Apple announces special event for September 1
Apple has sent out announcements for a special event on September 1. This is much earlier than normal and I think Apple will announce products to ship later in the month just to play the media card.
Also interesting is that the guitar invitation really doesn’t scream “Apple TV” update like a lot of other blogs have been talking about. I’d guess that this event will be focused on iTunes and iPods.
My predictions?
- Redesigned iPod Touch that is comparable to the iPhone 4 (retina display, Facetime cameras, etc.). My guess is that it will be thicker than previous gen just so they can put in the cameras. Up to 128GB. They kill off the iPod Classic and rename iPod Touch to just iPod.
- Updated iPod Nano & Shuffle. Not really sure what they can do here to make these products any more compelling. Perhaps a Nano that also does FaceTime video? Ok. Maybe that is too much.
- iOS GameCenter. This will launch and we’ll have lots of demos. This will probably take most of the event time.
- iOS 4.1 released. Updates, bug fixes, a few new features including the launch of GameCenter.
- iTunes 9.3. New iPod compatibility. Maybe small features and upgrades. Look for signs of transition to upcoming iTunes X / iTunes online.
- AppleTV moving to iOS. If this is announced at all it will be the “One more thing”. iOS 4.2 SDK will allow developers to create apps/games for the redesigned AppleTV, launching in late October.
- iOS 4.2 will also update the iPad with multitasking and all the other features of iOS 4.x. Steve will make note that iOS now runs on more devices than Macs in many different form factors (iPads, iPhones, iPods, and AppleTV (iTV?)).
Right or wrong it should be a fun Stevenote!
