ConsumerIT - For Europe's High Volume PC Retailers, Distributors & Builders

Office product chain Staples pilots what it describes as future of retail-- a pair of Omnichannel Stores combining an expansive retail network with the Staples.com online store, the second biggest in the world.

Visitors can browse and order through up to 100000 items (including CE, furniture, school supplies and cleaning items) on Staples.com kiosks. Once they finish orders, customers can complete transactions at the kiosks or store register, with either home deliver or in store pickup.

A "Business Lounge" provides meeting space and workstations for mobile professionals, while EasyTech and Copy & Print spaces offer consultation areas for small business customers.

The Natural Interaction Research Group at Microsoft Research develops what it says is the first 3D touchscreen with force feedback capabilities-- providing touchable onscreen objects offering users with different "weights" and "textures."

Called "Actuated 3D Display with Haptic Feedback," the monitor was shown off at Microsoft's TechFest 2013 event. It consists of an off-the-shelf multitouch 3D monitor mounted on a robot arm, both of which in turn are connected to the same PC.

When the user pushes a finger against the screen, the robot arm pushes back-- with feedback strength adjusted according to the object(s) on the screen.

One demo has 3 different blocks (in stone, wood, sponge), with each block acting realistically according to virtual material weight and friction. The stone block"feels" harder to the touch, and requires more force to push, than the sponge block.

In response to growing competition from Android smartphones Apple plans an iPhone sales and marketing revamp within its brick and mortar outlets, 9to5Mac reports.

According to "multiple people" the company organised a so-called secretive summit for Apple Retail Store Leaders from around the world, where CEO Tim Cook "noted his dissatisfaction that approximately 80% of all iPhones are not purchased from an Apple Store."

Making matters uglier are rumours of carrier stores giving salespeople incentives for selling non-iPhone smartphones.

The EU joins forces with Japanese authorities to invest €18 million in 6 separate projects researching ways to increase network efficiency-- with one project aiming to build networks reaching speeds of up to 19.7Mbps.

"Our Future Internet should know no barriers, least of all barriers created because we did not prepare for the data revolution,” EC VP Neelie Kross says.

The Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Commications (MIC) and National Institute of ICT (NCT) take part, together with the likes of Orange, Telefonica, NEC, Panasonic, NTT, KDDI, ADVA, STMicroelectronics and Intel.

According to the EC the word generates 1.7m bytes of data per minute-- and such data traffic will grow 12-fold by 2018.