Apple today announced that Mark Papermaster is joining the company as senior vice president of Devices Hardware Engineering, reporting to CEO Steve Jobs. Papermaster, who comes to Apple from IBM, will lead Apple’s iPod and iPhone hardware engineering teams. Papermaster has 25 years of product and technology experience and was previously a vice president at IBM.

“For the last few days,” Arik Hesseldahl (businessweek.com) has “been sampling some of the games available from the iTunes Store on the iPod Touch, and and I’ve been stunned at how elaborate and involved they are.” The games, he exclaims, are “immersive, addictive fun.” And he contends that “the iPhone and iPod Touch are well on their way to becoming an important force in handheld gaming.”

If you use Aperture 2 or iPhoto ’08, the free update extends RAW file compatibility to four additional cameras, including the Canon EOS 50D, Nikon D90, Nikon Coolpix P6000, and Sony DSLS-A900.