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

Even if Apple retains firm control of the tablet market (65% Q1 2012 share according to ABI)  vendors still insist on fighting over the remains... following Microsoft's surprise Surface announcement, Bloomberg reports Google will unveil a co-branded (with Asus) tablet at the Google I/O 2012 developer conference.

An anonymous Asus executive confirms the Bloomberg report to Reuters.

Why team up with Asus instead of using Motrola Mobility? Apparently Google wants to "continue to treat all partners fairly." Or use them to test out what Android tablets can do...

However the Google tablet will rival neither iPad nor Surface-- Bloomberg's anonymous sources suggest the Google Nexus tablet will aim at the lower end of the market, with pricing as cheap as that of the Amazon Kindle Fire.

Cisco announces the first products from the company using 802.11ac technology-- the dual-band Linksys EA6500 wifi router and the companion single-band Universal Media Connector network bridge.

The EA6500 carries x6 internal 3D antennas and is backwards compatible with all 802.11a/b/g/n wireless networks and devices. It also uses the Cisco Connect Cloud platform, helping users either manage the router or connect to other devices.

Integration with the SingleTap hardware platform also allows pairing the router with 3rd party wifi devices through Android and iOS smartphone apps (a feature that should receive an NFC boost in the future).

Meanwhile the Unversal Media Connector boosts bandwidth to the 802.11ac peak (1.3Gbps) and allows easy connection of wired devices (such as Smart TVs and game consoles) to wifi networks.

Go Cisco Announces First Linksys Smart Wifi Router and Universal Media Connector

The Wall Street Journal reports Best Buy founder (and ex-chairman) Richard Schulze is looking for fellow investors for plans to take over Best Buy, in order to "preserve the value of his holdings."

Apparently Schultze fears Best Buy will continue declining in value unless major changes happen in the company. After all sales are down, it already gave up on European retail and plans to close 50 US stores in 2012.

Buying the biggest CE retailer in the world (by revenue) is not a very easy task, since Wall street estimates it would probably cost over $11 billion. Schulze owns the biggest stake in Best Buy, slightly more than 20%, valued at around $1.4bn.

Analysts however suggest a Best Buy buyout would only be possible if the retailer sells its European and Chinese units, "sweetening" the deal in the process.

Schulze founded Best Buy 46 years ago, and he led until 2002. He was forced to resign from his position as Best Buy chairman back in May 2012, following his failure to report the "improper relationship" between former CEO Brian Dunn and a 29-year old female employee.

Go Best Buy Founder Weighs Buyout (WSJ.com)

Go Best Buy Founder Out Following Scandal Probe

None of your customers' DSLRs are a match against what a team at Duke Unversity, Durham, has built using off-the-shelf electronics-- the AWARE-2, a camera able to shoot 1000-megapixel (or one gigapixel) pictures.

Described in scientific magazine Nature, the AWARE-2 consists of 98 identical 14-megapixel microcameras looking through a single large spherical lens. Each microcamera uses own optics and runs independent autofocus and exposure algorithms, before an image processor stitches together 98 sub-images into a single large one at around 3 frames per minute.

The current prototype measures 0.75 x 0.75 x 0.5m, complete with packaging, data-processing electronics and cooling systems. It is also much more efficient than previous attempts at gigapixel arrays, which are costly, computationally complex and suffer from geometric aberrations.

Image examples in Nature magazine show the detail the camera is able to capture-- one cannot see wildlife in a compressed image of a wide view at a lake, but zooming in allows one to see individual birds on and above the lake.

Such gigapixel technology is not available for consumers yet, particularly since conventional file formats cannot even handle the immense amounts of data involved. But the AWARE-2 team plans to develop the technology further, and is already busy working on a 10000 megapixel (10 gigapixel) model.

Go Gigapixel Camera Catches the Smallest Details (Nature)