New and Noteworthy: iPod Nano suit filed against Apple; Could Rising iPod Sales Hurt Apple's Margins?; more

iPod Nano suit filed against Apple ZDNet reports that, claiming that the iPod Nano has a widespread propensity for scratching easily, lawyers this week filed a class action suit against Apple Computer on behalf of those who have purchased the music player. "The lawsuit, filed Wednesday on behalf of all those who have bought a Nano, alleges that Apple violated state consumer protection statutes, as well as express and implied warranties. The complaint charges that Apple knew that there were design problems with the Nano." More.

Could Rising iPod Sales Hurt Apple's Margins? Reuters speculates that a higher mix of iPods in Apple's revenue stream could lower overall profit margins. "As Apple's business shifts more to consumer electronics items like its iPod?sales of iPods now account for nearly a third of total Apple sales?that means the sales of its more profitable Mac computers make up less of the total. [...] On October 11, Apple reported a fourth-quarter profit that quadrupled to $430 million as sales jumped 56 percent to $3.68 billion and it sold 6.45 million iPods, the 10th consecutive quarter of sequential unit increases. In fact, due largely to the iPod's success, Apple has more than doubled its annual revenue in the last two years." More.

ExtremeTech: PowerPC full steam ahead? ExtremeTech says that with its Wednesday release of new dual-core Power Macs, ranging from 2.0GHz to 2.5GHz, Apple Computer seems happy enough with the PowerPC architecture for now. "This must be particularly true for the quad-2.5GHz version, which is given a status price tag at $3,299. If I didn't know better, I'd say it was full steam ahead with PowerPC. But I do know better. We all do. And we're waiting for the Intel shoe to drop. The 'secret double life' of Mac OS X has to come out in the open sometime, and that sometime starts next year." More.

Previously on MacFixIt

• Microsoft releases Office 2004 11.2.1
• Apple releases iTunes 6.0.1
• Apple releases Pro Application Support 3.1 (Final Cut, Motion, DVD Studio Pro, Logic Pro, more)
• Odds and Ends: MacFixIt Podcast for October 19th; Knowledge Base updates
• Fifth-generation iPod (with video) [#3]: Units start arriving in users' hands, problems synching home compressed video
• Problems with iChat may be account-specific

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