News Archive for 08/09/15

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August NPD numbers arrive

09/15, 5:25pm

Final August stats for Apple show 'weaker' Mac sales

As promised earlier in the day, NPD Group has published its final statistics for Apple sales during the month of August. iPod numbers are stronger than predicted, according to Piper Jaffray, sitting at an 8 percent growth year-over-year rather than the 6 percent consensus hinted at by The Street. Apple's total iPod sales for the September quarter are thus expected to be approximately 11 million.

Noise-canelling headset

09/15, 4:35pm

Plane Quiet Platinum noise-canceling headphones

Outside the Box Group on Monday introduced its newest product, the Plane Quiet Platinum headphones with active noise reduction technology. Meant to enhance the traveling experience in planes, buses and trains, the company claims the hardware reduces ambient noise by as much as 18dB, or 80 percent. The Plane Quiet Platinum headphones have a leatherette headband and ear cups that fully enclose wearers‘ ears. The 1.57-inch Neodymium magnets in the speakers allow them to attain a 40mW power rating, and a maximum of 100mW. Frequency response is above average as well, with a 20-20,000Hz rating.

New iPhone Apps

09/15, 3:50pm

Briefly: three new iPhone, iPod touch apps

Three new iPhone apps have been released: a Star Trek-themed Tricorder for iPhone; a cord reference app for pianists, PianoChords; and Dashball, a puzzle game with break-out themed levels. The Tricorder app features visuals simulating vital signs and biological scans, geologic displays and radioactive scans. It uses OpenGL for its animations. It works with both the iPhone and the iPod touch and sells for $1.

Piper on August NPD stats

09/15, 12:15pm

August NPD numbers may point to quarterly results

NPD's August statistics for Apple, scheduled to become public today, should point towards the latter's sales for the whole of its September quarter, say analysts with Piper Jaffray. In terms of Macs, growth has typically slowed down between July and September; July's growth was 43 percent year-over-year, and it is believed that August growth could amount to 35 to 40 percent. If September's growth is 30 percent, Apple will have sold approximately 2.9 million Macs during the quarter, more than an increased Street consensus of 2.7.

iTunes 8 re-release

09/15, 11:40am

Apple re-releases iTunes 8 for Windows users

Apple has taken the unusual step of re-releasing iTunes 8 for Windows users, investigation shows. Following the original release of the software last week, a variety of Windows Vista users reported blue screen of death errors when attempting to sync an iPod or iPhone with a PC. The issue was quickly -- though unofficially -- attributed to flawed Apple USB drivers.