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."

Apple finds itself facing a class action suit from its retail workers-- a pair of Apple Store employees claim they lost up to $1500 in unpaid overtime yearly due to too frequent bag searches.

According to former employees Amanda Frlekin and Dean Pelle (who worked in New York and Los Angeles stores respectively) Apple demands bag searches whenever a worker leaves the premises on lunch hours and at the end of the day. Supposedly an anti-theft measure, the “personal package and bag search” policy apparently demands 5-10 minutes of "off-the-clock" daily waiting, adding up up to $1500 a year in unpaid overtime (Apple pays $18.75 an hour).

Such a sum might not sound like much when one takes the profits Apple makes into consideration-- but since bag searches are a company-wide procedure Apple faces a potential liability worth $45 million at the face of its 30000 retail workers spread across the globe.

Apple does not provide comment on the lawsuit as yet.

Carphone Warehouse (CPW) sees a "good" fiscal Q1 2013 with sales growing by 10.6% Y-o-Y (or 13.2% if one excludes France) after it completes the acquisition of the Best Buy 50% stake in CPW Europe.

The acquisition is worth $775 million in cash and stocks, and will be fully consolidated within the CPW group.

Driving CPW sales are strong growth in the postpay category in the UK and consumer preferences shifting towards high-end smartphones.

"We believe the Group is well positioned following the strategic moves we have made and we are focused on replicating the UK's operational execution across Europe and bringing our Connected World capabilities to other business partners, including our recently announced partnerships with Media Markt/Saturn and Metro Group," CPW CEO Roger Taylor says.

Carphone Warehouse announces an unlikely-sounding partnership-- British model Kate Moss joins the retailer's design team to create "a range of fashion accessories for smartphones and tablets."

Dubbed "fashion tech," the Kate Moss Accessories Collection aims for female smartphone owners, which CPW says have surged by 52% over the past 12 months (compared to the 37% increase in men).

64% of women in the UK are smartphone owners, the retailer continues.

"My phone's as much a part of my look as my bag or shoes, and yet there's so little choice out there," Moss says. "My whole approach was to treat this as any other fashion collaboration; I was heavily involved in the design process and loved seeing my vision come to life in the final product."

CPW gives no actual details on the Moss-branded accessories (although it's safe to assume a case or two will feature) other than launch on Summer 2013.

Go Carphone Warehouse