Steve Jobs introduces the iPhone 4's videoconferencing feature FaceTime at WWDC 2010. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
Apple will hold a press conference Wednesday, where Steve Jobs is expected to announce the birth of new stars in his product galaxy, including (probably) new iPods and (possibly) a successor to Apple TV.
As is always the case, Apple has been careful to guard its announcements. The result has been the usual widespread guessing game among Apple worshippers and members of the press. But given the timing of the event, we can make some easy guesses: Apple’s annual September event has always revolved around iTunes and iPods.
Based on a handful of credible reports and some evidence, this time around we expect some interesting upgrades. A touchscreen iPod Nano and an iPod Touch with dual cameras are almost to be expected. It’s also possible that Apple will introduce a complete do-over of the Apple TV.
Wired.com will be attending the Apple event Wednesday, which begins 10 a.m. PT, so check back at Gadget Lab for live blog coverage. To stay plugged in 140 characters at a time, follow @bxchen or @gadgetlab on Twitter.
Meanwhile, if you’re eager to know what’s coming, here are our predictions for what’s likely (and unlikely) to debut at this week’s Apple presser.
New iPods
Let’s start with the obvious. Apple’s popular iPod Touch is due for its annual upgrade, and rumors suggest the next upgrade will gain most of the features of the iPhone 4 (minus the phone, of course): a high-resolution “retina” display, dual cameras and a faster A4 processor. Because it lacks phone hardware, we can expect it to be a wee bit smaller than the iPhone 4.
Additionally, the website iLounge, which has been spectacularly accurate with Apple rumors in the past, claims that the shape of the iPod Touch is changing: “Think of the top of a MacBook Pro, only smaller, which is to say flat rather than curved at the center—closer to the look of the first-generation iPod touch’s back, only with modifications.” In other words, it’ll be flat like an iPhone 4 instead of rounded like an earlier-generation iPhone.
And let’s not forget Apple sells other iPods, too. There’s been a flurry of rumors claiming the iPod Nano will gain a square-shaped body and a touch display to eliminate the traditional click wheel. Corroborating these rumors, a few photos of third-party cases designed for a square-shaped Nano have have been popping up on the web, and test files hidden in the latest iOS beta allude to an “unknown” device.
To us, a puny touchscreen is an odd design choice, and it’s difficult to imagine how it would make sense — or be very usable, given that the entire screen of a Nano is only a few times larger than the surface area of a typical fingerprint. But the iPod Nano has had somewhat of an identity crisis, as it’s gone through a myriad of major design changes in years past (with the latest model including a camera), so a major makeover is plausible. In light of the multiple reports and leaked case designs, we’ll file this under “probable.”
Oh, and remember the iPod Classic? Each year we wonder when Apple will discontinue this device, but because the current iPhone 4 maxes out at 32-GB of capacity, and the next iPod Nano will likely be sold in 32-GB and 64-GB models, there still seems to be a “need” for a massively capacious 160-GB iPod Classic. Apple still has to serve iTunes-addicted audiophiles, after all. We’re guessing the Classic is still sticking around , and if it gets an upgrade at all, it should only be a minor boost in hard-drive capacity.
