Microsoft has now rebrand more than fifty Nokia stores location at Brazil

The company announced yesterday that all more 50 locations in Brazil will be re-branded as part of a larger push to have more than 100 points of sale in the country by the end of 2016.

By Microsoft 

Microsoft also confirms that it will kick off its rebranding efforts with the Microsoft Store at the Eldorado Mall in Sao Paulo on April 29. To celebrate the launch, the first 100 customers to buy a Lumia smartphone at the location will receive a "special gift " . The gift to be give is not yet discussed .

It's important to stress that these locations don't seem to be full-blown Microsoft Stores, with Microsoft noting that the shops and kiosks will use a "franchise model" throughout the country. Still, it's a good sign that the Microsoft name will be gaining a larger footprint in an important market.

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Wearable device transforms your thumb into a tiny trackpad

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are developing a new wearable device that turns the user’s thumbnail into a miniature wireless track pad.

They envision that the technology could let users control wireless devices when their hands are full – answering the phone call while cooking, for instance.

“It’s very unobtrusive. When I put this on, it becomes part of my body. I have the power to take it off, so it still gives you control over it. But it allows this very close connection to your body,” said lead author Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao, a graduate student at the MIT.

The device could enable subtle communication in circumstances that require it, such as sending a quick text to a child while attending an important meeting.

According to Kao, the device was inspired by the colourful stickers that some women apply to their nails.

The researchers envision that a commercial version of their device would have a detachable membrane on its surface, so that users could coordinate surface patterns with their clothes.

And it’s easily accessed by the other fingers – even when the user is holding something in his or her hand.

For their initial prototype, the researchers built their sensors by printing copper electrodes on sheets of flexible polyester.

The researchers said requiring surface contact with the operator’s finger for just two or three seconds was enough to guard against inadvertent activation and deactivation.

A paper describing a prototype of the device is scheduled to be presented at the Computer-Human Interaction conference in Seoul, South Korea this week.

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