While Apple Stores go from strength to strength, the so-called Samsung Experience Stores sadly aren’t faring so well.

Would-be shoppers at Samsung’s flagship store in London, England, were today greeted by a message telling them about the permanent closure of the outlet.

The store was located in the Westfield Stratford shopping center, and followed an Apple-inspired layout, with an open plan design, staff in blue shirts, and plenty of space to try out new Samsung products — many of which arrived there first, before going on general release.

Tim Cook has been named “CEO of the year” by CNN Money, beating other contenders including T-Mobile’s John Legere, BlackBerry’s John Chen, other singled out as leading executives for 2014.

CNN Money notes that Cook performed an “amazing job,” and points readers toward the fact that the AAPL stock price is up 40 percent, while Apple hit new all-time high valuation levels.

This is credited to the launch of the iPhone 6, the debut of Apple Pay, and excitement about the Apple Watch, which is set to be the first major new product line launched at Apple under Tim Cook’s stewardship.

Kids everywhere are looking to Santa to bring them the hottest tech toys around, including iPhones, iPads, Nintendo 3DSes and Sony PlayStations, but these types of gifts can certainly strain a lowly elf’s meager paycheck.

If you’re looking for engaging and interesting gifts that won’t burst Santa’s money sack, take a look at the list we’ve put together for you below. It’s full of fun stuff that won’t leave you unable to afford a plate of cookies for that big red jolly fellow.

It’s easy to list off classic songs of the season, isn’t it? Even now, the hit holiday tunes we all know by heart rush up the music charts every year, gracing radio and streaming options for the happiest season of them all.

Of course Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)” — written in 1944 by Mel Torme — is currently No. 5 on the Billboard charts, while “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee (1958) tops even that chestnut at No. 3 of the top hot holiday songs as well.

But what about all those other holiday songs that never had a chance to be on a chart anywhere, except perhaps the chord charts these bands use to play live gigs? How will the odd songs, the weird ones — the tunes that just “think different” — ever get heard?

That’s why we’re here, with a bunch of weird tunes you just have to hear. Happy holidays!

Every once and a while, someone slips a cool emulator past Apple’s App Store guardians in the guise of a seemingly inoffensive app. Well, just in time for Christmas, it’s happened again! Meet Floppy Cloud, an app by developer Kyle Hankinson that is actually a Nintendo and Super Nintendo emulator in disguise.

Cult of Mac Deals offers the best prices on products that empower you to be your best every day. Sometimes, though, we offer products just simply provide power.

Today, we put a spotlight on 5 such products that will make sure you have power to spare for all of your devices.  Check out the PowerCube, the 10 Ft. MFi-Certified iOS Lightning Cable, the Limefuel LP200X, the Afterburner iPhone 6 Battery Case, and an amazing bundle of 152 Duracell Batteries.

One of the best features launched with OS X Yosemite this year was the ability to make and receive phone calls from your Mac, provided it is paired with a compatible iPhone.

But while it’s usually great receiving phone calls with the feature, making outgoing calls yourself is not so straightforward: You must launch the FaceTime app, turn on your webcam and then maneuver through an interface that’s clearly more complex than it needs to be.

Thankfully, this is where DockPhone app comes to the rescue. If you use your Mac to makes calls with any regularity whatsoever, consider this an early Christmas present to yourself.

Whatever your thoughts on last week’s BBC documentary about the poor worker conditions in factories producing the iPhone, there’s no doubt that it’s brought the topic back into widespread circulation.

Unlike the majority of previous reports, this time the target wasn’t Foxconn, however, but instead the Taiwan-based firm Pegatron Technology, which has been taking an increasing amount of Apple orders as of late.

With negative press circulating about the company mistreating its workers, Pegatron today filed a statement with the Taiwan Stock Exchange, pledging to inspect all negative claims carried in the report and implement improvements to make sure these problems are solved.

Apple’s new 12-inch Retina MacBook Air is expected to enter mass production in the first quarter of 2015, manufactured by Quanta Computer, according to a new report released today.

The new notebook is expected to boast Intel’s Broadwell processors, and a chassis redesign which will further reduce the device’s already-slimline thickness and weight.

It’s been a great year to be an Android user. Not only have we seen the release of Google’s massive Material Design makeover and all kinds of wonderful new features inside Android 5.0 Lollipop, but we’ve also had oodles of awesome apps to enjoy.

In this roundup, we’ve selected the best Google Play releases from the past 12 months. We’ve got great launchers, amazing email apps, terrific Twitter clients and lots more. (Some are also available on iOS.)