Apple events are a time to reflect, ponder, and, of course, baselessly speculate like there's no tomorrow in which reality will shatter those fragile ruminations. The truth is that nobody knows what Steve Jobs will announce when he takes the stage at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center on Wednesday--not even Steve Jobs.
Well, maybe that's not entirely true. But as with every Apple event, you can bet that plenty of people will be disappointed when their pet rumor--or rumored pet: an Apple-branded parrot, anybody?--doesn't materialize onstage. Then again, Apple is hardly going to roll out its entire product roadmap--for one thing, the Liquidmetal cyborg death army isn't done with quality assurance yet; it keeps melting into puddles on the floor, then people step in the puddles, and oh, it's a mess.
But even without Apple announcing everything and the kitchen sink (patent pending), there will undeniably be new products, or, most assuredly, there will be blood. Remember, Macworldwill be covering the event live, bringing you the oohs of amazement, the ahhs of pleasure, and the terrified screams of a crowd confronted with Apple's new all-John-Tesh-all-the-time music streaming service. It all kicks off on Wednesday at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern.
So, what might we see appear out of the sparkles of a nifty Keynote transition during Jobs's presentation? Here are the top contenders.
A new iPod touch: It's the odds-on favorite, a new version of Apple's other iOS device--er, its other other iOS device? Rumors have the iPod touch acquiring a Retina display, front- and back-facing cameras (and FaceTime support), a new iPhone 4-inspired design, and--so iPod touch owners don't get to feel smugly superior to their iPhone counterparts--a finnicky antenna. You know, just because.
A revamped Apple TV iTV: If the third iteration of the Apple TV fulfills all the whispers out there, it will cost $99, stream content from the Web (including Netflix), gain the ability to run iOS apps, feature a touch-sensitive controller, be renamed (again) to the lawsuit-inducing iTV, and at long last drag the living room, kicking and screaming, into the future. But consumers will still not be satisfied until it makes HD waffles and educates their children.