve experienced.  This shows itself in opening apps, opening folders, and multitasking. I give credit to the new A7 SoC hard-wired to a brand new OS.
• iSight Camera quality and speed: I am “that guy” who takes pictures at events with their tablet.  I take a ton of pictures at events, whether it be a product launch or at one of my kid’s sporting events, and I want battery leftover in my phone at the end of the day.  Therefore, I use a tablet and  camera quality is important to me. Camera quality has been a hallmark of Apple since iOS devices first shipped with the first iPhone.  Somehow, Apple has managed to maintain this lead, only challenged by Nokia.  I give LG credit with the G2, but Apple continues to take the prize.  It takes high-quality pictures quickly.
• Google Calendar sync: It is very hard to change ecosystems once you have chosen an email address, and calendars are hooked to that email address.  The Air and iOS 7 handles my multiple Google calendars very well, unlike Windows 8 tablets.
• Build quality: The Air’s build quality is second to none. There’s not a creak, crevice, or scratch to be found out of the box.  I can’t tell you how many tablets creak or have fingerprint smudges out of the box.
• LTE hotspot battery life:  The integrated LTE hotspot option gave me what seemed like an indefinite battery life.  In checking with some review sites, it looks like my instincts were correct.  It lasts for 24 hours.
• Retina display: The Retina display looked great on all content whether it be pictures, videos, or web pages.
• Smart Cover: The optional cover is nearly perfect as it fits snug via magnets with no metal-to-metal contact. It feels like the magnet is stronger than in previous models.
• Battery life: Bar none, iPad Air provides better battery life than anything else available. This comes from a very tight integration between hardware and software.  Ironically, Apple could have increased battery life, but instead opted to make the Air thinner and  lighter.
• AirPlay: Unlike  Miracast or even Google Chromecast, AirPlay works perfectly, something no one else has replicated yet.
• Thickness and weight: While I personally never thought the iPad was too heavy, many others will see a lot of benefit.  Weight and thickness separates the Air from the competition in definitive, black and white ways, which is the best for a consumer electronics device where shades of gray don’t work. Definitely an improvement, but personally I thought iPad 3 had great weight and thickness.
• Apps: Net-net, the Air has more tablet apps than any other 10″ tablet out there.  Most Google Android tablet apps are built for phone screens with displays between 4-5″. Those apps stretch or are blown up to fit on a 10″ display and don’t look good at all. Yes, Apple does “blow up” phone apps, but the point is that it has been suggested that iOS has 10X more true tablet apps than Android.  I cannot provide a definitive figure because Google does not publish the number of true tablet apps like Apple.

Experiential Changes

There were some things I’d like to see in future iOS drops or Apple iPad products.

• Stability: iOS 6 on the iPad 4 was rock solid, no reboots or crashed apps I can remember.  With iOS 7 and the Air, I’ve experienced more app and system crashes than in recent memory with iOS device. I am guessing this is due to new 64-bit OS and apps.  The biggest culprit I found was Evernote, which I use as my primary note-taking app.  I also saw some challenges with the new iWork apps.  I am certain this will get ironed out as Apple always does.
• Google Contacts sync: I cannot sync my GMail contacts without using a third-party app like “ContactsSync”. This makes like difficult for me as my personal mail and work email are based on Gmail and Google Apps. Google Android and Windows 8 sync perfectly with Google Contacts.  Let me know if your contacts sync or if you think I may be doing something wrong.
• Start button: The more and more Google Android and Windows 8 evolve, the more I see value of having an easily-accessible start “button” in the same place regardless of the display orientation. Most new Google Android-based devices have the virtual home buttom at the bottom and Windows 8 has it on the right… always, no matter how I hold the device.  This helps so much with multitasking and task switching.  I’d like to see Apple either add TouchID to the iPad Air or go to a virtual button.

I hope it’s clear by my nearly month-long experience that I think the Apple iPad Air delivers a great experience.  There are no perfect tablets, but the Air is as close you will get, and there by a stretch.  The Apple iPad Air delivers the best experience of any 10″ consumer tablet, period.

Source: Forbes

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