What is Your Prediction for the Apple Event Tomorrow?

[Jeff Campbell]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/08/apple-confirms-september-9-2009-rock-and-roll-event.ars' target='_blank'>http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2...-roll-event.ars</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Apple has announced a special media event to take place on September 9, 2009. The invitation indicates that it will be iPod-related (just like in previous years) and will take place in San Francisco."</em></p><p><em><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1252433573.usr105634.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></em></p><p>Just a little reminder about the Apple event tomorrow morning. From the ads we have seen, it appears it will be iPod oriented but will that be it? What else do you think will be announced? Will Jobs make an appearance? Will the camera enabled iPod make the cut? Will that tablet rumor be proven true or false? Oh and what about The Beatles?&nbsp;</p>

[doogald]

I say no on the tablet, doubtful on the Beatles. "It's Only Rock and Roll But we Like It" I'm guessing is in reference to the rumored social networking features coming to iTunes 9.

These September events tend to be iPod/iTunes events, so that's what I think will be the focus again this year.

[Jason Dunn]

My predictions:

1) The new iPod Touch with a camera
2) A cheaper iPod Touch
3) They kill off the iPod Classic
4) Maybe a less-stupid iPod Shuffle

And that's about it. I'm interested to see what the new iPod Touch brings to the table. Just adding a camera would seem to be a bit underwhelming...

[Macguy59]

IF a tablet is in the offing, then I think Jobs waits to make that his intro. I expect tomorrows event to be pretty underwhelming. I did find this what-if scenario interesting

What if Apple pulls the iPhone trick at tomorrow’s iPod event, upgrading the iPod touch while simultaneously keeping current-gen one on the market at a significantly reduced $149 price point, down from $229. It would make the Zune HD a tough sell . . .

[Jeff Campbell]

I'm thinking the Beatles too, since they released Rock Band today , kinda coincidental

[doogald]

Well, Apple reduced the price of all existing non-Shuffle iPods today (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2352624,00.asp) (at least in the US store - though it is now, predictably, closed.) For the Touches, the 32 GB is $279 (from $399), the 16 GB is $249 (from $299), and the 8 GB is $189 (from $229). The Nanos and the Classic also went down. Probably this is a sale of older models to get rid of inventory, but I am guessing that the storage for the new ones will shift up at each old price level - the 64 GB at $399, the 32 GB at $299, and the 16 GB at $229 - which sort of matches up with what the Zune HD price levels will be at those last two storage levels (imagine that.)

[Jason Dunn]

A couple of neat things - I'm impressed Apple can do 64 GB on the new Touch for $399 - but I'm surprised the Touch didn't get the microphone/camera. That seemed like a no brainer given what developers could do with that type of hardware. Kind of useless to have it on the Nano except for as a replacement video camera...no mention of resolution either, so I'm thinking VGA.

All in all, not very impressive. The Zune HD will have a *huge* technical advantage - but that may not be enough to make strides against Apple.

[doogald]

no mention of resolution either, so I'm thinking VGA.

So it is. http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/specs.html

[encece]

I just got the whole 09-09-09 thing for Beatles Rockband...would have been a good intro to the Beatles iTunes announcement.