In Brief: Apple News, and Flash Doubles Up

Apple news: A spiced-up line of iPods featuring full-size MP3 players includes a matchbook-size Shuffle, too. The $79 1GB Shuffle, measuring 1.07 inches by 1.62 inches, holds 240 songs and has a battery life of 12 hours, the company says. Apple has also updated its iTunes Store to sell movie downloads for video-capable iPods and computers. iTunes Store 7 is now offering movie titles from Miramax Films, Pixar, Touchstone Pictures, and Walt Disney Pictures for $10 to $15 each.

Flash doubles up: Samsung Electronics says it has developed technology to double the capacity of NAND flash memory chips for digital cameras, MP3 players, and smart phones. Samsung credits a manufacturing technology that halves the size of the NAND chip circuits for the higher capacity. The technology will support 64GB flash cards that are capable of storing about 20 DVD-resolution movies each. Samsung expects the new chips to appear in products by 2008.