Spanish department store El Corte Inglés revamps the CE section at its flagship Callao, Madrid store-- one with a sales area of over 5600 square metres, reportedly the biggest in Spain.

Like most new CE stores, the revamped section is designed as a "meeting point," with interactive booths allowing customers to check out the latest technology, including smartphones and curved OLED TVs.

It houses over 50 brands, and will host workshops, product launches and promotional activities. Split in multiple areas, it covers the audiovisual, telephony, navigation and communication and gaming segments, as well as musical instruments.

Unmanned flying robots, what are they good for? The military controversially uses them in military hotspots, others find use as spies or mere toys-- now Amazon plans to use drones as a deluxe means of shipping parcels to "Prime Air" customers.

Revealed by CEO Jeff Bezos on CBS TV show 60 Minutes, the drones (or octocopters for the technically minded) can carry up to 5 pounds (2.3kg) in weight for up to 10 miles (16km) from what Amazon likes to call "fulfillment centres."

Amazon also promises Prime Air packages will make it to the grubby hands of lazy, brick-and-mortar-avoiding customers in 30 minutes or less.

Of course using of flying robots can be problematic in all but the most laissez-faire of nations-- not only do such machines need to know where and when and how to land, the retailer needs to cut through plenty of regulatory red tape before it gets approval from US authorities, never mind the European Union.

According to Asymco Apple once saw "quantum jump" in retail store traffic, but only in the actual meaning of the term in question-- as in less of a "giant leap" and more of a "specific, discrete jump."

How so? Fiscal 2012 saw 372 million visits to Apple Stores. Fiscal 2013 saw 395 million. The numbers might be massive (the increase comes to 23m, the approximate population of Australia), but as plotted graphically (above) against past visitor number, growth appears to be relatively modest, if not on the slowdown.

Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts joins Apple, only not as head of retail-- while that particular position remains vacant, Ahrendts gets a newly minted spot in the Apple hierarchy as senior VP of retail and online stores.

From Q2 2013 Ahrendts will oversee the direction, expansion and operations of brick-and-mortar and online retail operations, parly filling the position John Browett held for all of 6 months before his very prominent firing.

“I have wanted one person to lead both of these teams for some time,” a leaked Tim Cook memo reads. “because I believe it will better serve our customers, but I had never met anyone whom I felt confident could lead both until I met Angela.”

Dixons finds a solution to its loss-making Italian problem-- paying €25 million to merge the Unieuro business with Italian CE retailer SGM Distribuzione, aka Marco Polo.

Combined Marco Polo and UniEuro assets (of which Dixons owns 15%) amount to 173 own stores and a number of franchise partners.

“This is a terrific outcome for both Unieuro and Marco Polo, as it creates a unified force that has the potential to be at the forefront of electrical retailing in this large European market," Dixons CEO Sebastian James says. "I am pleased that we remain a shareholder and that this transaction gives clarity on the long-term future for the business and for our colleagues."

Dixons opens the first "store[s] of the future" at the Bluewater shopping centre, Kent-- a Currys PC World branch featuring a number of new store design concepts aimed at female and younger customers.

Reportedly the result of in-depth customer research and feedback, Dixons describes the new store as the first "urban toy shops." Thus the design in question is meant to be "more feminine" and attractive, with greater emphasis on "an engaging and interactive in-store experience."

Such emphasis seen through a number of sit and play areas (where customers can check products out or receive advice from shop staff), a Knowhow/Showhow area for the hosting of one-on-one or group tutorials, and a flexible store design replete with wheeled furniture and movable wall fixtures.

Dixons confirms plans of dumping loss-making PIXmania business to German industrial holding company mutares A.G., together with the sale of the Turkish ElectroWorld operation to Bimeks.

The cost of "solving" what Dixons called "the PIXmania problem?" €69 million dowry in order to "support mutares' plan and for the ongoing funding of the business."

"I am a passionate believer that Dixons succeeds where we offer our customers a fully integrated multi-channel proposition and where we are the market leader," a mixed message from Dixons CEO Sebastian James says. "In order to succeed as a pure play e-tailer, PIXmania needs a different kind of entrepreneurial vigour."

Dixons acquired a 77% PIXmania stake worth €266m in 2006, before buying up the remaining 22% for €10m in cash from founders Jean-Emile and Steve Rosenblum. On February 2013 it closed all brick-and-mortar PIXmania stores in Spain, France, Belgium and Portugal in order to concentrate on online operations.

Gazeta.pl reports Media-Saturn just opened the first of a new store format at Galeria Katowice, Poland-- Saturn Connect, a store dedicated mainly to mobile devices and solutions.

The Saturn Connect store has an area of around 200 square metres and sells laptops, tablets, cameras, consoles, games, portable music players and activity trackers as well as smartphones and accessories.

According to the retailer the format is a "response to consumer interest... particularly in the growing mobile device category."