New and Noteworthy: Apple may kill iPod shuffle; Apple seeking RAW input for Aperture

CNET staff

Sept. 2, 2009 8:59 a.m. PT

2 min read

Apple may kill iPod shuffle Business 2.0 reports that the iPod Shuffle may not be long for this world. "The tiny MP3 player, a favorite of gym-goers, is cheap at $129, but lacks a screen. It may soon be replaced by a 1-gigabyte version of the iPod Nano, according to UBS analyst Ben Reitzes. Currently, the smallest Nano has 2 gigabytes of storage, enough for about 500 songs, and costs $199. Adding a screen to the Shuffle, which Reitzes previously estimated only costs $8 more to manufacture, would make Apple more competitive on the low end of the MP3 player market. Reitzes also sees slow sales of Intel (Research)-based Macs for the first three months of this year. The analyst cut UBS's 2006 fiscal-year estimates for Mac unit sales by about 10 percent to 4.7 million." More.

Apple seeking RAW input for Aperture Rob Galbraith reports that, in an effort to improve the RAW conversion quality provided by Aperture (and other applications that rely on the same operating system code for those conversions), Apple issued a call for RAW files from professional photographers earlier this month. "The earlier request was made to a select group of working shooters and others; now, Apple has given the green light to make the option of submitting files open to anyone seriously interested in helping the company spruce up its RAW file processing." More.

Previously on MacFixIt