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Griffin Opens First Retail Store

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Griffin celebrates its 20th anniversary with a first take on retail-- a Griffon Store located in London's Westfield, Stratford City, across the Olympic Stadium.

Griffin StoreThe double fronted store covers 139 square metres and features a 9m glass storefront. Various sections allow customers to test out Griffin products, from mobile device chargers to Crayola-branded products and in-car accessories.

An interactive play area features HELO TC remote controlled helicopters and a showcase for the Griffin iDevice case range, where customers can drop an iPad (in a Griffin case) down a 4m "Drop Zone."

The Griffen Business Solution range also finds use across the store.

Go Griffin Technology Opens First-Ever Retail Store in London

Windows Phone Gets Version 8

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Microsoft follows the Surface tablet reveal with another mobile-related announcement-- Windows Phone 8 (aka Apollo), the next full-blown version of the smartphone OS, currently at version 7.5.

Windows Phone 8The biggest change Windows Phone 8 has is the NT kernel, meaning the mobile OS shares a kernel, file system, media foundation, device drivers and partial security model with Windows 8.

The NT kernel also provides multi-core processor support, removable storage (via microSD cards), NFC capability and even improvements aiming at enterprise use (device encryption, remote management, custom app support).

Windows Phone 8 supports x3 screen resolutions-- WVGA (800x480), WXGA (1280x769) and 720p (1280x720).

Other consumer-aimed updates include a revamped Internet Explorer 10, Nokia-powered mapping, a Wallet app (stores debit/credit card data, coupons, boarding passes) and a more customisable Start screen.

The upgrade however comes at a price-- Windows Phone 7 devices will not get WP8. Instead, WP7 users can enjoy playing with the new Start screen through a 7.8 update.

Microsoft gives no Windows Phone 8 release date, but says the OS will be available in Qualcomm-powered smartphones from Nokia, Huawei, Samsung and HTC.

Go Announcing Windows Phone 8

HDD Makers Diversify Products

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It appears HDD vendors are branching out into different product categories-- Western Digital now has a wireless router family, while Seagate sells HDDs able to connect to social networks.

WD RoutersWestern Digital claims it will bring about "a new era of blazing fast HD entertainment streaming" with the My Net dual-band 802.11n router line. Two years in the making, the routers feature "FasTrack" technology that supposedly gives higher priority (thus reducing lag) for traffic from video, gaming and Skype.

The range consists of 4 models-- the My Net N600, N750, N900 and N900 Central (with integrated 1 or 2TB HDD).

Meanwhile the Seagate Backup Plus drive family allows users to automatically download photos from Facebook or Flickr accounts, as well as upload photos and videos to social networks through Dashboard software.

Backup Plus drives are available in portable 2.5-inch (500GB, 750GB and 1TB capacities) and desktop 3.5" (in 1-4TB) form factors in either red, blue, silver and black.

Go WD Enters Wireless Networking Market

Go Seagate Reinvents Backup for your Digital Life

Samsung Refreshes Business Printers

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Probably sharpened by competition against Apple, Samsung no longer fears the competition-- at a recent Milan launch event, Samsung declared war on the dominance HP and Xerox in business printers.

Samsung PrintersNot only refreshing its printer range, Samsung is also adding technologies learnt from the smartphone arena. High-end Samsung printers now carry touchscreen UIs, with 7-inch touchscreens for A3 copiers/printers and 4.3-inch displays for A4 printers.

The UI allows users to customise up to 40 short-cuts, with actions customers can summon through a single button press. Meanwhile a MobilePrint app allows users to print through Android, iOS and Windows Phone devices.

The latest Samsung A3 printer/copiers carry an all-in-one mainboard combining x7 chips and x9 boards into a single, more efficient board, and the entry-level products use dual-core processors and print speeds of up to 48pm.

The laser colour printer range also gets improvements with Samsung Rendering Engine for Clean Pages (ReCP) technology, 1200x1200 dpi and edge enchancements.

The company says the new printer ranges will start launching from July 2012.

Go Samsung Printing Solutions

Microsoft: The Next Apple?

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It appears Microsoft's ambitions of becoming similar to Apple go beyond merely making own-branded tablets-- Bloomberg reports Microsoft kept its PC partners in the dark, keeping the Surface a closely guarded secret.

Microsoft SurfaceWhich company has a reputation for shrouding all future plans under a thick veil of darkness, before announcing them in glitzy press-only events? Oh, right...

According to anonymous Bloomberg sources in the US and Taiwan, PC vendors were let know about the Surface tablet only 3 days before it was shown to the press, when Windows Chief Steven Sinofsky "made a round of telephone calls but gave only the barest details on Friday, neither revealing the name of the gadget nor its specifications."

Sources at Acer and Asus say they only learnt about the Surface at the LA news conference. Analysts at Ovum say Microsoft was giving hardware partners "a huge vote of no confidence" and they "rightly feel slighted".

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