Rebecca Day

At a worldwide unveiling of its back-to-school lineup in New York Tuesday, Acer took the wraps off nine competitively priced PC products, with plans to follow with a second round in time for the holiday season. After four months at the helm of the troubled company, CEO Jason Chen spoke of Acer’s ambition for a “turnaround” based on volume driven by “value” and “affordability.”

Samsung’s limited-time promotion giving buyers of its HU9000 series curved Ultra HD TVs five free 4K movies and three documentaries isn’t sitting well with customers who bought the TVs before the deal took effect, at least one AV specialty retailer told Consumer Electronics Daily. Samsung dealer Robert Zohn, owner of Value Electronics, Scarsdale, N.Y., told us the deal was supposed to “go back 30 days” before to the April 27 effective date,” but customers who bought the HU9000 prior to Sunday were denied the hard disk bundle when they tried to register for it at the Samsung website.

Pandora’s number of active users grew 8 percent in Q1 over the year-ago quarter to 75.3 million, while listener hours grew at a 12 percent rate to 4.8 billion, said CEO Brian McAndrews on an earnings call Thursday. McAndrews cited platform upgrades including alarm clock, sleep timer and station recommendations. Android app users are listening to Pandora significantly more than before the features were available, he said.

Amazon’s new Prime Pantry service, its deal with HBO for exclusive streaming rights to select original series and a premium scan-and-order service called Prime Fresh that’s being tested in California are all giving existing and prospective Prime members a reason to take a new look at the re-priced service. Amazon announced in February that it would raise the Prime membership fee by $20 to $99 a year (CED Feb 3 p5), with Chief Financial Officer Tom Szkutak saying then that drivers for the price hike included increased costs of fuel and transportation and higher usage among Prime members.

Sony released details of its latest high-resolution audio products Thursday that are designed to be easier to use, more affordable and versatile in playback -- all part of an effort to reach the generation of music customers accustomed to hearing compressed music on a portable audio device and give them an upgrade. The value-oriented products cover AV receivers, a Blu-ray theater system and loudspeakers, all priced well under $1,000. The speakers will be sold exclusively through Best Buy and Sony stores, while the other products will be sold throughout Sony’s authorized dealer channel, said Aaron Levine, product manager, at a product introduction for journalists in San Diego last week.

Sales of the iPad dropped from 19.4 million in Apple’s Q2 2013 to 16.3 million in the 2014 period, the company said in its latest earnings release. Addressing the falloff that was short of analysts’ projections, Apple CEO Tim Cook said on an earnings call late Wednesday that the company “significantly increased” iPad channel inventory last year, while it “significantly reduced it” in the 2014 quarter.

Amazon’s deal with HBO for exclusive streaming rights for select HBO original series positions Prime Instant Video as a “viable competitor and potentially more appealing alternative to Netflix,” said Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter in a research report Wednesday. The multiyear licensing agreement gives Amazon -- which recently raised its annual Prime subscription fee by $20 -- rights to HBO original programs and miniseries.

Bay Audio, supplier of high-end custom speakers for the AV integration channel, launched the PTM+ home theater service that includes final tuning of speakers in customers’ homes -- and a $1,000 dealer bonus -- as part of a custom electronics project, CEO Ira Friedman told Consumer Electronics Daily.

SAN DIEGO -- The stakes are high for high-res audio in the U.S. to help reverse a declining music download market, industry executives said at a Sony high-res audio event. Music downloads slipped by 2 percent from 2012 to 2013, and worldwide downloads decreased by 4 percent year-over-year, said Jim Belcher, technology and production vice president at Universal Music Group.

Battery technology has been the “ugly stepchild” of the mobile device industry -- getting little attention as devices take the spotlight -- but awareness of the need for technology advancement in battery life is growing as power requirements of mobile devices expand, said Nick Spencer, senior practice manager of ABI Research on a webcast. Battery life is “a key, fundamental pillar” that will enable the next wave of innovation in wireless devices, Spencer said.