Hasta La Gadget!

Samsung will reportedly be launching Samsung Stores in select Best Buy locations ahead of the Galaxy S4′s U.S. launch, a new report from Geek.com claims. The new sections, which will occupy spots close to the mobile department, will feature Samsung branding throughout and highlight a number of Samsung products, not just the upcoming Galaxy S4, though that flagship device will be the core focus.

The report from Geek.com says that at first the Samsung Stores will only be appearing at certain high-traffic locations, with training to begin for employees in the mobile departments at those stores soon. The store-within-a-store concept will roll out to other Best Buys following the launch later this year, with the ultimate goal of puting one in every U.S. location. We’ve reached to both Best Buy and Samsung for comment, but have yet to hear back at publication time.

Of course, there’s a good precedent for this sort of thing at Best Buy specifically, and it was set by a company that Samsung is generally keen to emulate: Apple. Apple’s dedicated mini-stores in Best Buy locations are unique in that they replicate almost exactly the in-store displays of Apple products in the company’s own standalone retail stores. It sounds like Samsung’s new in-store locations will resemble the Apple versions in both form and function, with the main intent being to have staff and space to properly demonstrate Samsung’s devices separate from those made by other OEMs.

If these Samsung Stores become a reality, it’s likely going to have the most effect on its fellow Android smartphone manufacturers, rather than Apple, however. Samsung is already setting itself apart from the competition in terms of market reach and global sales, but distinguishing itself on the physical retail floor will institutionalize a choice between Samsung and ‘all the rest’ for in-store shoppers.

Samsung is getting bolder in its marketing efforts, as was painfully apparent from its lavish, confusing Broadway spectacle earlier this month. If it wants to stand out, physically separating itself inside of Best Buy locations is another very good way to do so.

Apple has a new patent filing just published by the USPTO today, first spotted by AppleInsider, which details a wraparound-style AMOLED display that could make it possible to create an iPhone that’s almost entirely screen, with touch gestures and virtual buttons replacing physical ones completely. The patent describes designs that could have a seamless, continuous surface resembling the fourth generation iPod nano, as well as other shapes closer to the current iPhone, but with every surface a touch-sensitive glass display.

The patent is a fairly comprehensive one, and even mentions built-in facial recognition as well as a method of layering flexible, see-through displays on top of one another in order to produce different visual effects, including the appearance of 3D. The glass used to encase the display is described as either seamless, or featuring small design elements to hide where one piece joins another. One major advantage is that glass is relatively radio transparent, which is why the current generation iPhone 5 has top and bottom glass “window” panels on the backside of its casing, and another, says Apple in the filing, is the aesthetic advantage.

Apple suggests a number of different device designs representing different geometric shapes that could be used with an all-encompassing external glass display, but even more interesting, in some it talks about removable end caps that could allow more than one device to be joined together. Like Voltron, when combined these iPhones or iOS mobile devices would become greater than the sum of their parts.

Another neat trick is the way in which the proposed device would recognize what touch to treat as important, and which to ignore, since the entire phone is essentially one big touchscreen. Apple describes a way of detecting how a user is actually handling the device to solve that problem, using on-board cameras and facial recognition to figure out where to display content, and where to register touch.

The final element of the patent is a version that contains layered, transparent displays that can each show different content, or layers of a single image to achieve 3D effects. It could also be used to place a HUD or additional information on top of another image, essentially building a second-screen or augmented reality experience into a single device.

This is one of the more exciting Apple patents that has surfaced lately, as it demonstrates essentially a completely re-imagined next-generation iOS smartphone. But the technology is probably still a ways off from being economically practical, and the battery demands of a completely wraparound display would also likely be astronomical. So while I wouldn’t expect this in iPhone 6 (or even 7), it’s a good look at how the company is thinking about innovation behind the scenes.

The Duo is a 3D motion sensing controller, much like the Leap Motion Controller and the Kinect – but with a DIY twist. Whereas the Leap Motion Controller comes in a small and elegant package, the Duo is meant to be tinkered with.

A $20 contribution on their Kickstarter page is enough to nab detailed instructions, a comprehensive list of the off-the-shelf components, and CAD files – enough for hardcore DIYers to jump right in and assemble their very own motion controller. For the less courageous, a $140 contribution will get you a fully assembled Duo, ready for plug and play out of the box.

The Duo uses two PlayStation Eye cameras (a webcam for Sony’s PS3 gaming console that is readily available in stores) to detect motion. The demo videos on Duo’s website show that the webcams, coupled with Duo’s motion tracking software, work just a well as the Leap Motion Controller. The minimum operating range seems to be further away than the Leap, although that’s purely based on observation and I couldn’t find any concrete specs on their website. The video also shows the Duo breezing through Windows 8’s gesture based interface, just as you would with a Kinect. And of course, the Duo passed the prerequisite Fruit Ninja test with flying colors.

Given that the Leap Motion Controller will soon be hitting retail stores for $79.99, it’s true that you’re paying a premium for a device that has pretty much the same functionality. Motion sensing technology is red-hot and there are plenty of other projects we’ve chronicled that are also worthy of your attention. If anything, the one thing that Duo has going for it is that you can take it apart and mod it to your heart’s content. If you’re willing to pay a premium for that ability alone, you can check out Duo’s Kickstarter page here.

OUYA is coming soon (tomorrow is the planned ship date for the earliest Kickstarter backers), and recent reports of emulators of classic gaming consoles made for the Android device are generating some buzz. Today, emulator developer Robert Broglia, who’s responsible for some of the most popular Android emulators including Snes9x EX+, has revealed to OUYAForum that he’s working on emulators for Game Boy Advance, Sega Genesis, NeoGeo and more.

Snes9x EX+ is the first he’s hoping to release, with a test APK (Android file package) due soon, though he says he won’t have his own OUYA to test out the emulators before April, since he pre-ordered the console only after it finished its Kickstarter run. Broglia plans to port versions of most of his Android-based game console emulators, however, including ones for TurboGrafx-16, Atari, Sega Saturn and ColecoVision, in addition to those mentioned above.

Broglia charges for the emulators he offers on Android, but OUYA has its rules about content that stipulate content must have at least some kind of free-to-play or free-to-try. Also on tap are an x86 PC emulator that will allow use of classic DOS gaming software on the OUYA, as well as a Commodore 64 emulator, both from separate developers. In other words, the OUYA is set to become a nostalgia machine for gamers who grew up in the 80s and 90s.

Already one OUYA emulation project has been approved for inclusion in the official marketplace, but when I contacted OUYA directly to learn about whether or not they have an official stance on emulation, I received no response. As mentioned, the Google PLay store has emulation apps available, and developers have commented in the past about how open the marketplace is for the upcoming Android console.

Past devices have built their entire existence around game emulation, including the GP2K Wiz and Canoo from South Korea’s GamePark holdings. OUYA’s focus is much broader, but as a simple, living-room based way to bring games of old back to people’s televisions (even if the method of doing so isn’t strictly legal), it could hold significant appeal to niche audience above and beyond its other merits.

Update: OUYA got back to us with the following regarding its official position on emulation:

OUYA will accept emulators as long as they adhere to our content guidelines and are not submitted with any games.

Poor little Qualcomm: $100 billion in market cap but nobody knows your name. At least that’s the song the company is singing in a new MIT Technology Review article today, which features Qualcomm Chief Marketing Officer Anand Chandrasekher basically begging for attention. Qualcomm is the Intel of the mobile world, after all, but without garish stickers on every PC, a two-word catchy slogan and mascots in brightly colored cleanroom suits, it doesn’t enjoy the same level of public recognition.

A multibillion dollar company whining about average people not paying it enough attention may seem the pinnacle of first-world problems, but Qualcomm has legitimate business reasons to be concerned about its profile. The fact is that brand recognition translates to consumer influence, which in turn means bargaining power when Qualcomm goes to sell its processors to OEMs. It sounds stupid and greedy, but in fact, it’s smart and greedy.

The good news for those of us watching as Qualcomm tries to emerge from the shadows and into the light is that the company seems ready to do embarrassing, amazing, splashy stupid things in order to raise its public profile. The company’s keynote at this year’s CES show in Las Vegas is a perfect example, which centered on the laughable “Born Mobile” slogan, as introduced by one of the worst on-stage attempts at play-acting in trade show history (Samsung’s Galaxy S4 show wasn’t at a trade show, so it doesn’t technically count). The Verge’s supercut accurately captures the Qualcomm CES madness in a two-and-a-half-minute clip.

And unlike Intel, which just had actors depicting engineers dress up and dance, Qualcomm is actually using engineers to try to ‘go viral.’ Last year, the company had its engineers sit down and “help brainstorm” so-called “viral video,” which resulted in gems like this surprisingly dry demonstration of phones melting butter to display heat produced by various mobile SoCs. There’s a record scratch sound effect in there, that’s how you know it’s viral.

The problem is that no one wants to be the quiet technology partner anymore, and for good reason: in consumer tech, operating behind-the-scenes is less lucrative than selling to consumers. Qualcomm is amping up its PR and marketing efforts to try to elbow out a space in the public consciousness, complete with this dragon thing apparently designed to play on people’s love of Game of Thrones, but its approach still seems a little half-baked. As far as media campaigns go, however, messy misfires are almost always more entertaining to watch than uncontested successes, so Qualcomm could get its wish, albeit in a roundabout way.