As my colleague Mark Fightmaster noted this morning, Apple (AAPL) is coming under fire for faulty USB power adapters for its 3G iPhone. The company has agreed to exchange the adapters, noting that it has received reports of this occurrence with a "very small percentage of the adapters sold," with no injuries reported.

However, while the adapters story is making headlines, Silicon Alley Insider notes that the real news is Piper Jaffray's boosting of its earnings estimates for AAPL. Piper's Gene Munster lifted his September-quarter estimates to $1.17 per share on sales of $8.37 billion. According to SAI, Munster is "basing this on solid growth rates in Mac and iPod sales as reported by NPD Group," and believes that Apple will sell 2.8 million Macs this quarter, 11 million iPods, and 5 million iPhones.

However, not everyone is convinced that AAPL sales will hold up - especially with the backdrop of Dell (DELL) issuing a warning last week that corporate orders and global demand are softening. Specifically, Morgan Stanley slashed its price target on Apple to $178 from $192 per share. The move was part of a sweeping downgrade of several large-cap technology companies, including Dell, EMC (EMC), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), and IBM (IBM). As reasoning for the moves, Morgan Stanley citing "economic realities" including a "fragile consumer," and slower commercial, enterprise, and government spending.

For their part, AAPL shares are off more than 4.5% as we head into the final hour of trading on Wall Street.