Apple products have topped the list of the most popular computers sold in U.S retail in October, an analyst for market research firm NPD Group told CNET on Friday.
(Credit:
Apple)
The recently introduced 21-inch iMac was the top-selling desktop for the month, Stephen Baker, NPD's vice president of industry analysis, said in an interview. Apple's high-end iMac 27-inch model took the No. 3 spot in the desktop category, he said.
"Apple gets a bounce whenever they come out with new computers," Baker said. "For the most part, October was a down month on the Windows side because [PC manufacturers] were working through inventory before the Windows 7 launch."
The company also took the top spot in the notebook category in October, with the $1,199 MacBook Pro, Baker said. Overall, Apple took 4 out of the top 10 positions for notebooks in U.S. retail for the month, according to Baker. In addition to the top-seeded MacBook Pro, Apple also secured the 8, 9, and 10 positions.
"[The $1,199 MacBook Pro has] always been a great seller," Baker said. "It's priced pretty aggressively for Apple, but to some extent, it also benefited from the same slowdown on the Windows side."
NPD has not released an official report on the sales data, and Baker declined to give CNET a rundown of the other computers in NPD's top-10 lists for desktop and notebook retail sales in the United States in October. It is important to note that while the NPD data includes online and retail stores, it does not factor in direct sales.
Sales of computers in October were obviously very good for Apple, but Baker doesn't feel that the so-called "halo effect" from the iPhone or iPod is what is driving sales. Rather, he points to the overall consumer experience.
"Over past few years, Apple has continued to gain share in the market, and there are a lot of ways to explain that," Baker said. "It could be the stores, the computers themselves, the iPod, or iPhone. I think it's a combination of all those things."
On Sale Now: $1,149.00 - $1,199.00
View the latest prices for Apple iMac (21.5-inch, 3.06Hz Intel Core 2 Duo, Nvidia GeForce 9400M, Fall 2009)
Verizon Wireless on Thursday said it will offer customers who want Internet access on-the-go a prepaid wireless broadband option for their laptops.
The new services will be bundled with the Verizon Wireless USB760. They will operate on laptops running Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. The modem will be sold at Verizon Wireless Communications stores and at Best Buy locations beginning November 16.
Here's a breakdown of the new service plans and what users can expect to do with the limits that Verizon is offering.
The daily plan costs $15 and allows users to access 75 megabytes of data. This would allow users to send or receive about 25,600 e-mails, download 500 Web pages, and send and receive 150 low-resolution digital phones.
The weekly plan costs $30 and allows for 250 MB of data. This plan would allow users to send or receive about 85,300 e-mails, look up 1,700 Web pages, or send or receive about 500 low resolution digital photos.
And finally, the monthly plan costs $50 for 500 MB of data usage. And Verizon claims this is enough capacity to allow users to send or receive 170,000 e-mails, look up 3,400 Web pages, and send or receive 1,000 low-resolution digital photos.
Verizon's contract wireless broadband service costs $60 a month and allows users to transmit up to 5 gigabytes worth of data. It also offers a $40 a month plan that offers 250MB of data per month.
Molly's out of the office with the swine flu. In her honor, we cover the tech that allows you to keep yourself germ free. Don't worry. Even if you end up with the flu, we also cover the tech that will keep you entertained while you recover.
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EPISODE 160
Want to steer clear of N1H1? Stay off the couch
Self Sanitizing Keyboard (thanks David!)
Keep your arms dry while you wash dishes (or while you wash everything in your house.)
Ericsson’s Spider PC projects the keyboard, screen
Driverless car takes you to the doctor
Time-lapse photography on your iphone
Make your iphone photos look like miniatures with tiltshift
If you’re tooly, pass the time with sports:
Football
At first glance, James Dyson's latest invention looks like a powerful HD antenna or perhaps a small portal into another world. But in fact, the device, which carries the vaunting title of Dyson Air Multiplier, is something much more common: a fan.
What, a fan with no blades? Yes, that's exactly what you're looking at, and what makes the Air Multiplier so hard for people to classify at first. This fan uses some innovative airflow engineering to pull air up through an energy-efficient brushless motorbase and multiply it 15 times, expelling it through an airfoil-shaped ramp at a rate of 118 gallons a second, according to the press release.
Dyson, the company, says its fluid dynamics engineers spent four years "running hundreds of simulations to precisely measure and optimize the machine's aperture and airfoil-shaped ramp" and air fluctuations were mapped with something called a Laser Doppler Annometry.
... Read more
(Credit:
Dell)
Dell offers a tantalizing sneak peek at a revamped Adamo laptop today, with a photo and brief teaser description of the new system:
9/9/09 comes only once and today Dell is offering a glimpse of its highly stylized, thin 9.99-millimeter Adamo By Dell concept that's as beautiful as today's date is unique.
You'll recall the original Adamo was similarly teased at CES 2009, and we brought you a first-ever hands-on look of it back in March. At the time, we said: "Dell's upscale Adamo is a 13-inch laptop for those who value design and finish as much as performance, but its luxury price will limit the potential audience."
Details on the Adamo 2.0 (our nickname) are scant right now, but if you want a sneak peek at Dell's new "world's thinnest laptop" candidate, head over to www.dell.com/AdamoXPS.
The Sony ALT-SA31iR system can stream iPod music into multiple rooms.
(Credit: Son)Sony has taken the wraps off of a new line of streaming audio products, dubbed "Altus." The four debut products will be available through Best Buy starting in September (and sonystyle.com in the meantime), and the retailer also had a hand in their development. All of the products use Sony's proprietary S-Air wireless technology to communicate with one another, which means that other S-Air-compatible products--including many of Sony's recent home theater and home audio systems--can stream audio to the Altus products.
The initial Altus line is as follows:
... Read moreAfter debuting the final chapter in our 404 Superhero series (thanks Hayato!), we break into chats about the next-gen air-con, an Xbox autographed by Palin, cell phone crackdowns, and a Nintendo inflatable cushion that raises questions of hygiene...yikes!
THE FOUR-OH-FORCE!
(Credit: Hayato Shimizu)Thanks again to Hayato Shimizu for making the image you see above, which features all three of The 404 hosts as their respective superheroes in the Four-Oh-Force! You can always depend on us to save you from a bad day! Well...except for Sundays, you're on your own there.
Lots of stories to get into today, like this Nissan car with a built-in revolutionary air-conditioner that blocks "unpleasant smells" from entering your car. Having driven with Jeff and Wilson before, I can say without hyperbole that I'm more worried about the smells coming from inside the car, but I'm sure that invention is in development as well.
We also talk about San Francisco cracking down on cell phones in the car and a Sarah Palin autographed Xbox 360 fetching 1.1 MILLION DOLLARS on eBay, but the weirdest story of the day comes from Nintendo, who is developing an inflatable cushion for the Wii used to simulate riding on the back of an animal or being in the driver's seat of a vehicle. There are a million and one jokes to be made here, and we get to about 4,297 of them in the second half of the show, so be sure to check that out. Nintendo has officially lost its marbles.
A big apology goes out to everyone who couldn't leave a voice mail last night--we've since cleared it all out, so please call us back at 1-866-404-CNET and leave another message!
EPISODE 402
Listen now: Download today's podcastSubscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video
... Read more
No iPhone 3GS for Verizon, but the Omnia 2 is due to hit stores shortly.
(Credit: Samsung)Since we posted a First Take of Samsung's Omnia 2 back in June, a lot of readers have been asking when Verizon would actually begin selling it. Well, according to the good folks over at the Boy Genius Report (who have a "trusted mole" at Best Buy Mobile), the much-anticipated iPhone pretender will be launching August 23, along with several other phones from different carriers.
Here's the complete list that leaked:
- Omnia 2 (Verizon)
- Global AirCard G2 (Verizon)
- Samsung Rogue (Verizon)
- LG Chocolate Touch (Verizon)
- Samsung u450 Intensity (Verizon)
- Samsung Gravity 2 (T-Mobile)
- Samsung Solstice (AT&T)
- LG Xenon (AT&T)
- BlackBerry Tour (new shipment--Sprint)
More:
Omnia 2 complete specs
Omnia 2 clears FCC
(Source: Gizmodo via Boy Genius Report)
Want brilliant sound quality from your AirPort Express? So did we. And for that, we needed to connect it to a dedicated audio processor via fiber-optic cable.
Apple's AirPort Express does much more for audio lovers than you might think. You're probably aware that it lets you stream your iTunes library, from your Mac or PC, over Wi-Fi, through the APE to your hi-fi. But you may not know that it has a digital fiber-optic output, meaning it can stream lossless audio, with bit-for-bit accuracy, to a dedicated sound processor (a DAC), and into a hi-fi sound system.
Um, why should I be interested exactly?
Because when you send audio via AirPort Express, it's processed by its on-board sound chip. It's fine for most people, but it's basic. If you've invested in a decent hi-fi you're going to want to let a DAC process your audio properly, which means taking sound away from the AirPort Express via optical digital cable. By doing this, the APE simply passes the digital signal on, instead of converting it to audible sound and passing it over a standard audio cable.
Sounds awesome. By the way, what the hell is a DAC?
Ah, yes, we're assuming here you know what a DAC is. For those of you who don't know, it's usually a dedicated box, and it has just one job: turn a digital signal of ones and zeroes into sound. This requires specialist circuitry and audio chips, so it's something usually confined to the audiophile world. But if you've got a decent home audio system, it's something to seriously consider investing in.
This is a DAC. The iBasso D10, to be precise.
... Read more
Tempted to upgrade yet?
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)For those tempted to give in to Dell's vision of thin-and-sort-of-light luxury, the Dell Adamo laptop has been lowered in price by half a thousand dollars; $1,499 gets you the 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo version of the 13.4-inch aluminum laptop with a 128GB solid-state drive, while $2,299 gets you a 1.4GHz processor, 2 extra gigabytes of RAM, and mobile broadband connectivity. You can still have your choice of pearl or onyx.
Suddenly the MacBook Air seems like a pretty good deal at $1,499 with a 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo and 120GB hard drive, or $1,799 with a 128GB SSD and 2.13 GHz processor--and, might we add, GeForce 9400M graphics.
All Dell needs to do now is lower the price by another $500, and we've got a quasi-deal.
In our review of the Adamo, we liked the design but made note of the relatively exorbitant price. Have any of you bought an Adamo? In this climate of ever-lowering laptop and Netbook prices, would a price drop like this convince you at all?
On Sale Now: $1,718.88 - $1,799.00
View the latest prices for Apple MacBook Air Summer 2009 (Core 2 Duo 2.13GHz, 2GB RAM, 128GB SSD, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M)
On Sale Now: $1,499.00
View the latest prices for Dell Adamo
