MacRumors

Apple will be holding their "Let's Rock" media event on Tuesday, September 9th at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern. With almost daily rumors over the past week about what could be expected, this roundup will recap the most likely announcements and speculation about the event.

iPod Nano

Rumors of the "tall" iPod originated with a report from iLounge in late July. That news initially generated some skepticism since Apple had just abandoned the tall iPod Nano design in favor of a shorter/fatter design of the current iPod Nano.

A later report by Digg's Kevin Rose confirmed the design, ultimately bringing us to an actual photograph of what appears to be the new iPod Nano in its packaging. MacNN claims to have verified the photo as authentic.

iPod Touch

Rose's report also claimed that the iPod Touch would see "small cosmetic changes" alongside iPod Touch 2.1 firmware and "large" price drops.

A diagram of the new iPod Touch provided by iLounge fits this description. The new iPod Touch shares the same curved design as the iPhone 3G and also appears to include external volume controls which are absent on the current iPod Touch.

In addition, firmware hints have suggested that the new iPod Touch will see added functionality. We've speculated that the iPod Touch could get features to bring it more in line with the iPhone. If true, this could include one or more of the following features currently found only on the iPhone: GPS, external speaker, microphone, and camera.

iTunes 8.0

iTunes 8 is expected to arrive with improvements such as Grid View, Genius Playlist, a new Visualizer and possibly support for HD Television Shows.

Despite some early doubts, multiple sources are now expecting iTunes 8 to arrive at tomorrow's event.

iPhone Firmware 2.1

If the iPod Touch arrives with Firmware 2.1, the iPhone's update won't be far behind. The only official feature that has been promised for the 2.1 Firmware is background push-notifications. This push-notification service allows applications to process notifications in the background while they are not actively running on the iPhone. Applications such as a Chat client will be able to notify users that a new instant message has arrived at any time.

MacBooks Will Have to Wait

It should be painfully obvious by now to those waiting for new MacBook and MacBook Pro updates that we are unlikely to see any Mac news at tomorrow's event. AppleInsider had first suggested that Apple may stagger these announcements over the next couple of months.

And since that time we've similarly heard that resellers have been essentially told that Apple notebook updates are unlikely before October.

One More Thing...

We've heard that Apple is actively urging the media to cover the event claiming it will be a "big deal". While companies always want media to cover their events, this particular practice seems to be atypical for Apple. Regardless, there is always hope for additional "surprise" announcements. Here's a list of some other possibilities:

- Rainbow colored iPods - We've heard little of this since the original report by 9to5Mac, but iLounge has felt it to be unlikely.
- GPS / Turn by turn - Apple's Greg Joswiak described the implementation of turn-by-turn GPS to be complicated but that he had confidence that developers would deliver such a product. We had heard that Apple had been working with 3rd party developers and that such a solution may arrive alongside the 2.1 firmware.
- Analysts are still discussing Steve Jobs' health and expect that tomorrow's appearance should reassure investors.
- Ars has suggested that Apple has held back some secret features in iPhone 2.1.
- Tablet Mac - We've heard very little about the rumored Tablet Mac or Apple PDA from earlier this year. While we feel confident that these products are in Apple's labs, it's not clear when they'll see the light of day.

Coverage

We will provide coverage of the announcements and links to live updates. Also available is a Spoiler Free page for those who want to watch the delayed video stream without knowledge of the announcements.

Finally, there's our Twitter account that is only used for these live announcements which will send out SMS messages. (sign up by Phone here). Other Twitter options include twitter.com/MacRumorsRSS for MacRumors story updates and twitter.com/ArnoldKim for Arn's tweets.

Kevin Rose has posted a diagram of what he believes iTunes 8 will look like. He diagrams an iPhoto-like grid-view that allows users to view album art. Albums will reportedly be "directly playable" when you hover over the album. Rose is the founder of Digg and also has been the source of many of the rumors leading up to tomorrow's event.

Rose also recaps his previous rumors, which include:

- New design for the iPod Nano
- iPod price reductions
- 2.1 software on iPod Touch
- iTunes 8.0: New audio visualization, Genius playlist, Genius sidebar, Grid view

Apple's "Let's Rock" media event will take place on Tuesday, September 9th at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern. We will provide updates and links to live coverage.

As of yesterday, Best Buy is offering the iPhone 3G at Best Buy Mobile stores.

While the launch is lacking the fanfare of the original AT&T and Apple iPhone 3G launch, we've heard reports that Best Buy had extra staff in some locations in anticipation of heightened store traffic.

Best Buy's distribution of the iPhone 3G had been rumored. Still outstanding from the original rumor published by The Boy Genius Report is whether Radio Shack will distribute the phone.

Andrew Mager has posted (via iPhoneSavior) an image from outside the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco where Apple will hold its "Let's Rock" media event on September 9th, 2008.

The large multi-story banner shows one of Apple's iPod silhouette ads clearly suggesting a major iPod-related event. Persistent rumors have predicted that Apple will introduce a tall iPod Nano, a new iPod Touch, as well as iTunes 8. There are also suggestions that Apple could introduce the 2.1 iPhone firmware with some previously unannounced features.

A few last minute tidbits:

- We've heard a few more reports of Apple telling reporters that this event will be a "big deal" and urging them to come. While it's hard to read too much into this sort of hype, it does not appear to be typical practice for Apple.
- DaringFireball suggests that there will be iPhone news at the event.
- While we won't be providing live web coverage, we will offer links to all available coverage as well as SMS updates via Twitter.
- The event will take place on September 9th, 2008 at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern.

Despite having some initial doubts, Arstechnica now believes that Kevin Rose was correct and that iTunes 8 will be arriving on September 9th alongside the expected iPod updates.

Also expected is the iPhone 2.1 firmware which had been also reported with the original rumor.

One new tidbit, however, is that Ars was told that there are parts of the iPhone 2.1 firmware "that were specifically removed from developer seeds in order to keep them secret from the world." If true, that means there may be some surprise features that will be announced on September 9th.

Developers may note that Apple has ceased delivery of iPhone 2.1 firmware betas over the past few weeks, which is consistent with it having been declared Gold Master in anticipation of the upcoming release.

Apple is holding a special media event to announce their new products on Tuesday, September 9th.

Engadget posts what is claimed to be an actual photo of one of the new "tall" iPod Nanos. Rumors have been persistent that the iPod Nano would see a return to the "tall" form factor next week. The larger screen will reportedly allow for better viewing of video content.

The image also appears to be the same source image as an obscured iPod Nano photo published by MacNN earlier this evening. They felt confident that this was a "verified authentic photo" of the new iPod Nano. As well, they reported that the other Nano colors would be "more vibrant" than the current pale hues of the 3rd generation iPod Nano.

A number of individuals are speculating that Flight 404's Magnetosphere iTunes visualizer is likely to be "trippy" iTunes 8 visualizer described by Kevin Rose.

Magnetosphere had been available as a free download from the developer's site until a few months ago. The author has since responded to an inquiry by Allan White that the plug-in had been "sold to a third party".

Other example videos of the developer's impressive visual work:

- Magnetosphere (High quality QuickTime version).