On CE - For Dealers, Distributors and OEMs of Consumer Electronics throughout EMEA

Dixons fears Greece will exit the Eurozone-- speaking to the Financial Times, Dixons CEO Seb James says the retailer has plans on which outlets to close and how to protect others against civil unrest following such a decision.

“We have to be ready,” James says. “One day to the next, sometimes it feels like they are about to leave, sometimes it feels like it’s going to be fine... What would happen day one, day two, day three?"

The contingency plans reflect nervousness (if not fears) among companies on Greece leaving the eurozone. Companies also fear turmoil will follow last week's inconclusive general elections.

Dixons president for life Lord Kalms agrees with James, telling The Telegraph it is "inevitable" Greece will withdraw from the Euro. Kalms also describes opening shops in Greece as "not a good move."

Dixons' Q1 2012 earnings slash Europe in two-- while the North shows brisk revenues for fiscal 2012 (with 8% and 10% Y-o-Y growth in the UK and N. Europe respectively), the South (Italy, Greece, Turkey) crawls backwards and sales fall by -9% Y-o-Y.

A tale of two Europes? Do not show too much surprise if Dixons withdraws from S. Europe in the not-so-far future, whether Greece decides to exit the common European currency or not...

Go Dixons Full Year and Q4 Trading Statement 2012

Go Dixons Prepares for Greek Eurozone Exit (FT.com)

Go Dixons Makes Plans to Shut Shops in Greece

Nvidia steps into the cloud gaming battlefield with the GeForce Grid-- a "second-generation" platform promising to reduce latencies through the power of Kepler GPUs.

The result of a partnership with cloud gaming providers Gaikai, Ubitus and Playcast, Grid offers games "on any device, anywhere." Meaning tablets, smartphones, TVs and, of course, PCs (anything carrying a standard H.264 hardware video decoder).

The first Grid demo at the 2012 GPU Technology Conference runs on an LG Cinema TV, without the need for an external console.

Powering the Grid is consumer-grade technology derived from the latest GeForce card, the GTX 690-- x2 Kepler GPUs (each with 3072 CUDA cores) providing 4.7 teraflops of 3D shader performance. The technology apparently reduces latency to levels Nvidia claims are “comparable, if not better, than gaming on a console at home.”

A number of games developers (namely Epic, Capcom and THQ) already pledge support to Grid.

Nvidia gives no word on when Grid will actually launch, or the business model it will run on-- the company hints at an OnLive-style subscription model, with a $10 monthly fee. Will Nvidia manage to kill PC gaming as we know it?

Go Nvidia GeForce Grid

Apple is apparently going  to buy Loewe for €87 million according unconfirmed rumours from AppleInsider, with an announcement to be supposedly made by 18 May 2012.

Speaking with German website Heise, Loewe denies any purchase-related rumours. On the other hand Apple is predictably silent.

Loewe is a familiar name over here as the German maker of stunning high-end TVs, speakers and integrated entertainment systems. Like other TV makers (at least non-Samsung ones) it is currently going through hard times, with operating losses for Q1 2012 reaching -€900000 and total 2011 losses worth -€2.9m.

The company is already familiar with Apple hardware-- it sells the AirSpeaker (a high-end AirPlay-compatible speaker), a number of iPod docks and an iPad TV remote app.

Aperion promises "Hi-Fi via wifi" with the ARIS-- a wireless speaker using the AirPlay-style Play To streaming feature sitting inside Windows 7.

The ARIS connects to your customers' home networks through either wifi or ethernet. It is DLNA certified and offers 100W RMS of power.

Handling wired streaming is an axuliary jack at the back of the speaker.

Inside the single-piece brushed aluminium enclosure are x6 speakers (x4 powered drives and x2 passive radiators) with x3 sound modes (natural, bass boost and enchanced stereo).

For wireless control, Aperion offers an ARIS music app (for Android or iOS), while the speaker is also compatible with most other DLNA apps.

Go Aperion ARIS Wireless Speaker System