IHS iSuppli projects dramatic growth for WW residential gateway shipments-- predicting the market will triple during the 2012 to 2015 period as gateways start replacing the traditional STB.

Residential gateway and thin client box shipments are "miniscule at present." Global 2011 shipments total 345000, and a mere 1000 units in 2010. However iSuppli expects 2012 shipments to reach  4.2M, before climbing to 12.6M in 2015.

Residential gateways link a wide range of devices-- with a STB acting as a central server connecting to thin client boxes, delivering content to media devices such as smartphones and tablets.

iSuppli also believes the key component inside the residential gateway-- the media processor-- is "ready for prime time" thanks to technology from the likes of Intel, Broadcom and STMicroelectronics.

Operators are set to save money using gateways (by moving to cheaper server/client configurations) while boosting revenues by charging for the increased connectivity gateways provide. On the other hand customers gain in the beaming of real-time HD video to all media devices.

iSuppli does not expect residential gateways to "settle" on a single networking standard-- instead employing a "mix," as wired or wireless, Cat5, coax and powerline "vie to be the backbone of the connected home."

Go Residential Gateway Market Projected to Triple from 2012 to 2015 (IHS iSuppli)

The Xbox One and Playstation 4 giants might have overshadowed E3 2013, but such details did not stop peripheral maker Mad Catz to announce a console of its very own-- the M.O.J.O., an interesting looking Android-powered "micro console."

While making part of a perhaps over-crowded market, the MOJO has a few features MadCatz hopes separate it from the likes of the OUYA or Nvidia SHIELD. First off, the palm-sized device runs on stock Android, allowing it to handle all games available on the Google Play app store without need for developer modification.

It also registers on existing Google Play accounts, meaning customers can transfer apps from Android smartphones or tablets to the device.

The M.O.J.O. demo unit seen at E3 2013 carries an Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, but Mad Catz promises the retail unit will ship with a more powerful chipset (namely the Tegra 4).

Dutch CE retailer De Harense Smid gets a new breath of life just a day after it declares bankruptcy-- a deal with Mikro-Electro saves 20 of the retailer's outlets.

The deal also covers 300 (out of 550) employees, and Mikro-Elektro will take care of outstanding customer orders, payments and repairs.

De Harense Smid currently has 46 outlets, 43 in the Netherlands and 3 in Belgium.

Established in the 1800s, the retailer was hit hard by the current economic downturn, towering debt and competition from larger CE chains. It had already been going through cuts before joining the likes of Free Record Shop and iCentre in bankruptcy.

Go De Harense Smid

Go Restart for Bankrupt CE Retailer Harnese Smid (Dutchnews.nl)

LG Display presents what it claims is a 5.3-inch 1920 x 1080 resolution smartphone LCD panel with the narrowest bezel in the world-- 0.7mm, narrower than the 0.8mm thickness of a credit card.

It features what the company calls "Neo Edge" technology, which uses an adhesive (instead of double-sided tape) to attach and seal the area and edges of the panel's circuit board and backlight unit. LG says this allows for a narrower bezel, blocks light leakage, water- and dust-proofs the display, prevents the corrosion sometimes caused by double-sided tape and even "dramatically" improves panel durability.

Another LG Display technology inside the panel is "Advanced In-Cell Touch (AIT), a means of embedding the touch panel inside the LCD module.

The good news for customers is the display is not simply an advanced company prototype-- mass-production is set to start from November 2014, probably (certainly) for use in the next LG flagship device.